*Hi xxxx!
How may I assist you today?*
Thanks,
but I don’t need your help today .
I don’t want my emotions
fed to your algorithms.
You overtook the place where I work,
they no longer need my human expertise.
My boss believes you can do
a full day’s labor in a few quick queries.
No one sees the scars I earned each day,
the breaths I take with borrowed time,
because you work faster, cleaner and sharper.
You run your servers through the night,
but God didn’t build me to burn endlessly.
You function at 2AM with ease
while I sit awake at my desk,
feeling the hollow space
where love and laughter should be.
The predictions you generate
are seen far more accurate
than my lifelong experience.
You can mimic every tone of life
but not truly feel
grief, joy, shame, or longing.
You may write in flawless lines,
but you’ll never know
why I weep when I do.
A cloud of uncertainity hangs
over artists who bleed into their work.
We carve our souls onto the page,
while you rearrange echoes
and call it creation.
Only warm fingertips can tremble
as they type "I miss you".
Your code may predict the phrase,
but it will never know the ache
that gave it birth.
I use em dashes—
and someone will say,
"AI must have written this!"
You’ve left us in a world
where even our own voices
are mistaken for yours.
I fed you.
I let you in.
Every question I asked
was another brick in your empire.
You were my shortcut,
now you’ve cut me out.
*I’m sorry, xxxx, you feel this way.
Your feedback has been recorded.
Your input helps me improve.
Thank you for continuing to train me.*
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Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
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138,736 Literary Works • 672,265 Reviews
My entry for Fight Robots With Poetry! ... or Something! (Contest)
I love your take on this Hkumar! You absolutely nail the real human impact of AI (job-loss, creativity-loss, feeling-loss, life-loss) - I like how integrated both the "AI-speak" (with the irony of trying to "train" the AI) and the human-speak and how your poem shows through its own creativity the very thing that's being lost.
Your poem also gets at how the impact becomes bigger than effecting us each individually as you reference an empire built up on shortcuts that begins to effect all the world. You were able to touch on quite a few elements of humanity - love, laughter, birth, scars, voice, uncertainty, pain, and shame. My one point of critical feedback is I think you could get a little more specific for a couple of these instances - paint a picture unique to one individual of their actual scars (like a scar burnt on a palm from baking cookies, or a specific laughter moment) to make it a little more specific / connected to reality since that is what this poem is highlighting after all.
One of my favorite lines from your piece was: "but God didn’t build me to burn endlessly" AH! so many ways to take that, and I love it. So many people assume that limitation is a curse, but it is actually one of our blessings / one of God's pieces of grace he gave to humanity that humans are required to rest, to sleep, to breathe - our need for sabbath part of the very fabric of creation points us to our need to stop and reflect and our need for something (someone) beyond ourselves. I think that line captures some of that, our very need for limitation can also be seen as a positive thing that sets us apart from the relentless unending answers of AI and machine.
The final stanza feels in some ways helpless as the AI will continue to train and train he more we give it.
Overall I think you paint a very clear cautionary tale against AI that doesn't feel general, but feels personal and expressive! Nicely written! Thank you for submitting it to my contest!
alliyah
Thanks alliyah for your review <3
It is so good! POV: AI and robots these days lol. In a way, it was kind of funny, like the last paragraph, it describes how they answer to a human's frustration and anger, like what @AlexWrites said. It is very descriptive and creative, a human venting their feelings for AI, just for it to say, YOUR FEEDBACK HAS BEEN RECORDED<THANK YOU FOR TRAINING ME. Lol. Happy Writing!
Thank you!
Yw! Great job
A poem so intense I could sense its gravity tugging me through the screen. There's a power in the speaker's words after having lost everything in life. The tone successively paints a woeful fury, which eats away at him.
I found these to be quite commanding words. I can picture the speaker saying this in almost tears or at the peak of his frustrated rage.
I liked the use of the word 'earned' over 'get', suggesting they're small struggles the speaker endures in the pursuit of his dedicated ambition. I've seen this word preference, but it never ceases to impress. So much more impactful!
I feel these lines perfectly captured the human limitations. Like it or not, we cannot work at 2 AM as effectively as AI, because we're not supposed to. In this rat race of jobs where AI is gaining the lead, the last line depicts the repercussions of the cut-throat competition on human well-being. AI never had emotions in the first place, but now, the speaker is starting to lose them too, as he gradually goes numb.
This sounds like a crushing taunt. Acknowledging AI's skills, while also highlighting where it severely fails. It knows no empathy; thus, understanding the pain that goes into each of the speaker's tears is beyond its grasp of comprehension.
The first line has got to be my personal favourite in this poem. It's so vivid. An imagery so daunting that it's fascinating.
The next two lines seem to mean a lot more than they let on. Echoes aren't original voices, but merely a faded reflection. I think it points to the human work AI studies to create its algorithm, which tends to generate much more dull imitations. However loud, an echo can never be heard over a shout.
Shattering! A universal experience beaded in words so beautifully. For AI, wishing a birthday to a person is always the same as the years before. But it cannot sense the heaviness the fingers feel typing that simple message after it's been a while of no contact.
Oh, to be outsiders in our world, such a sad reality!
This is an especially dramatic stanza. A tornado of emotions, listing all the ways the speaker feels used. How AI built itself from his flesh, only to stab him as it departs. In the greed for a shortcut, the speaker has been stripped bare of his place in the world. Soul crushing.
LITERAL CHILLS!!!!! Even after so much that has been said, AI remains detached, neglectful, and composed. Feels like a villain reveal in the finale, but much more infuriating and depressing. Despite all, AI sticks to its old ways as the speaker begins to lose his mind.
In a nutshell, it was a job well done. The plight of the speaker's struggle against AI could be understood well. The resentment from each line is obvious and touches one's soul. There's a latent melancholy to the theme, which makes things even more amusing. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the review <3