Press/Media/Journalism Coverage

[MichaelPaulukonis]

TheGuardian: Once upon a bot: can we teach computers to write fiction?

This month, several thousand aspiring authors are attempting to write a novel in 30 days. They are taking part in an annual event known as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, in the hope that the time pressure will spur them on. For a small community of computer programmers, though, NaNoWriMo has a lighthearted sister competition: National Novel Generating Month, the goal of which is to teach a computer to write a novel for you.

However, finished NaNoGenMo projects are unlikely to trouble Booker judges. They include a version of Moby-Dick in which the words have been swapped for meows of the same length (immortal opening line: Meow me Meeeeow); another version in which a few key words have been swapped out for emoji; and a novel made up of unconnected excerpts from an online database of teenage girls’ accounts of their dreams.

“I don’t think anyone’s really taking it seriously,” says Mark Riedl, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Riedl and his colleagues are not taking part, but they are among the many computer scientists working on far more sophisticated digital storytellers.

---

UPDATE: as noted below, the Riedl quote was removed after he changed his mind.

[enkiv2]

Some more positive coverage:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/25/7276157/nanogenmo-robot-author-novel

On Wed Nov 12 2014 at 9:08:06 AM Michael Paulukonis <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

TheGuardian: Once upon a bot: can we teach computers to write fiction?
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/11/can-computers-write-fiction-artificial-intelligence

This month, several thousand aspiring authors are attempting to write a
novel in 30 days. They are taking part in an annual event known as
NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, in the hope that the time pressure
will spur them on. For a small community of computer programmers, though,
NaNoWriMo has a lighthearted sister competition: National Novel Generating
Month, the goal of which is to teach a computer to write a novel for you.

However, finished NaNoGenMo projects are unlikely to trouble Booker
judges. They include a version of Moby-Dick in which the words have been
swapped for meows of the same length (immortal opening line: Meow me
Meeeeow); another version in which a few key words have been swapped out
for emoji; and a novel made up of unconnected excerpts from an online
database of teenage girls’ accounts of their dreams.

“I don’t think anyone’s really taking it seriously,” says Mark Riedl, an
associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Riedl and his
colleagues are not taking part, but they are among the many computer
scientists working on far more sophisticated digital storytellers.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#92.

[ikarth]

Really highlights some of the highlights so far this year.

[hugovk]

Some more.

English

• http://singularityhub.com/2014/11/09/computers-are-writing-novels-but-do-you-really-want-to-read-them/
• http://www.fastcolabs.com/3038042/will-the-next-great-american-novel-be-generated-by-code
• http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/acwrimo-nanogenmo-digiwrimo-and-other/58469
• https://blog.safaribooksonline.com/2014/11/08/nanogenmo2014-procedurally-generated-mysterious-codex/
• http://www.vox.com/2014/11/11/7193531/meow-cat-books

Japanese

• http://hon.jp/news/modules/rsnavi/showarticle.php?id=6045

Vietnamese

• http://thethaovanhoa.vn/van-hoa-giai-tri/hai-huoc-chuyen-may-tinh-viet-van-n20141113060706020.htm

Chinese

• http://www.cnbeta.com/articles/346467.htm

Dutch

• http://www.engineersonline.nl/nieuws/id24436-computers-schrijven-romans-maar-wie-wil-ze-lezen-.html

German

• http://www.nerdcore.de/2014/11/14/50-000-meows/

[cpressey]

Man, I love reading these. Reminds me how futile it is to try to explain what we're actually doing here, to the normals.

Also, this could explain why we haven't gotten any "completed" tags in the past ten days -- perhaps our host has been too busy giving interviews...?

(Well it's not easy being a "self-proclaimed 'Internet artist'", y'know!)

[dariusk]

Ha, yeah, actually I have been very busy with that stuff! If someone wants
to volunteer to label issues I'll happily grant admin status.

[hugovk]

@dariusk, I can help label.

[dariusk]

@hugovk, thanks, you should have admin rights now!

[hugovk]

Just gone through and labelled a bunch up. Now 41 completed and 21 previews!

[hugovk]

Belgian

• http://www.demorgen.be/boeken/waarom-robots-niet-meteen-literatuur-zullen-bedrijven-a2135167/

Mexican

• http://mediatelecom.com.mx/index.php/tecnologia/item/77640-

English

• http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/computers-write-novels-faster-you-do-180953491/?no-ist
• http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/the-future-of-computer-generated-novel-writing-begins-here
• http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/02/368009124/book-news-files-said-to-contradict-in-cold-blood-may-see-light-of-day

Croatian

• http://www.jutarnji.hr/studeni----mjesec-u-kojem-racunala-pisu-price/1241838/

Chinese

• http://www.ifanr.com/472350

[hugovk]

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/moby-dick-in-50000-meows-and-other-tales-that-computers-tell/383340/ about #50 and #116.

[MichaelPaulukonis]

But there's no guarantee of quality in NaNoWriMo proper, either, and there's probably less risk of emergent cryptozoological erotica. source (from above)

Next year, We Prove. This. WRONG.

[enkiv2]

If I recall, one of my entries last year was about 300 pages of
machine-generated misspelled erotica. I haven't read the whole thing, so I
don't know if bigfoot was involved, but I know that several pages contained
only onomatopoeiae.

On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 8:54:45 AM Michael Paulukonis <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

But there's no guarantee of quality in NaNoWriMo proper, either, and
there's probably less risk of emergent cryptozoological erotica.
http://www.businessinsider.com/monster-porn-amazon-crackdown-sex-fantasy-bigfoot-2013-12 source
(from above)
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/computers-write-novels-faster-you-do-180953491/#QgGEmOM3RMWlmgpI.99

Next year, We Prove. This. WRONG.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#92 (comment)
.

[hugovk]

"It's 2:40 PM And I'm Drunk": The Strange, Voyeuristic Novel Mined From Twitter

http://www.fastcolabs.com/3039380/its-240-pm-and-im-drunk-the-strange-voyeuristic-novel-mined-from-twitter about #89.

[hugovk]

9 Computer-Generated Novels You Should Read, or Attempt To, or At Least Look At In Wonderment

NaNoGenMo is not, however, truly about trying to replace the human author. Rather, its entries draw their strange beauty and humour from their failure to be human, from their almost-but-not-quite humanity and their utter inhumanity: most of them are transparently machine-made, but this lends their glitches, coincidences and almost-epiphanies even more fascinating. The writing they produce is closest to is the flattened affect and repetitions of alt-lit, with dashes of uncreative writing, flarf and other post-internet poetics. In other words: as humans increasingly write in dialogue with the internet and machine automations, machines are increasingly being written in dialogue with human literature.

http://sabotagereviews.com/2014/12/10/9-computer-generated-novels-you-should-read-or-attempt-to-or-at-least-look-at-in-wonderment/ about #146, #5, #138, #43, #97, #89, #99, #132, #133 and #50 (yes, that's ten).

[enkiv2]

Alexis Madrigal's '5 Interesting Things' newsletter linked to Ross
Goodwin's entry today:
http://tinyletter.com/intriguingthings/letters/5it-dirtboxes-machine-fiction-robo-fish-women-s-work-peak-trade

On Wed Dec 10 2014 at 6:05:12 AM Hugo notifications@github.com wrote:

9 Computer-Generated Novels You Should Read, or Attempt To, or At Least
Look At In Wonderment

http://sabotagereviews.com/2014/12/10/9-computer-generated-novels-you-should-read-or-attempt-to-or-at-least-look-at-in-wonderment/
about #146 #146, #5
#5, #138
#138, #43
#43, #97
#97, #89
#89, #99
#99, #132
#132, #133
#133 and #50
#50 (yes, that's ten).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#92 (comment)
.

[hugovk]

The Twitter Account That Unravels Time

All The Minutes, according to creator Jonathan Puckey's explanation on GitHub, was a way to generate one sprawling story of a single day. The project was originally part of an exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands, he said. "It interesting to us that these days people choose to speak about exact minutes in relation to their lives," Puckey told me. "Almost as if they could be doing something different every minute. As if every minute counts."

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-twitter-account-that-unravels-time/383462/ about #89

[cpressey]

An update was posted to the story linked to in the very first comment of this issue (#92 (comment)) --

This article was amended on 1 December 2014 to remove a quote from professor Mark Riedl, who, after further investigation into NaNoGenMo, had changed his view that no one was taking it seriously.

(The cynical part of me can't help noticing that December 1st was only 2 days after Dr Montfort, who had not previously posted an ITP, submitted a novel based on a work by Samuel Beckett. Whereas the non-cynical part of me... wait wait, I know I have one, it's around here somewhere... ah yes, here it is. I'm sure it's actually because Dr Riedl downloaded a copy of The Seeker and simply couldn't put it down.)

[enkiv2]

While it doesn't mention NaNoGenMo, Vice used one of the entries to produce
a 700+ page novelization of the recent CIA torture reports:
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-first-novel-based-on-the-cia-torture-report-was-written-by-an-algorithm

On Sat Dec 13 2014 at 3:11:24 PM Chris Pressey notifications@github.com
wrote:

An update was posted to the story linked to in the very first comment of
this issue (#92 (comment)
#92 (comment)) --

This article was amended on 1 December 2014 to remove a quote from
professor Mark Riedl, who, after further investigation into NaNoGenMo, had
changed his view that no one was taking it seriously.

(The cynical part of me can't help noticing that December 1st was only 2
days after Dr Montfort, who had not previously posted an ITP, submitted a
novel based on a work by Samuel Beckett. Whereas the non-cynical part of
me... wait wait, I know I have one, it's around here somewhere... ah yes,
here it is. I'm sure it's actually because Dr Riedl downloaded a copy of The
Seeker #146 and simply
couldn't put it down.)

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#92 (comment)
.

[wordsmythe]

Well that's magical.

On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 1:04 PM, John Ohno notifications@github.com wrote:

While it doesn't mention NaNoGenMo, Vice used one of the entries to
produce
a 700+ page novelization of the recent CIA torture reports:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-first-novel-based-on-the-cia-torture-report-was-written-by-an-algorithm

On Sat Dec 13 2014 at 3:11:24 PM Chris Pressey notifications@github.com
wrote:

An update was posted to the story linked to in the very first comment of
this issue (#92 (comment)

#92 (comment))

This article was amended on 1 December 2014 to remove a quote from
professor Mark Riedl, who, after further investigation into NaNoGenMo,
had
changed his view that no one was taking it seriously.

(The cynical part of me can't help noticing that December 1st was only 2
days after Dr Montfort, who had not previously posted an ITP, submitted
a
novel based on a work by Samuel Beckett. Whereas the non-cynical part of
me... wait wait, I know I have one, it's around here somewhere... ah
yes,
here it is. I'm sure it's actually because Dr Riedl downloaded a copy of
The
Seeker #146 and
simply
couldn't put it down.)

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
<
https://github.com/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2014/issues/92#issuecomment-66889456>

.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#92 (comment)
.

[enkiv2]

The existence of NaNoGenMo is used as an argument against shallow neophobic
literary criticism:
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/nature-and-technology/whos-afraid-of-robot-culture-leon-wieseltier-new-york-times-book-review-98371/?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

On Tue Dec 16 2014 at 5:33:17 PM Erik Hanson notifications@github.com
wrote:

Well that's magical.

On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 1:04 PM, John Ohno notifications@github.com
wrote:

While it doesn't mention NaNoGenMo, Vice used one of the entries to
produce
a 700+ page novelization of the recent CIA torture reports:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-first-novel-based-on-the-cia-torture-report-was-written-by-an-algorithm

On Sat Dec 13 2014 at 3:11:24 PM Chris Pressey notifications@github.com

wrote:

An update was posted to the story linked to in the very first comment
of
this issue (#92 (comment)

#92 (comment))

This article was amended on 1 December 2014 to remove a quote from
professor Mark Riedl, who, after further investigation into NaNoGenMo,
had
changed his view that no one was taking it seriously.

(The cynical part of me can't help noticing that December 1st was only
2
days after Dr Montfort, who had not previously posted an ITP,
submitted
a
novel based on a work by Samuel Beckett. Whereas the non-cynical part
of
me... wait wait, I know I have one, it's around here somewhere... ah
yes,
here it is. I'm sure it's actually because Dr Riedl downloaded a copy
of
The
Seeker #146 and
simply
couldn't put it down.)

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
<

https://github.com/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2014/issues/92#issuecomment-66889456>

.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
<
https://github.com/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2014/issues/92#issuecomment-67213022>

.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#92 (comment)
.

[hugovk]

Here's some of the images used to illustrate these articles:

[MichaelPaulukonis]

I just found this reference in 0x0a.li:

http://0x0a.li/en/algorithmische-einfuehlung-nick-montforts-megawatt/

Of course, this form of literature is conceptual in potential only. One could simply add on formal limitations, so as to encourage a flurry of conceptual novels, a yet-to-be founded NaCoNoWriMo. Or one could limit the means of production itself, as did code artist Darius Kazemi. His version is called NaNoGenMo – National Novel Generation Month. Transferring the “creative” from the novel to a novel making code, it lets the machine do the writing. Already for the second time, hundreds of code savvy writers pledged to design scripts and programs that would generate just that 50,000 word novel instead of writing it themselves. (‘Novel’ is understood pragmatically, paratextually: If it’s called a novel, it is one.) The results have been surprisingly varied, and some of them quite extraordinary. In the coming weeks, I would like to look at some of them, hoping to find out something about digital literature, what it is, how it works – and, above all, what it can do for the novel.

I've checked the archives, but no further mentions of NaNoGenMo were forthcoming.