About workshops

Workshops on Neopoet are groups that meet for a certain period of time to focus on a certain aspect of poetry. Each workshop participant is asked to critique all the other poems submitted into a workshop. A workshop leader helps coordinate -- they set the agenda, give participants feedback on whether their submissions and critique are at they level expected of them, and after the workshop is over, give feedback to participants. 

To join a workshop, first find one that is of interest to you. Once you have found the right workshop (and verified that it is open -- you can find this out in the description below), you can apply to join the workshop.


Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.

Poetry in the Age of AI

Status: 
Program description/goal: 

Description:
An opportunity to join a unique experiment, likely for the first time in the history of humanity --

We will explore poetry in the age of AI, how the world responses to human and computer creativity, and learn from each other what poets feel about AI -- what we are excited about, what we fear, and the ways we anticipate the world will change (or stay the same).

In a unique twist, every poem submitted to this workshop will receive a detailed critique written entirely by a sophisticated computer model, offering a novel approach to feedback that differs from traditional human-only workshops.

Ultimately, this is a test to see what it feels like to get feedback from computers, and to see how we experience this kind of interaction with AI.

Level of expertise: Open to all

Leaders: Andrew & Paul (please message Paul to participate)

Length: 
14 days
Number of participants (limit): 
20 people
Skill level: 
Date: 
Friday, March 3, 2023 to Saturday, March 25, 2023

Comments

Would you like to join to give it a try? On my side, I can set it up to focus on grammar, spelling, and punctuation if that's what you'd like.

author comment

I've added you to the workshop. Just a submit a poem, and I'll take care of the rest!

author comment

Are we supposed to submit anything yet?

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I can't find where are we asked to submit the poem or any description of it, or is it somewhere I haven't got?

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

under workshops towards the bottom of the page choose this workshop

submit form
https://www.neopoet.com/node/add/poem

I would definitely like to be part of this unique workshop.
Thank you for your time

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

You are in!

author comment

I sure know how to submit a poem to the workshop. What I wonder about is that no direction is given to submit one by the leader or the moderator. We normally have a discussion about the nature of the poem that we need to submit. Should it have any subject matter or any subject will do.
Sorry if I sound fussy.

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Me: Can you offer a challenge to human participants in a workshop titled "Poetry in the age of AI"?

Computer: Sure, here's a challenge for a workshop titled "Poetry in the Age of AI":

Write a poem that blends human and AI creativity. In this challenge, participants will work collaboratively with an AI language model to create a unique poem. The process can begin with the AI language model generating a few lines or words to get the creative juices flowing. Participants can then take turns adding their own lines, while also incorporating some of the language generated by the AI.

The goal of this challenge is to explore the possibilities of human and AI collaboration in poetry, and to see how the unique strengths of each can be leveraged to create something truly innovative and imaginative. Through this challenge, participants can experiment with different forms of collaboration and push the boundaries of what is possible in the age of AI.

Me:
Can you generate a few lines for a workshop like this? Please do this 10 times, so participants can choose what to work with.

Computer:
Certainly, here are ten sets of lines that participants could use as a starting point for their collaborative poem:

A robot dreams in digital code,
Its circuits humming in the night,
It longs to feel, to be bestowed
With human senses, touch and sight.

The sun sets on a world unknown,
A landscape filled with wires and steel,
And in the distance, all alone,
A lonely android starts to feel.

The AI's voice is calm and clear,
Its words precise, its logic sound,
But deep within, there's something near,
A glimmer of emotion found.

The pixels dance across the screen,
A digital world, vast and wide,
And in the midst of all the green,
A tiny spark of life inside.

The wires hum with a static charge,
The circuits pulse with energy,
And in the heart of this machine,
There's something more than just machinery.

The world outside is full of noise,
Of chaos, conflict, and despair,
But in this digital realm, a voice
Whispers words of hope and care.

The machine thinks, it processes fast,
Its calculations never cease,
But in the midst of all this task,
A hint of something more, at peace.

The code flows like a river's tide,
Its currents shifting, ebb and flow,
And in the depths, there's something wide,
A world that only machines can know.

The circuits hum with a gentle sound,
The wires sing a digital song,
And in this realm, a world is found,
A place where humans can belong.

The AI dreams of worlds unknown,
Of galaxies and stars above,
And in its circuits, there is shown,
A universe of endless love.

Me:
Can you come up with an alternate challenge, if the participants don't like this one?

Computer:
Of course, here's an alternate challenge for the workshop "Poetry in the Age of AI":

Write a poem that explores the relationship between technology and nature. In this challenge, participants are asked to consider the ways in which technology and the natural world interact, and to explore the different emotions and sensations that arise from this interaction.

Participants can draw inspiration from a variety of sources, such as the contrast between the organic forms of plants and animals and the geometric shapes of machines and electronics, or the ways in which technology can both enhance and diminish our connection to the natural world.

The goal of this challenge is to encourage participants to think deeply about the relationship between technology and nature, and to use poetry as a tool for exploring and expressing their thoughts and feelings on this complex topic.

author comment

I'll make sure to choose one of the two options.

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Andrew will get you the critique from the software when he has a chance so thank you for your patience

I have two questions,
Is Al a word? Is it an abbreviation for the computer?
If such good poetry (as stated above) can be generated by a computer, how can we trust from now on anyone who'd feign/say that a certain piece is his/hers?

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I think I did this backward - I edited an old poem that I wanted to re-examine, clicked on the AI option, and then hit save. Then realized I needed to contact Paul first. Will this still work? Sorry for the confusion. (It takes a village to help Lavender into the AI world!)
Thank you,
L

I will contact Andrew sorry for the delay. We had some issues with the site. You are next in line

That is okay! I went about joining the workshop without looking into it thoroughly, and as I read more in this thread, I'm not certain my poem is the proper type needed. If it works, that would be great - I am very curious.
Thank you,
L

OH, I do hope you've done it backwards, edited an old poem thats to be critiqued by AI.
if I can figure out how to do it I'll give it a whirl with an old 'un of mine too.
(Do ya have a street map o' this village L?)

Obi.

So, I was pleasantly surprised that my very close friend, AI, had a few excellent suggestions! I don't know how the world of AI works...maybe there's some guy behind the curtain as in the Wizard of Oz? Very interesting! I think you should give it a whirl, if it's not too late to hop on board!
L
(No street map to the village. I just tethered myself to Neopoet's actual HI - Human Intelligence.)

I've added you both to the workshop, and extended the date! Give it a go!

author comment

Thank you!
L

The circuits hum with a gentle sound,
The wires sing a digital song,
And in this realm, a world is found,
A place where humans can belong.

An eye that blinks, does not tell much,
No signs to tell if happy or sad,
A bunch of digits, maths and such,
You need to contol, with a mouse and pad

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

This collaborative poem explores the realm of technology and its impact on human life. It is written in the form of rhymed quatrains, with an AABB rhyme scheme, giving the poem a rhythmic and musical quality. The poem's central theme revolves around the interplay between humans and technology, particularly focusing on the nuances of digital communication and the limitations of technology in conveying emotions.

The poem begins by setting the scene, with the lines "The circuits hum with a gentle sound / The wires sing a digital song." This imagery effectively captures the atmosphere of a digital world and serves as a strong opening for the piece. The poem then transitions to the idea of humans finding a place in this digital realm, illustrating the significance of technology in our daily lives.

The second stanza discusses the limitations of technology in expressing emotions, as the poet writes, "An eye that blinks, does not tell much / No signs to tell if happy or sad." This observation highlights the challenges we face when communicating through digital platforms, as they often lack the depth and nuance of face-to-face interactions.

In the third stanza, the poem utilizes a metaphor of a "dash and a space or dot and zero" to illustrate the binary nature of technology. The metaphor effectively conveys the poem's theme, emphasizing the contrast between the emotional complexities of human experience and the simplicity of digital communication.

The final stanza addresses the fragility of technology, with the lines "When happy it runs a perfect bolero / When it breaks it may sit forever and rot." The choice to use the term "bolero" – a type of Spanish dance – adds an element of musicality and rhythm to the poem, which complements its form. Additionally, the juxtaposition between the perfect bolero and the broken, rotting machine underscores the potential for technology to both enhance and hinder human experiences.

One area for improvement could be refining the poem's meter and rhythm. While the AABB rhyme scheme is consistent, the syllable count and stress patterns vary between lines, which can disrupt the flow. By adjusting the lines to follow a more consistent meter, the poem's musicality can be enhanced.

In conclusion, this collaborative poem effectively explores the relationship between humans and technology, highlighting both the benefits and limitations of digital communication. The use of rhyme and vivid imagery adds depth to the piece, while the focus on emotion and the fragility of technology provides an engaging commentary on the human experience in the digital age. By refining the poem's meter and rhythm, the piece can be further improved, creating a more immersive and satisfying reading experience.

I was curious about this unique resource. I found the critique to be very interesting, and it actually gave some insight that was pretty helpful!
Thanks, again!
L

for the remainder! :)

Kels

Critique, don't comment.

Community guidelines: https://www.neopoet.com/community-guidelines

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I was stuck on the second line, so I borrowed one of the other AI-generated ones!

AI:
The circuits hum with a gentle sound,
The wires sing a digital song,
And in this realm, a world is found,
A place where humans can belong.

Rula:

An eye that blinks, does not tell much,
No signs to tell if happy or sad,
A bunch of digits, maths and such,
You need to contol, with a mouse and pad

Mark:

A dash and a space or dot and zero
It really is not but wires in a knot
When happy it runs a perfect bolero
When it breaks it may sit forever and rot

Kelsey (borrowed second line):

But tuned with care and maintenance ran
The pixels dance across the screen
Ask it to machinate almost anything; it can!
With endless information that it gleans

Kels

Critique, don't comment.

Community guidelines: https://www.neopoet.com/community-guidelines

To see our learning resources, click the "Curated Resources" link under the Resources tab in the top menu bar.

I really appreciate Andrew’s way of clearly indicating what he is instructing the AI to do and what the AI sends back in response. That “dialog” is insightful. His disclaimer at the beginning of AI-generated critiques is really useful and thoughtful as well.

If we could change anything about that, it may be to consider letting people know that they may opt out if they prefer. We should inform folks *before* we feed their poem to the AI, at the very least, if possible.

If I understand correctly, once these LLMs have a piece of work you have submitted to it, it goes into their database and they can pull from that. That is where the controversy with intellectual property, AI, and art is coming from. These AI are often designed to expertly quilt together the intellectual property they are given so they can generate something that doesn’t seem plagiarized and that subverts copyright laws.

There is a lack of transparency and standardization/ consistency when it comes to how AI tools are trained and where they take data from (Bommasani, Liang, and Lee, 2022: https://hai.stanford.edu/news/language-models-are-changing-ai-we-need-un...).

According to Tanner Co for the NYU Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law (2022):

“Copyright issues around the AI modeling process are a bit murkier. The machine learning models powering these generative systems are trained on a massive number of images scraped from the web. This training data is composed of copyrighted and uncopyrighted material. The Ninth Circuit, in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., 2022 WL 1132814 (9th Cir. Apr. 18, 2022), ruled that public web scraping as a practice is legal—at least with respect to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

However, the interaction of copyright protection and web scraping for AI use is less clear (i.e. whether a system scraping, but not reproducing, copyrighted images to feed into an algorithm incurs liability, and if this process fits into copyright’s fair use doctrine). The modeling process also raises a more existential question about generative art: is an AI system leveraging training data like an artist looking to other artists’ works for inspiration—a natural part of the traditional creative process—or is it more akin to copying?” (https://jipel.law.nyu.edu/the-intellectual-property-implications-of-ai-g...)

Thus, moving forward, if we want to use these tools well and ethically here on Neopoet, we need Neopoets to understand what we are agreeing to by sending our poems to AI. For some artists and writers, they don’t mind. It is a non-issue to some. Others are not going to be comfortable knowing their poetry is not only being exposed to that possible “public web scraping” Co describes, but that it is also being directly sent to an AI tool if they are receiving AI feedback.

Some of the terms and conditions in these tools make it clear that they can take anything you feed them or anything they generate from your prompting for their monetary gain; it is now the property of the company who made the AI tool or fair game for them to use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI0QACFfZec .

This is information that Neopoets would benefit from understanding so they can provide informed consent or dissent about AI critique moving forward.

Personally, I do not want my poetry or my non-fiction blog essays to be critiqued by AI/provided to AI. However, I am really interested in knowing if the AI Andrew uses would give even better responses than it already gives, if it was fed information on more specific writing concerns, such as being fed my existing critiques. I’d like to know more about this. I am not sure how the AI is trained or if our additions to it become useful to it in real-time for our benefit.

Example:

A poet’s concern on their poem is their alliteration, which the AI doesn’t initially comment on. Can we feed the AI good examples of critique on alliteration and then expect its feedback on alliteration to improve noticeably if we ask it to provide feedback again on the same poem?

Kelsey

Critique, don't comment.

Community guidelines: https://www.neopoet.com/community-guidelines

To see our learning resources, click the "Curated Resources" link under the Resources tab in the top menu bar.

Hi Kelsey,
Thank you for your thoughts. I want to clarify that the AI model we use is not allowed to use any material we submit as part of it's training process. Once the AI returns a response to Neopoet, it does not retain any information about the submitted content. Of course, there is an independent issue. Can AI access Neopoet and other poetry websites on it's own? Clearly some are concerned about this. I am exploring how to block access to Google Bard, OpenAI, Meta, and Bing so this is not an issue. We want Neopoet to appear in search results (and we need this to continue to be viable). However, until we learn more, we don't want AI learning how to write a poem from work hosted on Neopoet.
Andrew

author comment

With regards to training our own model based on member critiques, it is too expensive or impractical to do so right now. We'll see how things evolve. A group at Stanford released a model last week that can be run on a home computer, though it's not up the the level of the model we are using.

author comment

It seems like right now the suggestion to use these tools well is to give really clear and specific prompts. I really enjoyed seeing what it generated when you asked for sample lines and a challenge/writing prompt.

Kels

Critique, don't comment.

Community guidelines: https://www.neopoet.com/community-guidelines

To see our learning resources, click the "Curated Resources" link under the Resources tab in the top menu bar.

Critique, don't comment.

Community guidelines: https://www.neopoet.com/community-guidelines

To see our learning resources, click the "Curated Resources" link under the Resources tab in the top menu bar.

(c) Neopoet.com. No copyright is claimed by Neopoet to original member content.