Summary

The undefined website invites writers to participate in a poetry prompt for May, challenging them to incorporate lines from an AI-generated poem into their own work to create more authentic and human pieces that reflect real experiences.

Abstract

The undefined website's May poetry prompt, titled "Let’s Get Real," encourages writers to engage with the theme of maternal love and the essence of being human by using lines from a ChatGPT-generated poem as a starting point. The prompt emphasizes the importance of moving beyond the artificiality of AI-created poetry, which, while technically proficient, lacks the soul and depth that human writers can infuse into their work. Participants are tasked with selecting phrases from the AI's poem and integrating them into original compositions that eschew traditional rhyme schemes in favor of free verse or other innovative forms, such as the "twittle." The website also provides guidelines for submission, including the use of specific tags, the inclusion of handcrafted elements in images, and the promotion of the prompt through social handles. The initiative aims to celebrate the complexity and richness that human creativity brings to poetry, contrasting it with the limitations of AI-generated content.

Opinions

AI-generated poetry, while impressive at first glance, is criticized for its lack of genuine emotion and human experience, described as "fake, manufactured look-alikes."
The author expresses a sense of being overwhelmed by the artificial sweetness of the ChatGPT poem, likening it to a "florist shop on Mother’s Day."
There is a clear preference for poetry that embodies human traits such as lived experience, personality, creativity, and passion, which AI cannot replicate.
The prompt challenges writers to "make it real" by transforming the AI's words into something that resonates with true human sentiment.
The author playfully mocks the AI's tendency to exceed the requested poem length, suggesting it might be showing off or ignoring instructions.
A "twittle," a specific form of poetry, is highlighted as something the AI struggles to create, emphasizing the superiority of human ingenuity in certain creative endeavors.

Let’s Get Real

Maternal Love Blooms

The ‘feel good’ fakery of ChatGPT poetry

WooHoo and WowWee!! The past few months at Paper Poetry have been a-m-a-z-i-n-g! And now it’s May, a month that’ll bring you, me, and all of us, the perfect opportunity to p o n d e r and compose upon the virtues of mothers and flowers. 💖 💐

That’s essentially what Paper Poetry’s May prompt is — your opportunity to write whatever thoughts you have about mothers and flowers.

Except it comes with a twist.

A ChatGPT twist!

You see, we asked ChatGPT to go first and write a poem for us about mothers and flowers. This is what the chatbot gave us —

ChatGPT’s ‘Maternal Love Blooms’ poem — screenshot by author

For those not yet familiar with AI-generated poetry, the above poem is a typical example — and, therefore, similar to what you will find sneaking into Medium. 😕

I specifically asked the chatbot to write in quatrains because that seems to be its default — ask it to write a poem, and it will more than likely give you neat, 4-line stanzas with either an aabb or abab rhyme scheme plus or minus iambic (da-Dum) meter.

I requested a 16-line poem and it gave me 20! That’s also typical of ChatGPT — always going the extra byte to give you more than you want! Or, is it showing off? 😅 Or, is it just ignoring parts of the instruction? 🤷

I don’t know about you, but when I first read the poem, I almost gagged on how cloyingly, sickly-sweet it is! 😝 That’s another thing about the chatbot’s poetry; it’s…how should I put it?…

…flowery as a florist shop on Mother’s Day! 😆

Oh, and one more thing — the title of this story, Maternal Love Blooms, wasn’t my idea; it was the name ChatGPT gave the new chat we’d started — see what I mean by flowery!

Except it’s all artificial.

That’s what AI-generated poetry is — fake, manufactured look-alikes that might do the job but none of it is real.

Upon first reading, you might be impressed by the wordcraft. It might even leave you with a feel good, ‘wow’ factor, but it won’t last. You’ll have a sense that something’s missing. 🤔

And you’ll be right. 🙌

It’s missing soul.

It’s missing the parts that tell you it was written by a human being with lived experience, personality, prejudices, individuality, creativity, humour, and passion.

AI-poetry misses the depth and complexity only a human mind can bring to poetry.

And it’s that ‘human’ factor that we want you to bring to this prompt. ✨

Let’s Get Real

For the month of May we’re celebrating flowers, mothers, motherhood and all things maternal. To do that, we’re asking you to use snippets of ChatGPT’s ‘Maternal Love Blooms’ poem and make it real.

Here’s how:

💐 Select phrases from the chatbot’s poem in the screenshot — a maximum of two lines — and incorporate those phrases/lines into your own poem about flowers and/or mothers.

💐 For the sake of transparency, please identify the borrowed words in your poem e.g. by using bold, italics, asterisk*

💐 Your goal is to create a poem that ChatGPT can’t. There are no word or line limits. You can write in any form of poetry you like except rhyming couplets and quatrains. Twittles, however, will be accepted as twittle and I have already proven that ChatGPT can’t write a twittle to save itself! 😊

Speaking of twittles, here’s one I hope will sow a seed —

*maternal love blooms* eternal foreverlastings in my soul garden forget-me-not for I am real unlike ChatGPT, you AI villain!

Submission Details

Title/subtitle/kicker: please use ‘Let’s Get Real’ as the kicker; your choice of title and subtitle

Tags: please use ‘Lets Get Real’ tag when submitting your story

Images: maximum two images Please note: one of the images can be a screenshot of the ChatGPT poem with the caption hyperlinked to this story. It is mandatory that at least one of your images incorporates a handwritten/handcrafted element in either paper or digital format in accordance with Paper Poetry’s submission guidelines. Suggestions: a handwritten segment of your story, a decorative title, an illustration that depicts an aspect of your story, a digitally enhanced photo (free-to-use or personal) that relates to your story. AI-generated images are acceptable providing you include your source link as evidence in the caption or explain how the image was derived. Please refer to Paper Poetry’s homepage for further examples.

Extensions: Please include a promotional link to this prompt and invite (handle tag) up to five other writers to join the prompt.

Submission period: Monday, May 1 (UTC-10hrs, Cook Islands 12:00am) — Wednesday, May 31 (UTC-10hrs, Cook Islands 11:59 pm)

We welcome new writers to join the prompt. Please leave a comment requesting to be added as a writer and include your Medium @ handle; or email us at [email protected]

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May I take this opportunity to wish all mothers and mother figures many blessings on Mother’s Day. 💖

Let’s show the world who’s real,

Carolyn Hastings