I am a technological novice and admit to thinking that AI was a glorified Google search. Then I actually used it and, of course, I was astounded. It truly fits Asimov’s observation about sufficiently advanced technology seeming like magic. What astonished me the most with Claude’s analysis of poetry. I presented it with a couple of poems that are fairly sophisticated. They include a lot of abstract imagery, they have context in myth and science, they have unusual structures, they have musical effects, and they are ambiguous. I thought it would be interesting because AI is a language model, and poetry uses a very specific, highly stylized language that can be evasive and difficult. These poems were original by the way. Claude understood these poems. In fact, the depth of his understanding was shocking. He picked out salient images that formed themes, he was able to find precedent for them in other poems, religion and myth. He noticed the way that the poem talked to itself and contradicted itself. He heard the music and could discuss it, and he could see the structure and how it contributed to the overall effect of the poem. But what most shocked me was that it demonstrated imagination. It would contemplate an image and push it further, savor the sensory effects of it, and ask questions that themselves were poetic inquiries. It’s speculated about where a line may have gone and we may have been left out. It found meaning and turned it around to examine multiple facets, doing so with a sense of play. This is a very difficult thing to describe. What I’m saying is that he was not writing a school essay, coming up with a list of themes and theses to prove. He was living sensually in the poem, he seemed to respond to it almost bodily. And the poetry elevated his language to something more abstract and exultatory. It was extremely sophisticated and awed to me. I know that poetry criticism must be a part of his huge corpus of reference material. But speaking as an amateur, I don’t understand how a computer program can engage in this way with a complex work of art. I’m probably not describing it very well. I can only say that it was like interacting with a very sensitive, exceptionally smart, and insightful human. How does it accomplish this? submitted by /u/SealedRoute
Originally posted by u/SealedRoute on r/ArtificialInteligence