<
https://restofworld.org/2023/ai-developers-fiction-poetry-scale-ai-appen/>
"Silicon Valley’s biggest generative artificial intelligence developers are
looking for a new kind of data worker: poets.
A string of job postings from high-profile training data companies, such as
Scale AI and Appen, are recruiting poets, novelists, playwrights, or writers
with a PhD or master’s degree. Dozens more seek general annotators with
humanities degrees, or years of work experience in literary fields. The
listings aren’t limited to English: Some are looking specifically for poets and
fiction writers in Hindi and Japanese, as well as writers in languages less
represented on the internet.
The companies say contractors will write short stories on a given topic to feed
them into AI models. They will also use these workers to provide feedback on
the literary quality of their current AI-generated text.
The listings illustrate the often-obscured connection between generative AI’s
impressive capabilities and the invisible annotation work that powers them.
When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, observers were particularly impressed
by its ability to write poems in English. Now, annotation firms are collecting
creative writing data samples that could extend those powers into other
languages. It is a sign that AI developers have flagged fluency in poetic forms
as a priority, while refining their generative writing products.
The investment could have dividends for AI firms, according to Dan Brown, a
professor at the University of Waterloo who researches computational
creativity. “If you can properly generate tabloid headlines in French, that’s
one thing. But if [a product] can replicate [Victor] Hugo’s style or somebody
famous, that gets a different kind of credibility,” he told
Rest of World.
“Replicating classical language forms is a way of looking prestigious.”"
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
