Literary AI
Literary AI
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The Literary History of Artificial Intelligence is a collaboration
between the Columbia English Department, the Columbia University Rare
Books & Manuscript Library, and Columbia University’s Digital
Scholarship department.

This exhibition explores the long, shared history of literature and
computation through the Columbia Library’s holdings. We present texts
that participate in early debates about whether writing was a skill to
be honed or a gift to be appreciated and whether the skills of writing
could be learned and even made into repeatable algorithms. Is writing
like any other craft that can be learned and taught? Following a
timeline from circa 1890–1970, this exhibition explores
professional manuals, devices, and techniques that promised to make
writing easier—and even to automate it. The Literary History of AI
showcases examples of algorithmic composition, such as prose and poetry
written by machines, alongside literature written with the aid of
algorithmic and combinatorial devices. This exhibition broadly tracks
two broad stories related to the literary history of AI: production and
analysis. Learn More…

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