South Africa’s first AI poetry collection

This debut poetry collection is a groundbreaking attempt to explore the creative potentialities of language with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) – a first in Afrikaans, as well as in South Africa.

The poems in this volume were composed co-creatively – a human in collaboration with a machine. The poet delicately interweaves phrases of AI-generated text to create verse, as part of an experiment that examines the following timely question: How might this technology augment and challenge the art of poetry? In poems on AI, Africa, Cape Town and the Karoo, waves glisten, air burns and a machine dances on the outskirts of language.

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Imke van Heerden and Anil Bas lead a research project titled AI as Author in Istanbul. In 2020, they developed a generative language model called AfriKI – an abbreviation for Afrikaans Artificial Intelligence. To learn Afrikaans, the AI read, as dataset, Etienne van Heerden’s novel Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld [A Library to Flee]. AfriKI was used as an instrument to help create the first AI poems in Afrikaans.

Select coverage of Silwerwit in die soontoe (in Afrikaans and Dutch):

Rapport Review, Rapport Interview, Die Burger Review (Combined Newspaper Coverage) | Versindaba (Review) | Versindaba (Announcement) | LitNet (Review 1; Review 2) | LitNet (Announcement) | Republikein via Facebook (Discussion) | Samespraak (Discussion) | Afrikaans.com (Discussion) | Life.fm (Interview) | Ink (Panel Report) | Klyntji (Festival Report) | LitNet Akademies (Journal Article)

Special thanks to the dictionary Literêre terme en teorieë [Literary Terms and Theories] for inclusion!

• Download the book’s information document (scroll down for English).
• Silwerwit in die soontoe can be purchased here (Afrikaans & print copy only).
• Vir Afrikaanse videos oor die bundel, klik asseblief hier.

Page last updated: February 2024. This website is now archived.