Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Breaking News: Robot Author Creates a New Grimm Fairy Tale So That Children Remain Calm

20/4/2018

 
Picture
Illustration by Jan Adkins
Last week I received an email from an organization ironically named Calm: Take A Deep Breath  announcing the publication of the “the first new Brothers Grimm fairy tale in 200 years “—a bedtime story created by an artificial intelligence robot (named Botnik) and  asking me to“….report on this ….maybe as part of a larger trend of the rise of literary robots..” They believe that an AI fable in the voice of the Brothers Grimm, is ideal for bedtime, calming down children with brain Pablum before they fall asleep.   So, I forwarded the email to the iNK Think Tank’s membership of about three dozen award-winning children’s nonfiction authors.  I was NOT calm as I hit the “send” button, but I allowed the email speak for itself.  By the way, this was the same day that the NY Times had a story on vending machines for short stories. 

Jan Adkins, the most human of us all, wrote the following response.  It was not created at the speed of light but arrived approximately an hour after I sent the message.  It allows you to see how neurons connect in an active, creative, human brain:

“The thing that distinguishes us from machines and "artificial intelligence" is our tattered covers, the inimitable flaws life has stamped and tramped and scraped on us. Our long course of dings makes an illogical texture of faults that changes the way we perceive the world and informs the way we report the world. Unless we've lived in a test tube we're all bent and creased, spindled and perforated by a random world that has no mechanism for kindness or preservation of spirit. The randomness of life leaves us all illogically astigmatic. We're all neurotic in multiple directions, and the way we process life and recount it in the form of art (which we hold as the reflection of life) is flawed, warped, skewed in our particular fashion. Moreover, the particular voice with which we recite our version of life is even more personal – we hold forth as interlopers, victims, slyboots, grifters, or flies on the wall. What we produce as art, then, has little to do with logic, even when we're reporting facts, because our tales are sung in our own neurotic, skewed voices, and because most of us (being experienced casualties of life) have a sense of humor about the entire hoopdoodle. 

"What apps and AI constructs and computer-generated tales can't offer is joy and love and laughter, because these things are not logical. We're not logical. Lucky us. We're battered by life into odd shapes that respond to data with unpredictable insights and perspectives. It's possible that a story-generation app could process a predefinition of "love" but not possible that the emotion, itself, will have any credence. We're powerful in our mistakes and flaws, and in our sense of illogical intangibles like pride and affection. 

"This is not to say that Botnik & company isn't dangerous. If you've dealt with editors and publishers long enough, you'll acknowledge that they're eager to replace troublesome "artistes" with reliably logic content providers. Quarterly profits don't accommodate "quality" as a valid navigational tool. "Quantity" and "what the market will bear" are more profitable concepts. We're silly when we tout the quality of our product, because the bean counters that control our publishing masters are unconcerned about artistic innovation or depth of feeling. Look at a Disney Princess book. We may speak with the tongues of angels but if we can't add to the bottom line and promise sales bonanzas, we might as well catch the next ice floe out of town. “


Think Botnik can whip out stuff like Adkins?  Is the handwriting (a very human activity)  on the wall?  Literature, defined as the single passionate voice, may be replaced by vending machines spitting out one-, two-, or five-minute stories unread by human eyes before reaching the market so that you can "calm yourself with our stories or perhaps our white noise recording"   Of course, iNK's mission, as authors of nonfiction, is to wake students up.   Hmmmmm.... Can this story be an alarm clock?
Roxie Munro link
20/4/2018 02:20:09 pm

Wow! How eloquent, Cobb and Adkins. And how true ...That great piece on writing couldn't have been written by a bot. ;-))

Vicki Cobb
20/4/2018 04:08:22 pm

Thanks for your compassionate understanding. But then, you're one of us.

Myra Zarnowski
21/4/2018 10:06:35 am

Young readers learn best when the author has a distinct, visible voice. That is especially true when the author talks directly to the reader, using words like "you" and "I". A robot is not a thinking, emotional person or someone a reader can connect with. We need nonfiction books written with passion and voice.

Sneed Collard link
21/4/2018 11:35:18 am

As an author, I often wonder if we'll all be replaced by story-telling computers. I have NO doubt that someone will try, but am skeptical it will every happen. That doesn't mean I'm unconcerned about literacy among both kids and adults. Too few parents take the time to sit down and read with their kids. Part of it is that kids are "overstructured" with their time, but a lot of it is that parents are too caught up in their own wheels and don't realize what a rich, rewarding experience it is to share a physical--yes, printed--book with someone you love.

Aline Newman link
21/4/2018 11:53:22 am

To me, robot-generated fables and stories are akin to robot answering services used by companies to take orders, make reservations, etc. Efficient but unsatisfactory. Even though the robots actually may make things faster, and I do recognize that, dealing with them makes me restless and impatient to be off the line. Human beings need human interaction, period--in both their personal lives and their reading lives.

Cynthia Levinson
22/4/2018 06:54:47 pm

Good post. The possibility of a bot taking over from me gives me chills!

Vicki Cobb
23/4/2018 02:09:23 pm

Last night 60 Minutes had a segment on the MIT media lab where those with the most outside-the-box ideas are admitted. It was founded by Nicholas Negroponte, whom I heard speak 30 years ago. He told us of a future where our behavior on a computer would be tracked and news articles and advertising would be targeted to individual interests.

Last nights story focused on controlling the future by inventing it. That's so we know what's coming. The question for stories by robots is: Just because we can do it, does that mean we should do it?

Karen
24/4/2018 06:02:01 am

This whole idea leaves me with a 451, out-of-body experience. Burn the bots, not the books!


Comments are closed.

     Vicki Cobb

    *Award-winning author of more than 90 nonfiction books for children, mostly in science.
    *Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
    *Founder/President of iNK Think Tank, Inc.
    *Passionate advocate for the joy of learning for every child and teacher.


    Disclaimer: All opinions, typos, and grammatical errors are my own,  especially small word omissions which I often don't notice in my fervor.  

    RSS Feed

    ​​​​Archives

    March 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    ​Categories

    All
    Abuse
    Achievement Gap
    Adkins Jan
    Albee Sarah
    Anti Bullying
    Anti-bullying
    Art
    Author Driven Nonfiction
    Author-driven Nonfiction
    Authors On Call
    Biology
    Birds
    Black History
    BLC2018
    Book Review
    Child Abuse
    Children As Political Pawns
    Children's Nonfiction
    Citizenship
    Civics
    Civil Rights
    Class ACTS
    Climate Change
    Clinton Chelsea
    Collard III Sneed B.
    Common Core State Standards
    Conversation
    Coronavirus
    Costaldo Nancy F.
    Covid-19
    Critical Thinking
    Data-driven
    Definition
    Democracy
    Dewey John
    Dogs
    Dunphy Madeleine
    Ecology
    Education
    Educational Standards
    Electron Microscope
    Empowerment For Children
    Endangered Species
    Excellence
    Extinction
    Fact-checking
    Fleming Candace
    "flow"
    Galileo
    Girls' Education
    Global Warming
    Greenberg Jan
    Grit
    Gun Violence
    History
    History Of "school Reform"
    Home Libraries
    Hurricanes
    INK Database
    INK Database Of Books
    Insects
    Interactive Video Conferencing
    Isaac Sally
    Jeopardy Winner
    Learning
    Lesser Carolyn
    Leveled Reading
    Levinson Cynthia
    Lexiles
    Listening
    Literacy
    Literature
    Liu Eric
    March For Our Lives
    McClafferty Carla
    Mentor Texts
    Montgomery Heather L.
    Montgomery Sy
    Motivated Reasoning
    Motivation
    Munro Roxie
    Nathan Amy
    Nonfiction
    Nonfiction Minute
    Nonprofit And Education
    Opening Schools
    Patent Dorothy Hinshaw
    Pedagogy
    Picture Books
    Podcasts
    Primary Source
    Pringle Laurence
    Pundits Of The Pandemic
    Rap Music
    Reading
    Rules
    Rusch Elizabeth
    School Choice
    SchoolTube
    School Visits
    Science Experiments You Can Eat
    Science Teaching
    Semple Heidi E.Y.
    Social Skills
    Socrates
    Speaking
    Spring Fling
    Standardized Testing
    STEM
    Studies On Education
    Swanson Jennifer
    Teaching
    Technology And Children
    Thomas Peggy
    Trump
    Truth
    Voting
    Warren Andrea
    Washington George
    Weatherford Carole Boston
    Webinars
    Work With Us
    World War II
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Links

The Nonfiction Minute
​

​iNK Think Tank website

​Vicki Cobb's Kids' Fun Page

We Dare You Videos


Company

iNK Think Tank, Inc. is a nonprofit with the mission of using nonfiction children's literature in classrooms

Contact

vicki@inkthinktank.org
​

© 2019


© COPYRIGHT 2019. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.