Whither AI and Poetry?
In April 2022, inspired by poet Carmine Starnino, Poetry Notes first dipped into the discussion about AI and poetry. His article in The New Criterion suggested that literary artists could be contemplating their own obsolescence. After all, the examples quoted of stunning AI-generated images sparkled and flashed and made their own bizarre kind of sense. Within the month, Poetry Notes subscriber David Brayley, a technologist by occupation, rose to the defence of the art:
It may be possible for a poem-shaped blob of words to emerge from an algorithm, but that algorithm cannot have the experience of writing a poem, and will not feel the thrill a poet feels when words condense spontaneously from the vapour of language itself.
—not to mention a reader’s thrill on encountering inspired work.
Recently, a resource industry analyst told me about an unsettling demonstration of AI’s lightning speed not only in gathering and combining masses of raw data but instantly reshuffling and updating them in various simultaneous presentation styles to suit an emerging range of scenarios. Would that speed and power make even his job obsolete? The day after, about this precise concern the Toronto Star ran an Opinion Piece by Neil Seeman, Massey College Senior Fellow and Professor in the University of Toronto Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation. He argued an important distinction:
AI accelerates pattern recognition and eliminates routine tasks, yet it dulls the intuitive, ethical reasoning needed for breakthrough innovation. Entrepreneurs who comprehend this paradox will lead the next decade…The future belongs to human-AI collaboration, not replacement illusions.1
So where does poetry sit in this collaboration?
Seeman continues: “Distinguish tasks suited for AI’s superior pattern detection from those requiring human discernment, empathy and moral courage. Automate the routine. Amplify the unique.”
The words he chose delighted me: amplify, unique, human discernment, empathy, moral courage—surely, what makes poems poetry.
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- Neil Seeman, “McLuhan’s prescient words echo years later”, The Toronto Star, page B1, October 18, 2025.