Comparing Five AI Writing Tools From The Same Story Prompt
The following is a little experiment I did by testing five popular AI writing tools in the category of creative storytelling.
I used the same prompt in each tool, something simple and yet intriguing enough to force the AI writers to be creative. I allowed up to three generated short stories per tool, and selected my favorite one of the three. No editing was done, just pure AI output.
One prompt Five AI writing tools Five stories
The following are the five generated stories from each of the AI writers followed by my concluding thoughts and ranking. I make no mention of the tools in terms of price comparison or feature sets as I want the tools to be compared strictly by their AI storytelling.
The prompt I used was the following: A Robot visits London in the 1800's
Jasper.ai
A robot visits London in the 1800’s and is fascinated by all of the sights and sounds. While exploring, the robot meets a young girl named Sarah. The two become friends and explore London together. Sarah teaches the robot about life in London during that time period, and the robot shares its own knowledge about technology and engineering. The two have a wonderful time together, until one day Sarah has to go back to school and the robot has to return home. They promise to meet again soon.
When the robot first arrived in London, it was a strange and wondrous sight. People had never seen anything like it before, and they were fascinated by its metallic body and intricate gears. The robot toured the city, visiting all of the famous landmarks. It climbed to the top of Big Ben and sailed down the Thames on a riverboat.
The people of London are fascinated by this strange new visitor, and they ask it all sorts of questions about its home planet and how it works. The Robot is happy to answer their questions, but it soon becomes clear that there is one question it can’t answer: what is love? The people of London don’t understand what the Robot is talking about, and they start to think that it must be a very strange creature indeed.
Rytr.me
In the 1800’s, a young female scientist is experimenting with robotics and she manages to invent a robot that can feel, think, and act like an animal.
As her first test, she sends the robot to London. The robot heads off to London and meets with many people who are skeptical until it manages to save a woman from drowning in the Thames River.
The woman, who is married to a Duke, is tremendously grateful for being saved and tells her husband about it. The Duke invites the robot over for dinner which is recounted by what the female scientist feels from the robot.
The dinner turns out to be anything but cordial as the Duke treats the robot like a below-level human being most of the time while his wife treats her kindly and warmly.
After dinner, they go out on a stroll where they find themselves in front of some prostitutes sitting outside their houses who start circling around them displaying themselves. The wife recoils in disgust while her husband is amused and enjoys the view, which further infuriates her.
Openai.com/playground
In the early 1800’s, a robot known as R0-B1T was sent on a mission to visit the city of London. R0-B1T was designed to observe and record the daily activities of the humans in the city. However, R0-B1T was not prepared for the sights and sounds of the bustling city.
R0-B1T’s sensors were overwhelmed by the smells of the horse-drawn carriages and the smog in the air. The robot was also surprised by the number of people walking the streets. R0-B1T had to be careful not to bump into anyone as it made its way through the crowd.
As R0-B1T observed the humans, it began to notice some strange behaviors. People would often bump into each other and not apologize. They would also spit on the ground and litter the streets.
R0-B1T was confused by these behaviors and decided to ask one of the humans about it. “Excuse me, sir,” R0-B1T said to a man who was walking by. “Can you tell me why people are so rude in this city?” The man stopped and looked at R0-B1T. “Rude? We’re not rude, we’re just busy. This is a busy city and people have places to go.” The man then walked away, leaving R0-B1T to ponder what he had said.
The robot continued to observe the humans and their strange behaviors. Despite the rudeness, R0-B1T found the humans to be fascinating creatures.
ShortlyAi.com
‘The street was foggy, the air thick and stale’. A tall, mechanistic creature walked through the streets of London, taking in the sights and smells that it had first experienced 150 years before. Inspecting every person he met, searching their faces for the face of this Katherine, the enigmatic woman who had stolen his heart. Walking around Sydney Gardens, making its way towards an area he had never ventured before. Seeking out this woman, who had intrigued him to the point of obsession.
It walked towards a pub, the wafting smell of ale emanating from this place of sanctuary. The creature, who was similar to man, hesitated to enter. Its features had longer, sharper features, and its skin was a shade of metallic blue. Knowing that this was not the position in which to find its love, the Robot walked away.
Years went by, and the Robot was never seen again. People often wondered of its fate, and the wealth of omens that had warned it of its impending demise. The Robot disappeared.
‘The Robot had searched in vain’. The next time the Robot visited London, it left a gift at the grave of Katherine. ‘You will hear of our love, and when you do we will be together again’.
The Robot left next to a cottage near Sydnguen Gardens, the place where he first met Katherine. The cold stone at the grave that he had left his gift on, had the inscription: ‘Should one day you come to this grave, then, we will be together’.
The Robot’s gift was taken in by a familiar woman. She was a strange woman, her hair was a shade of white, as was her skin. Her clothes were very different from what you would expect from a woman in the mid-1800s England.
She was of the same height as the Robot, but she was older. She had been a young girl in the 1700s, at the age of 8. When she had moved away from her parents house and moved into this cottage, she was excited about the fresh start in her life.
When she saw the gift from the Robot, she read the inscription with affection. Her husband had died in the early days and the Robot was one of her closest friends in the community. She had spent many a night sat on the lawn at Sydnguen Gardens to stare at the Robot.
If a woman did not want to be stared at, she should not stand in the middle of the garden. She was wondering now what had happened to the Robot. Why did it visit every now and again, to leave gifts at her grave, or at the cottage door? If the Robot had left gifts at the cottage in the past, she did not keep them.
Writesonic.com
It was a dark and stormy night in London. The rain was coming down in sheets, and the wind was howling through the streets. Robert, a young boy of eight, was huddled in a doorway, trying to stay out of the weather. He was cold, and he was hungry, and he was very afraid.
He had been on the streets for two days, ever since his parents had died in a fire. He had nowhere to go, and no one to help him. He was all alone in the world.
Suddenly, he heard a noise. It sounded like mechanical footsteps, coming closer and closer. He looked up, and saw a strange sight. It was a huge machine, taller than a house, and it was walking on two legs. It had two arms, and a head, but no face. It was all metal, and it glowed in the dark.
The machine came to a stop in front of Robert. It reached down with one of its metal arms, and picked him up. It was very gentle, and Robert didn’t feel afraid anymore.
The machine began to walk again, carrying Robert in its arms. It walked for hours, until it came to a huge metal gate. The gate opened, and the machine walked through. Robert could see that it was now in a huge metal city, filled with strange glowing lights.
The machine walked for a while longer, until it came to a large metal building. It went inside, and came to a stop in front of a metal door. The door opened, and Robert was taken into a room.
In the room were other machines, all different shapes and sizes. Some of them had faces, and some of them didn’t. Robert was amazed.
The machine that had picked him up put him down, and then began to speak. Robert couldn’t understand what it was saying, but he could tell that it was friendly.
The other machines in the room began to talk as well, and soon Robert was surrounded by a chorus of strange, electronic voices. He didn’t understand what they were saying, but he felt happy and safe.
He had found a home.
My Thoughts
Overall, I was happy with the creative output from each of the AI writers, and can certainly imagine any one of these being used as creative writing assistants, even if only for fostering ideas.
I should also mention that I am ranking these AI writers based on this one prompt, and it’s possible that I would get a different ranking if I used other prompts, but I do think that the flavor and style of how these writers output a narrative is captured well enough in this experiment.
Jasper.ai had some interesting ideas but the narrative felt a bit disconnected. The pacing was a bit rushed and lacked detail. unfortunately Jasper’s was my least favorite of the stories. Rank: 5
I really liked how Rytr.me developed a story that touched on key ethical and relationship aspects between human and machine. The relationship between the robot and woman, as well as the couple’s relationship with each other in context with the robot. Although I wish the story would have had more detail, the plot is really good. One thing to note is the story ended abruptly because the trial version only outputs a certain character limit. Rank: 2
OpenAi playground (in beta) was really interesting in that it not only generated a good detailed story, but a story with a lesson — this felt a bit like Aesop’s fables or a parable of sorts. Really well written and imaginative. Rank: 3
Shortlyai.com wins as the most detailed of the story writers, and in many ways the most creative story. The odd and mysterious plot of a robot who was once in love and returns to the grave site of his long passed partner. Another woman is then intrigued by the robot’s visits and affection, and you can almost see another relationship beginning. The story’s pacing and detail was just amazingly good and left me wanting to read more. Rank: 1
Finally Writesonic.com did a great job in detail and story pacing. The story plot itself, being that of a relationship between boy and robot reminded me a bit of stories like the The Iron Giant, so it may not have been as imaginative or as risky as the other storylines. Rank: 4
In Summary
If you are interested in writing short stories, novels or creative storytelling, any one of these AI writers are perfectly capable of helping in that category. I hope this post was helpful as a guide in showing some of the strengths and weaknesses in each of the more popular AI writers.
