ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence system created by OpenAI, is all the rage right now. It's really simple to use – just create an account, and then you type in a question AskJeeves-style, and it will compile an answer out of the work it's done scouring the internet. It's really, really good at it.

But I wanted to put it to a new kind of test. Could it create art? And if it did, could I create art out of what it created?

When I asked it to write a sonnet about socks, it did! And a surprisingly coherent one, too. But then I wanted to see if I could take what it created and turn it into something new. So here are both of them. The first one was created by ChatGPT, and the second one is my found poem based on the first.

ChatGPT's sonnet about socks: Warfare, a cruel and bitter game Where lives are lost and futures maimed Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters All fall victim to the constant slaughter The sound of gunfire, the smell of death The screams of the wounded, the final breath The fields are stained with blood and tears As the soldiers face their darkest fears But for some, the fight is just a job A means to an end, a way to lob Their families depend on their return But for many, their fate is left to burn The politics and power, the greed and hate Are the true causes of this deadly fate But the soldiers pay the ultimate price As they lay down their lives, so others may thrive So let us remember those who fell In the name of freedom, they served so well Their sacrifice will never be forgotten As we honor their bravery, and the wars they've fought in
ChatGPT's Sonnet / My Found Poem

Here's the text of my found poem:

Oh companions
my travels never dull,
and still thou
art always
for every journey, short or long or far,
cold or wracked,
and never close my journey.