ML Tools for Writers

From the quill to the printing press, writing tools have often been a way to aid the way we transfer information from our brains to paper. As our access to and use of technology has advanced, so too have the tools at our disposal to aid the creative process.

Over the past 6 months, Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney  have teamed up with the Digital Writers’ Festival team, and an eclectic cohort of industry professionals, developers, engineers and writers to test and experiment whether Machine Learning (ML) could be used to inspire writers.

Creativity Inside the Machine

Writers Jamie Marina Lau, Khalid Warsame and Tegan Elizabeth Webb have been toying with the tools created by the Lab. Check out what they’ve made with the tools.

Live streams

For the tech curious, find out what’s happening Under the Hood and learn how you might start to approach something building something similar of your own with Creative Lab developers at 4pm Thursday 31 October.

If you’re wondering about the creative possibilities and questions presented by machine learning look no further than the Machine Learning and Creative Futures live stream at 2pm Friday 1 November.

Telescope: Live Play

Ever wished you could walk around inside your character’s story? Telescope, a new tool developed by Sandpit with Google’s Creative Lab, uses machine learning technology to generate a story for the character you create drawing from the world around you.

If you’re based in Melbourne, why not come along to the Telescope Live Play on Saturday 1 November?

About the tools

ML Tools for Writers’ is a collection of digital writing tools powered by machine-learning-based language models like GPT-2. The prototypes are a part of an experiment that move beyond a way to process and edit words on a page. They explore possibilities such as a companion to the creative process and a digital muse for writers designed to spark invention and create new and novel connections.

Break through writers’ block and get re-inspired with some experimental prototypes  that allow you to talk to your character, generate their life story, walk around with them and read between the lines. An added bonus for the tech-curious is an opportunity to see under the hood and utilise the engine behind the tools.

Share your work, findings and weird experiments throughout the festival on our Discord MLTools chat channel. Join the DWF Discord server here.

Presented in partnership with Google’s Creative Lab.

BANTER BOT

This tool lets you create and explore the mind of your character by chatting to them.

BETWEEN THE LINES

Generate the text between two sentences using the magic of machine learning.

ONCE UPON A LIFETIME

This tool helps you generate a life story for your character.

Please note: As these tools are still in the experimental phase, they work best with a limited number of 30 participants at once. Please register your interest here so we can provide you with access to the tools at a suggested time slot.

PLAYGROUND

GPT-2 is the engine behind Telescope, a creative writing tool where ideas are sparked by the user’s environment. Here, we give you complete access to get under the hood, get your hands dirty, and see what you can come up with.

TELESCOPE

Use the Telescope add-on to help come up with ideas when you get writer’s block.

Please note: The Telescope app will be available for download when the festival opens on Tuesday 29 October. As this tool is still in the experimental phase, it is currently only available for Android users.

Telescope is an experiment into Machine Learning tools for writers, produced in partnership with the Emerging Writers Festival, Creative Technology from Ross Goodwin, Sandpit, Lexical Gap and supported by Google’s Creative Lab.