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Kurzweil Gets A Patent For Poetic Software

Posted by timothy on from the rhymin'-and-stealin' dept.

theodp writes "Ray Kurzweil, inventor of the Kurzweil Reading Machine for the blind, has developed what he calls a cybernetic poet, software that allows a computer to create poetry by imitating but not plagiarizing the styles and vocabularies of human poets. A sample: 'Sashay down the page...through the lioness...nestled in my soul.' Impressed? The USPTO, who sponsored the Independent Inventors Conference Mr. Kurzweil spoke at on Nov. 17, seems to be. On Nov. 11, Ray Kurzweil received U.S. Patent No. 6,647,395 for Poet Personalities."

5 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe by IANAL(BIAILS) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe that's why those darned Vogons are so intent on building that hyperspace bypass here...

  2. Re:There isn't enough classic poetry out there? by bersl2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    /usr/games/fortune -o limerick

  3. Now that the program has been patented... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...I keep getting the same poem.

    A patent has been granted
    Giving backing to my lines,
    So if you write some similar code
    You'll face some hefty fines.

  4. thats wonderful by Grydon · · Score: 5, Funny

    And the best part is it only takes 556 gigs of reference material to do something along the lines of "the cat is fat".

  5. We don't need a machine to do this... by lhpineapple · · Score: 5, Funny

    We should just take already existing poems, have them translated into Japanese, and then have the Japanese translate it back into English. Put it all together and voila!:

    All your base are belong to us.