Date:28/03/16

Japanese robot writes short novel, ‘almost’ bags literary prize

While there have been numerous predictions that robots are going to take over human jobs after AI technology is fully developed, no one would bet their money on a bot for writing a novel.

Defying this belief, a Japanese AI programme has done the impossible and co-authored a short novel that passed the first round of screen for a national literary prize. Although the robot did not win the final prize, there is a fair chance of that it might cross the line with its next attempt.

The novel, dubbed The Day A Computer Writes A Novel, or “Konpyuta ga shosetsu wo kaku hi” in Japanese, came very close to winning the top prize at the third edition of the Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award ceremony, reported a Japanese national daily. However, AI intelligence is only at its budding stage, and human intervention is inevitable.

In this case, a team headed by Future University Hakodate professor Hitoshi Matsubara decided the parameters for the novel, which included plots and gender of characters. Later, the AI programme wrote the novel in accordance to the parameters, and by “selecting appropriate words and phrases” prepared by the team.

One out the two AI-written novel submissions made by the team, one made its way through the first round of screen, albeit a blind reading policy that prevents judges from knowing whether a human or a robot wrote the novel.

From the past few years, the Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award has opened up to non-human applicants (AI programmes and robots) and this is the first time that the award committee encountered non-human submissions. Interestingly, out of the 1450 submissions this year, 11 were “partially non-human” submissions.

According to the report, a famous Japanese Science fiction writer Satoshi Hase said that the AI-authored novel was really well structured and surprised him. However, he felt that there are numerous gaps such as character descriptions, which it needed to overcome.

Determined to explore the depths of AI technology and its benefits, Matsubara and his team will keep on trying to device creative projects using autonomous artificial intelligence.

He also explained that AI technology is predominantly used in finding and solving logical equations that have fixed answers, however, he along with his team will continue burn the candles at both ends to expand the potential of AI, and at more creativity to it.  

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