Why Computers can’t do narrative

This week our guest is Professor of Story Science at Ohio State University’s Project Narrative, Angus Fletcher, who pulls on his background of literature and neuroscience to understand how brains and machines process story and narrative.

Angus has recently made some extremely bold claims, including putting forth a proof that “even a sentient, self-aware, and infinitely powerful computer could never innovate” because it can’t engage in narrative thought. In essence, computer AI cannot replicate human creativity, and all of our expectations around self-driving cars and ChatGPT come down to a human-guided prank that pretends to do something it’s not really doing. In this episode, I obviously push back on this idea that narrative limits computer AI, but Angus makes some strong counter-arguments.

Find out more about Angus and his work at angusfletcher.co 

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Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter

Music by: Amine el Filali