You’ve likely heard the horror stories about artificially intelligent beings – but now, you can read the tales penned by one.
A team of MIT researchers has unveiled an AI horror writer, Shelley, named for the famed Frankenstein author.
After training on scary stories collected from Reddit, Shelley can now generate her own nightmare-inducing creations, and even collaborate with humans in effort to write the world’s first AI-human horror anthology.
You’ve likely heard the horror stories about artificially intelligent beings – but now, you can read the tales penned by one. A team of MIT researchers has unveiled an AI horror writer, Shelley, named for the famed Frankenstein author. Stock image
The AI-horror writer is the creation of researchers at MIT’s Media Lab, who previously unveiled the ‘Nightmare Machine’ – an AI that can generate gruesome horror imagery.
To train Shelley, the researchers fed the AI stories from the horror subreddit, r/nosleep.
Then, working on just the ‘seed’ of an idea, the AI can spin her own tales and work with humans to further develop the story.
‘Now as an adult, and not unlike Mary Shelley – her Victorian idol – she takes a bit of inspiration in the form of a random seed, or a short snippet of text, and starts creating stories emanating from her creepy creative mind,’ the creators explain.
‘But what Shelley truly enjoys is to work collaboratively with humans, learning from their nightmarish ideas, creating the best scary tales ever.’
The team revealed the AI this week, and as of Monday, Shelley has been tweeting a new story every hour.
Anyone can then join in on the writing process by replying to her tweet with the next bit of the story, and concluding with #yourturn.
The AI-human collaboration has already produced a slew of short stories, many of which ring the familiar bells of a classic horror tale.
The team revealed the AI this week, and as of Monday, Shelley has been tweeting a new story every hour
The AI-horror writer is the creation of researchers at MIT’s Media Lab, who previously unveiled the ‘Nightmare Machine’ – an AI that can generate gruesome horror imagery
To train Shelley, the researchers fed the AI stories from the horror subreddit, r/nosleep. Now, it can create its own
‘What could I do? I was a monster,’ one story begins. ‘I was seeing things. I was the victim. The lives of my thirst.
‘But I was never actually dead. I was still in my own body.’
The AI draws inspiration from the long history of horror, touching on numerous common themes, from monsters and ghosts to violence and the unsettling feeling of being watched.
‘I stood there staring down the hill, and I saw the man in the black cloak standing there, holding a knife,’ Shelley wrote in one thread.
‘He stood in silence, his head motionless but was staring at me. “I’m sorry. I found you. I want you to enjoy this curse. I love you, I’m so sorry.”‘
Anyone can then join in on the writing process by replying to her tweet with the next bit of the story, and concluding with #yourturn’
The AI can collaborate with humans, in an effort to write the world’s first AI-human horror anthology
The AI-human collaboration has already produced a slew of short stories, many of which ring the familiar bells of a classic horror tale
In another spine-tingling thread, Shelley wrote: ‘I remember his face in a look of horror, and it was agony and malice.
‘I was trapped. I was trapped in this hospital bed. ’
The AI, however, is not perfect just yet.
In the midst of Shelley’s hair-raising stories, there are also several bizarre snippets that don’t seem to make any sense.
In one comical example shared by the team, the AI wrote, ‘”You…your wife is your father,” the voice said perfectly.’