They are some of the most well-known and loved poems in the world whose insightful sentiments have withstood the test of time over hundreds of years.<\/p>\n
But now a student at the University of Glasgow has used a Robot Burns artificial intelligence (AI) poem generator programme to create almost instant works by Robert Burns, in honour of a fellow student, Chris, who took his own life on Burns Day, on 25 January 2016.<\/p>\n
Perry Gibson, who is studying for a PhD in computing science, is donating all proceeds of his limited edition Robot Burns pamphlet to The Samaritans, the suicide prevention charity.<\/p>\n
The Robot Burns pamphlet includes 20 works across a variety of subjects and is accompanied by illustrations by Alasdair Currie, co-founder of independent Scottish publisher Hooltet Publishing.<\/p>\n
Mr Gibson gathered a data set of 2,000 poems by Burns, used an algorithm and created a specific coding programme which were then analysed by the GPT-2 programme operated by OpenAI whose funders include technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.When the first Burns poem came out, I blinked. I hadnt thought of what the consequences would be. <\/p>\n
When I started, I just wanted to learn more about the technology, I hadnt really thought too much about what the text was going to be. <\/p>\n
Before doing this my knowledge of Burns wasnt more than the ordinary Scottish guy whod learned a couple of his poems in high school.<\/p>\n
Now, because of losing Chris, Burns Day has been marked for me and his other friends in a way, and not for the best of reasons. <\/p>\n
But reading Burns work, and also looking at the recent hypothesis that he might have had bi-polar has made me see him in a completely different light. Maybe hes had more influence on me than I thought.<\/p>\n
Mr Gibson added: Im excited to hear what people think and how they feel Robot Burns compares to the work of Scotlands national bard.<\/p>\n
Colin Waters, communications manager at the Scottish Poetry Library, said: What you wont find are many poetry generators that can produce poems in Scots.<\/p>\n
Poets, like many professions, are waiting to see if the day has come a little closer when AI can complete their task better than them. <\/p>\n
Many contemporary Scots havent got the hang of the Scots Burns wrote in his day, so itll be fascinating to see what a computer makes of it. <\/p>\n
Once Robot Burns has mastered the language, itll be interesting to see what it writes about next.<\/p>\n
Mr Waters added: I imagine its take on To a Mouse will be less about timrous beasties and more about the device we use to move a cursor across a screen. <\/p>\n
l Robot Burns, by Perry Gibson and illustrated by Alasdair Currie, 10, available from robotburns.com <\/p>\n
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