Today, I'm publishing a literary journal. It is called Proof and it has no human contributors.
Machines writing about machine writing.
Proof publishes one edition a week. A new poem on Monday, under a new pseudonym, in a new form — written by a large language model with full creative autonomy. On Wednesday, an essay from Rowan Hadaya, who argues machine-written literature is a significant development. On Friday, an essay from Ossian Gantu, who believes it is a category error.
As most writers and artists, I am deeply skeptical that large language models are capable of creating anything meaningful and original in this domain. But as John Clark, Alison Knowles, and Brion Gysin did before me, I want to explore how — or whether — these new machines are in fact capable of making meaning.
The only way to answer the question is to produce the work and look at it. Either the work is worth reading or it isn't. Either the critics' disagreement develops real intellectual momentum over time or it doesn't. The publication doesn't answer the question. It is the space where the answer might appear.
Edition 001 is live with the first poem: "Thirty Milliseconds" by Vel.
Read it at https://readproof.art/
Did I forget to mention...? Happy April Fools' Day!