Tell this AI your story’s themes, and it’ll write the first paragraph for you
If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy . Writing, I can tell you as a professional, is the most important yet difficult thing anyone has ever done in the world. I am therefore extremely grateful for Narrative Device , a browser-based AI doodad which generates the opening paragraph of a story based on two themes or things you feed into it. Finally, some help for the writers of the world! It’s potentially interesting and useful, or at the very least it is fun to make a computer say silly things.
Narrative Device offers to provide “inspiration for a story from an AI”, eating the themes you suggest to write the opening paragraph. Its creator, Rodolfo Ocampo, explains, “I am doing this to explore creative augmentation using AI, and human-AI creative collaboration” (the topic of his PhD research ). It uses the much-vaunted OpenAI GPT3 API, which is trained in natural language from terabytes of text from websites, books, and Wikipedia pages. You know, the AI behind the latest version of AI Dungeon. That one. But here it’s used to help the poor, struggling writers of the world, who I think we can all accept are the real heroes.
It could help you muscle through that difficult opening scene of your new FPS: Input themes: a space marine and demons
The space marine looked around the dimly-lit room, his eyes scanning the grotesque creatures that littered the floor. They were demons, and he had been sent to deal with them. He had been trained for this, and he was ready. Or it could give you ideas for the next Great PlayStation Exclusive: Input themes: a sad dad and revenge
The sad dad was sitting in his room, thinking about how revenge would be the best way to make his daughter happy. I think it’s been playing Yoko Taro games too: Input themes: a sad robot and the future
The robot was sad. It had been abandoned by its creators, left to wander the world alone. The future looked bleak for the robot, and it felt like it had no purpose. You might also appreciate its help in starting your latest fanfic: Input themes: Master Chief and romance
Master Chief had been through a lot in his time as a soldier and even more in his time as the leader of the Spartan-IIs. But nothing had prepared him for what he was about to go through. I like this sort of daft AI toy. I know it’s just throwing words and ideas together but: 1) even random AI spew can help, an external thought prompting your brain to react and spark off, potentially leading your thoughts somewhere they might not otherwise have gone (I am reminded of Edwin Evans-Thirlwell’s recent chat with game developers using tarot ); 2) it’s funny when a computer says silly things.
Our Graham discovered that the AI also has striking insight into […]
