The Prehistory of A.I. Slop
The article discusses the early attempts at using artificial intelligence to generate creative writing, particularly recipes, highlighting the humorous and nonsensical results. It traces the history of AI writing back over 70 years, noting significant milestones such as the publication of the first book of free verse by a computer in 1964. The piece reflects on the excitement and anxiety surrounding AI's potential to surpass human creativity.
- ▪In 2017, AI researcher Janelle Shane trained a neural network to generate recipes that resulted in unappetizing and humorous combinations.
- ▪The history of coaching machines to write spans more than 70 years, with notable developments in the 1960s.
- ▪The first book of free verse written by an electronic computer was published in 1964, credited to the LGP-30 computer.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
In 2017, AI researcher Janelle Shane trained a neural network to generate recipes. The results were what we’d call “slop” today, not just because they were nonsense but because they sounded so hilariously unappetizing. If Artichoke Gelatin Dogs don’t do it for you, then Crimm Grunk Garlic Cleas should—or, god forbid, Beef Soup with Swamp Peef and Cheese. The point is, long before ChatGPT kickstarted the modern LLM era, people have been trying to coach machines to write. How long? More than 70 years, as we learn from Jill Lepore’s rollicking ride through robo-writing history. By the early nineteen-sixties, there was enough of this kind of thing going around that it caused both a panic and understandable excitement.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Longreads.
