Literature, Narrativity and Composition in the age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

My paper attempts to briefly trace the interactions between A.I. and literature while noting the various ways in which machine intelligence participates in the generation and comprehension of narrative. Modern research in A.I. and narrative theory remains deeply involved in the pioneering field of narrative generation, while literary works composed by A.I. are scant, facing major issues with regard to comprehensibility and innovation. What are the factors that limit the literary potential of narrative creation by machines? Can such factors be curbed and how? My paper will briefly try and address these questions regarding the shortcomings of narrative generation and processing by A.I. I shall employ a cognitive-narratological framework in assessing several narratives created by A.I. programs, focussing on schema and frame designs and the lack of coherence in generating meaningful utterances. The paper shall also attempt to highlight how such incomprehensible or often dis-coherent compositions are apt to be cognised by human readers. What does this tell us about our own cognising and mentalizing abilities? The paper will address problems of cognition that play a major role in the development of logical and algorithmic structures for the process of writing as a whole and foretell the limitations of writing machines (whether sentient or not). I believe that the various interactive zones between literary narratives and artificially intelligent structures open up an entire new field of discourse that is worthy of exploration—a field in which the text, society and digital systems come together in a state of “libre jeu.”