Mark Seligman, a linguist and the author of AI and Ada, discusses the fascinating intersection of AI and literature. He delves into how machine translation can capture the intricate aesthetics of writing, drawing inspiration from Vladimir Nabokov's genius. Seligman explores the complexities of AI's understanding of language and creativity, questioning whether machines can ever achieve genuine emotional depth. He also reflects on the cultural implications of AI advancements in literature and how they may redefine artistry and human expression.
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AI As A Sibling Cataclysm
Mark Seligman frames AI as one of several sibling cataclysms reshaping humanity, comparable to nuclear, genetic, space, and communications revolutions.
He argues lived experience of past revolutions gives balanced recognition of AI's real power without panic.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Childhood Memories Anchor Perspective
Seligman recalls watching early space-era media and Kennedy-era events to show how dramatic change felt in his youth.
He uses these memories to explain why older generations both marvel at and normalize technological revolutions.
insights INSIGHT
Why Nabokov Tests AI Limits
Nabokov's hyper-conscious bilingual authorship offers a demanding test case for machine translation and artificial creativity.
Seligman chose Nabokov because his self-aware, pattern-rich style highlights limits and possibilities of AI literary work.
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Taking recent spectacular progress in AI fully into account, Mark Seligman's AI and Ada: Artificial Translation and Creation of Literature(Anthem Press, 2025) explores prospects for artificial literary translation and composition, with frequent reference to the hyperconscious literary art of Vladimir Nabokov. The exploration balances reader-friendly explanation (“What are transformers?”) and original insights (“What is intelligence? What is language?”) with personal and playful notes, and culminates in an assortment of striking demos
The book’s Preface places the current AI explosion in the context of other technological cataclysms and recounts the author’s personal (and not always deadly serious) AI journey. Chapter One (“Extracting the Essence”) assesses the potential of machine translationof literature, exploiting Nabokov’s hyperconscious literary art as a reference point. Chapter Two (“Toward an Artificial Nabokov”) goes on to speculate on possibilities for actual artificial creation of literature. Chapter Three (“Large Literary Models? Intelligence and Language in the LLM Era”) explains recent spectacular progress in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), as exemplified by Large Language Models like ChatGPT. On the way, the chapter ventures to tackle perennial questions (“What is intelligence?” “What is language?”) and culminates in an assortment of striking demos. In this episode, Ibrahim Fawzy sat with Mark Seligman to talk about how the current AI revolution fits into the long arc of cultural and technological shifts, Seligman's framing of the “Great Transition” between Humanity 1.0 and 2.0, Nabokov’s style as a lens for thinking about artificial creativity, the possibilities and limits of machine translation and literary artistry, and the philosophical stakes of whether AI-generated works can ever truly be considered art. Ibrahim Fawzy is an Egyptian literary translator and writer based in Boston. His interests include translation studies, Arabic literature, ecocriticism, disability studies, and migration literature.
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