Man Versus Machine: Experiments in Human and AI Artistry

by Nicholas Morine, Tony Cooper, Shawn Butler

If you read a story written by a machine, would you know the author was artificial?Could you tell the difference between a poem penned by a person versus one crafted by a computer?Prove it.Man Versus Machine is among the first experiments offering an answer to these questions for those curious.Join an array of artists, amateur and professional, who desire to test their skills against the emerging powers of artificial intelligence. AI models like ChatGPT and Google Bard are entering the collective consciousness, spawning countless media articles and conversations. How do they stack up against their human counterparts when it comes to expressions of the written word?Excited to try a recipe whipped up by an AI, even though it doesn't have a sense of taste? You can, and even compare it to a treasured family recipe passed down through the generations.Poetry, short fiction, song lyrics, brief debates, an examination of AI-generated news articles and more can be found within this volume for those who dare. Regarding each work, the author's name has been removed and placed in an answer key at the rear of the book to make things more interesting.Press on, don your detective cap, and enjoy this spirited contest between flesh and circuitry.

302 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 19, 2023

About the author

I am a professional novelist and writer, born in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. I currently reside in St. John's, Newfoundland.

My inspirations in the trade are: Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, and others.

I write action-packed genre fiction with a keen literary edge. Cyberpunk, science fiction, fantasy, horror, post-apocalyptic western. You name it, I write it.

HIGH CONCEPT / LOW ART is my credo.

Readers looking for aggressive, no-hold-barred fiction will find none better.

Reviews

[Andrew McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morine has done the unthinkable, that we all think about; pitting the resources of humans against those of artificial intelligence - and I’ll be damned if there isn’t something to to be said about the quality of work that comes out of a computer that’s demanded to do it’s job.
Throughout the novel you’ll find a wonderfully rich selection of local works comprised by human authors compared side by side with reprisals from a computerized version, with an answer key to match!
Going through MVM, I was at times put in mind of “the choose your story” novels that were popular in the 90s, and was thoroughly entertained!
Morine has once again proven that though we are only human, we are still the most intelligent, and most capable species on the planet - yet a couple of those drink recipes seem pretty enticing, and who’s to say Mike Tyson isn’t still popular?
A solid volume of quality literature, with a fun twist of deciphering the “author” behind each piece of work. Your next meal could be designed by a robot, metaphorically speaking - who’s to say what the future holds?