Does nothing rhymes with ‘algorithm’? Computers are lousy poets

Scientists in a Dartmouth College competition reached that conclusion after designing artificial intelligence algorithms that could produce sonnets.

The yearlong competition was a variation of the “Turing Test,” named for British computer scientist Alan Turing, who in 1950 proposed an experiment to determine whether computers could have humanlike intelligence.

A three-judge panel that included Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Menand was asked to read 10 submissions — six produced by humans and four by two different algorithms.

Computer algorithms were not much better at writing short stories, failing to fool a panel of judges — although one judge was tricked by one story.

The sets of music produced by DJs — played behind a black curtain at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art — were more of a challenge, with dancers having a difficult time determining who produced the various sets.

There have been several efforts to create computer programs that can generate music or text, including a novel this year in Japan written by humans and an artificial intelligence program.

The Associated Press, for example, is using computer programs to automatically generate business earnings reports.

Michael Casey, a professor who also helped organize the Dartmouth competition, said the results demonstrated the challenges posed to machines when they try to mimic the arts — though he wasn’t giving up that one day a computerized Shakespeare would emerge.