Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers

<p>This fascinating book explores machines as authors of fiction, past, present, and future. For centuries, writers have dreamed of mechanical storytellers. We can now build these devices. What will be the impact on society of AI programs that generate original stories to entertain and persuade? What can we learn about human creativity from probing how they work?</p><p>In <i>Story Machines</i>, two pioneers of creative artificial intelligence explore the design and impact of AI story generators. The book covers three themes: <i>language generators</i> that compose coherent text, <i>storyworlds</i> with believable characters, and <i>AI models</i> of human storytellers. Providing examples of story machines through the ages, it covers the history, recent developments, and future implications of automated story generation.</p><p>Anyone with an interest in story writing will gain a new perspective on what it means to be a creative writer, what parts of creativity can be mechanized, and what is essentially human. <i>Story Machines</i> is for those who have ever wondered what makes a good story, why stories are important to us, and what the future holds for storytelling.</p> <p>Preface, Chapter 1. Can a computer write a story?, Chapter 2. Human story machines, Chapter 3. Artificial versifying, Chapter 4. Automatic novel writers, Chapter 5. The shape of a story, Chapter 6. The program that swallowed the internet, Chapter 7. Storyworlds, Chapter 8. Being creative, Chapter 9. Modelling the mind of a writer, Chapter 10. Build your own story generator, Chapter 11. Capacity for empathy, Notes, Further reading</p>