The "robot," which adds words taken from Google's indexed web pages to user-inputed words, is a simple tool that can help to break writer's block now and then. But Geoff Peters, the tool's creator, has expanded on the project with two websites that add value to his program.
The first of these is RobotPoetry.com, a sort of one-stop shop for all things related to the Google Poetry Robot. The most interesting part of this site is the poems that are actually read by computer-generated voices. Peters gives this great explanation of the project:
Of course, with the power of modern text-to-speech technology, it's pretty easy to get a computer to read a poem. But interestingly enough, each robot "voice" seems to take on a character and personality of its own, and it is sometimes pretty hard to shake the feeling that the robot might actually mean something.
This creeping feeling that computers themselves may be able to create, or simulate, what we humans call "meaning" is what makes this project so captivating. If you're used to poetry analysis, it's pretty natural to begin interpreting the poems and the readings as if they were written by an actual person.
And it could be argued that they actually are, since the robot needs human assistance, including at least some human word input, to make the poems. That leads us to another branch of the project: the Robot Poetry Blog. Anyone can submit their own robot poems as posts to the blog, and it boasts an impressive collection of work, reaching back to September of 2005.
Unfortunately, there have been no new submissions since April. If this kind of human-robot writing partnership piques your interest, then I suggest you get to work. After all, resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
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