The time when novelists wrote their great works on a computer may soon be disappearing: now the computer can do the job unaided. Silicon storytelling has arrived at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State with Brutus.1, claimed to be the world’s most advanced story generator. Alas, as its name suggests, the program can only handle one theme – deception and betrayal. Thus the 400 word stories tend to be a depressing read. Indeed, one is bound to wonder why professor Selmer Bringsfjord at the college did not program his machine to write stories about the triumph of good over evil or how love will conquer all. The verdict has to be that, in programming Brutus, professor Bringsfjord simply gave silicon storytelling a stab in the back.
