# Can a computer write poetry?

- Institution: TED
- Department: TEDxYouth@Sydney
- Speaker: Oscar Schwartz
- Year: 2015
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Computer science, Literature and writing, Languages and linguistics
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/oscar_schwartz_can_a_computer_write_poetry)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

If you read a poem and feel moved by it, but then find out it was actually written by a computer, would you feel differently about the experience? Would you think that the computer had expressed itself and been creative, or would you feel like you had fallen for a cheap trick? In this talk, writer Oscar Schwartz examines why we react so strongly to the idea of a computer writing poetry -- and how this reaction helps us understand what it means to be human.

## Lectures

1. [Can a computer write poetry?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/oscar_schwartz_can_a_computer_write_poetry/ff367f3e6edc), 11 min (TED's player)