The latest Stuff To Blow Your Mind podcast surveys the history and current state of attempts at making viable Creative Writing Machines…

educational technologist Mike Sharples discusses the book Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers.

Don’t be put off by the faintly huckster-ish “educational technologist” label. He was at the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University here in the UK, is “Academic Lead for online-learning service FutureLearn” (it’s a big one) and is “author of over 300 papers”.

MP3 download here. Interview starts at 2:20. Two long ad-sections.

As for the book it appears, from a long review, to be pitched mostly at the ‘history and theory of the field’ level. Rather than the level of practical $50 desktop software available now. Though that’s only the first third of the podcast, as the second and third sections are more practical. For instance, an accompanying website for the book is mentioned, titled Story Machines. This has a free public AI demo which is rather fab. I experimentally used it to expand an H.P. Lovecraft dream into a story form:

“Dream of the Black Cat City” (AI assisted demo)