The Time ChatGPT Read At Our Poetry Group
Last year, my poetry group gathered for our semi-bi-monthly / monthly / whenever-we-can-make-it-work meeting. It was also my friend V's birthday and she had some non-poetry friends join so we could all celebrate together and read poetry. Poetry is one of those things that makes a lot of non-poets nervous, in the way, I imagine, is similar to how I feel whenever I have to send out a bunch of emails to people I don’t know. You are scared of messing up or looking stupid. Somehow, the room had divided neatly between poets and non-poets, with V’s friends cackling, maybe a little too loudly on one end, and us poets quietly looking over our pieces on the other. There was only one guy on the non-poet side that looked relaxed, maybe a little cocky with his legs crossed, one hand on his knee while the other looked at his phone. When we finally got to the poetry reading, after snacks and popcorn conversations, he admitted that he had asked ChatGPT to write his poems for him.
Inwardly I groaned but I didn’t say anything because you can’t really ask someone who doesn’t have an interest or understanding of poetry to not take an easy option when they are peer pressured to perform. The poems he read were ok, not amazing or remarkable but not awkward either. They were nursery rhyme-esque and pretty silly and that was fine. We laughed at them, and admired how crazy technology has gotten and I won’t lie, I was feeling awkward because I had brought a negative piece about AI. But then, a problem arose. Now that he had our attention, he didn’t want to stop at two poems. He asked ChatGPT to make a few more, and then read them and now we were stuck listening to those, and then few more as he took all the time and oxygen away from all the other poets who had just brought one poem to read. The poet sitting next to me, who had in the past fiddled around with AI art to make a children’s book, grimaced and whispered, “Oh god, is that what I sounded like when I brought AI?”
I’m not sure I have anything I can say that hasn’t already been said by someone smarter, more eloquent, and/or closer to the process. But it's rare to see the unpleasantness of AI spill out in the real world. I do think there are certain things that are valued not just by the result but because the act of doing them is hard. Afterall, why do people climb mountains, when there are helicopters? Why play a video game on hard mode when there is an easy mode? Art is one of those things that functions two fold. The artist must challenge themself to express themself, figure out mode, medium and message, while the audience must work to understand and interpret the final result. Two people climb a mountain and hope they can meet on the top, and yes, they could meet in a town square or somewhere easier, but it's the struggle, I think, that makes the moment special. I think that is why AI art feels frustrating. It doesn’t just steal art, but the value of it. Who are we when the mountain has been stolen? When the struggle and challenges have been rendered mote?
Eventually, I’m sure, art will find a way to express it.
End note: Its been a long time since I posted on Substack. Believe it or not, I have been thinking a lot about it these past 6 months. I’m trying to get a more reasonable schedule so you’ll be hearing more from me. ✌🏽