Study reveals readers cannot tell the difference between AI and human-written poetry and often prefer AI's creations

Readers may be unable to distinguish a poem written by a computer from one written by a human, according to new research. More often than not they prefer the creativity of a computer.

Overview of the Study

The research involved 1,634 participants were recruited and provided with ten poems to rate-equal numbers of five by famous poets and five by ChatGPT in the style of famous poets. What researchers found is shocking mostly, participants confused AI works with human ones and rated works created by AI more highly than those by humans according to various attributes including beauty, emotion, and originality. In a second experiment with 696 more subjects, it was found that ratings dropped significantly compared to when they believed the poem was actually written by a person when told it was AI-generated. Curiously, subjects given neither any information about authorship nor the full information tended to rate the AI poetry higher than the human one.

Insights into Reader Preferences

Porter and Machery mobilized over 1,600 participants who were handed a selection of poems to read. Ten of these poems were given to each participant: five written by great poets in literary history and five from the ChatGPT-3.5, imitating those great poets. Participants were thus unaware of which ones were actual and which fakes.

What is a poem really?

In a second experiment, the scientists asked 696 new subjects. This time, every reader was assessing a collection of poems on themes such as beauty, emotional impact, rhythm, and originality.

There were three groups of readers: one was informed that the poems were written by humans, another knew that they were the product of an AI system, and a third was not informed at all.

Implications for Poetry and Creativity

Such results carry the gravest implications. They question long-held beliefs regarding authorship and creativity in poetry. If AI is actually producing verses that touch the heart and the aesthetic senses of the reader, then what would this say about the future of poetic expression? People point out that technically a very well-crafted poem can be a product of AI, but the thing is that it lacks depth and nuances so often associated with human experience. Such an ability to reproduce human styles throws up the very question concerning the essence of creativity itself as AI continues to evolve.

Conclusion

It is actually at this point that we are having the most crucial relationship with technology and art. The very definitions of creativity and authorship have to be re-evaluated as AI generates material that is every bit as good, and often better than what people expect. Distinctions between human and machine creation of art begin blurring, and we are forced to think about what in poetry we want emotionally and technically. Each one will need to see this new world and debate the role of AI in these creative fields.

References

1. New research shows people can’t tell the difference between human and AI poetry – and even prefer the latter. What gives?

2. Shakespeare or ChatGPT? Study finds people prefer AI over real classic poetry

3. New study finds readers can’t tell AI poems from human ones — and they often prefer AI

4. People prefer AI over real classic poetry | Researchers say .

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