Artificial Intelligence has integrated into various areas of life, and now it is even generating poetry. A recent investigation examined if individuals without expertise could distinguish AI-generated poems from those created by renowned human poets. The study, which had over 16,000 responses, found that participants could only identify AI-generated poems with 46.6% accuracy—worse than random guessing.
Surprisingly, readers were more likely to think AI-generated poems were written by humans. They rated AI poems higher for things like rhythm and beauty, which caused this confusion. The study suggests that non-experts often use misleading ideas to judge poetry. Since AI poems are simpler and easier to understand, people preferred them, while they mistakenly saw the complexity of human poems as chaotic or unclear.
Porter and Machery argue that the abilities of AI models have exceeded people's expectations. However, they are careful not to claim that AI can fully replace human poets, as more research would be needed to make that conclusion. Poets like Dan Power and Nick Flynn are already exploring creative collaborations with AI, and AI’s ability to mimic Shakespeare’s style is an impressive technological achievement.
Earlier this month, actor Ben Affleck said he doesn’t believe AI has the “taste” to challenge art forms like film and poetry. He argued, “AI can write great imitative verse that sounds Elizabethan, but it can’t write Shakespeare.” But a study from the University of Pittsburgh disagrees. It found that people couldn’t tell the difference between poems written by AI and those written by humans, and many even preferred the AI versions. The researchers, Brian Porter and Edouard Machery, explained that it’s becoming harder to tell AI writing apart from human writing as AI continues to improve.
The study also asked over 600 people to evaluate different qualities of the poems, such as rhythm, originality, and wit. Overall, AI-generated poems were rated more favorably, although this changed when people knew the poems were AI-written. According to the researchers, non-poetry readers preferred the simpler, easier-to-understand language of AI poems. They thought the poems were better because they were clearer and more direct, so they mistakenly believed the poems were human-written.
The study authors noted that the growing positive view of AI-generated poetry is a recent trend, helped by advances in AI technology. In earlier studies using older AI models, like OpenAI’s GPT-2, participants were able to tell the difference between AI and human poems.
The influence of AI extends beyond poetry. Recent research indicates that paintings created by AI are frequently evaluated more favorably than those produced by humans, and jokes generated by AI are considered equally if not more humorous than jokes made by humans. It's getting more challenging to differentiate between AI-generated faces and actual human faces.
The same progress is happening with written words. The study’s authors said these findings show how much generative AI has advanced, especially in poetry, a field where AI had previously struggled to match human-level creativity.
AI poetry brings several challenges. One major issue is originality—AI doesn't create entirely new ideas but works with existing information. This raises concerns about plagiarism and a lack of true creativity.
Another concern is transparency. Should readers be told if a poem was written by AI? It’s important to make it clear whether the poem comes from a person or a machine to maintain trust between creators and their audience.
AI will likely play a bigger role in the arts as it improves. Over time, AI will be able to produce more complex and meaningful poems. Some believe that AI might even develop its own style, separate from human influence.
On the other hand, there could be more collaboration between humans and AI. Poets may use AI as a tool, mixing their own ideas and feelings with what the machine generates. This could lead to a new form of poetry that combines both human and machine elements.
AI poetry represents a change in art and literature by demonstrating that machines can replicate human creativity in unexpected ways. Although its authenticity may be doubted by some, AI poetry is attracting the interest of numerous readers.