Is Style “Only Human” Today? Style in AI Poems about a Cloud and Death

Abstract

This paper explores the style of Artificial Intelligence (AI) songs about a cloud and death generated by the Microsoft Copilot in collaboration with the author of the article, with the fundamental purpose of examining the stylistic reaches in AI songs sui generis and compared to human samples, in order to determine the meaning and potential of collaboration with AI in writing poetry. The Introduction presents the context of research into the topic of AI poetry, which points to the limitations and development of the field. In two chapters, a stylistic analysis was conducted according to the postulates of traditional stylistics, literary stylistics, and stylistics of discourse of four generated poems about a cloud and four about death. Patterns are the poems “Cloud” by D. Cesarić and “Death” by A. B. Šimić. The analysis of the generated poems examined primarily quotes, paraphrases, and other stylistic figures, in order to determine the characteristics of poetic discourse and the profile of intertextuality between the generated poem and the pattern. The result of the analysis shows the shortcomings of the generated poems at the level of figures of diction, rhythm, and euphony, but also inventive possibilities in changes to the style register towards brighter alternatives. The discourse of generated songs characterizes a fondness for idealistic, metaphysical, and artistic concepts of thought and a penchant for action. At the semantic level, a lack of pain and a significant lack of treatment with the topic of death were observed. Despite the shortcomings, this work shows that future collaboration with the AI generator can be fruitful for human poets and interpreters in terms of focusing on alternative creative solutions.