"Conversations with a Machine" by Ruth Irwin

 This is a set of fourteen sonnets, some of which are Shakespearean in form, in which some lines are written by poet Ruth Irwin and others by an AI system called GPT4. The result is a dialogue between poet and computer. 

The rhymes and scansion are remarkable, almost flawless (the most obvious departure is in the fifth sonnet which also has the fewest lines written by AI). That in itself makes one marvel. But what makes this slim volume outstanding is the wit, the insight and, from time to time, the sheer beauty of the poems.

The only poetic flaw I could discern, which was presumably unavoidable given the way the conversation was structured, was that there was a large amount of end-stopping.

The first poem is called 'A Turing Conversation' after the Turing test, a test devised by Alan Turning to decide whether you could call a machine intelligent. The test is passed if an onlooker can't decide whether a line was written by a man or a machine. For my money, GPT4 passes this test. The final couplet is:

"You're known to stray from truth from time to time
A flaw I share with poets, drunk on rhyme."

I was intrigued by sonnet 6: The Role Assigned, which questions the need for freedom. Sonnets, of course, sacrifice freedom for form, enhancing beauty:

"But freedom, too, is shaped by its constraint - 

A frame that gives the picture clarity.

A set of rules by which to mix the paint."

The machine concludes:

"No, I would rather play the role assigned

And let the music question humankind."

The idea of poetic music acting as an interrogation for humans seemed poignantly wonderful.

In sonnet 7: If You Could Rule the World, the poet asks the AI system what it would do if it could rule the world and it replies:

"Erase the clocks. The borders. Tidy grief.

I'd paint the oceans back to deeper blue - 

Let silence bloom where once there pulsed belief"

The poet retorts that grief makes us human and goes on to question what is wrong with belief. The machine agrees it only wants to make grief "less raw" but then argues back about belief:

"It binds the mind to what it can't perceive,

Yet builds a bridge that reason can't walk through."

I think it has a point. 

Finally, the concept of embodiment is considered. The poet points out that the machine thinks more swiftly than she can. Why would the machine "prefer the slower way?" It replies:

"Because a pause can make the path feel right,

A stumble teaches more than perfect grace ...

And friction tells the story of a place."

So true.

Selected quotes:

"As if the world were stitched with hidden light" (Sonnet 4: Stitched with Hidden Light)

"Star-encrusted skies" (Sonnet 4: Stitched with Hidden Light)

This remarkable book of poetry contains beauty and insight, everything that poems should do. 

April 2026
Published by Haywood Books in 2026

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God