The 'Love Letter Generator,' the 'world's first computer-generated document' created 50 years before ChatGPT, may have been intended to convey homosexuality that could not be expressed publicly.



ChatGPT , announced in 2022, has been a hot topic for its high-quality AI text generation, which has enabled natural conversations and university-level exams from the start. Currently, various types of generative AI are available, but its origins lie in a computer program created more than 50 years ago by two famous mathematicians called the 'Love Letter Generator,' explained Patricia Fancher, a writer and teacher who studies homosexuality and feminist communities at the University of California, Santa Barbara .

The Love Letter Generator That Foretold ChatGPT - JSTOR Daily
https://daily.jstor.org/the-love-letter-generator-that-foretold-chatgpt/



Fancher cited the world's first computer-generated document as being created in 1952 as part of an artificial intelligence experiment conducted by mathematician, cryptographer, and computer scientist Alan Turing and fellow computer mathematician Christopher Strachey . Turing is a genius mathematician known as the 'father of computer science' and is depicted on the British 50 pound note . He is famous for proposing the ' Turing test ' to test whether a machine is human-like, and in that sense he is also called the 'father of artificial intelligence (AI)'. Strachey is also a well-known mathematician involved in the development of computers and programs. He was close to Turing while studying at Cambridge University, and they worked together on research around 1950.

New design of British 50 pound note featuring 'father of computer science' Alan Turing announced - GIGAZINE



On May 15, 1951, Turing gave a short broadcast on BBC radio titled 'Can Computers Think?' In the broadcast, Turing said, 'Computers are similar to the human brain, but not exactly the same. The difficulty is that computers can only do what human programmers tell them to do. But computers can learn, they can be trained, and over time they can develop their own intelligence.' Turing proposed a trick called the 'roulette wheel function' to address the fact that computers have no free will and can only give standardized answers. This is the idea that by randomly selecting some variables, the computer can appear to be creating something original and new.

Strachey heard the broadcast and wrote to Turing, 'The radio lecture was very stimulating and provocative to many, but it is very much in line with what I have been thinking on the subject.' In 1951, Turing and Strachey collaborated to create the world's first computer-generated music , playing the British national anthem 'God Save the Queen.' Strachey then used Turing's programmed random number generator, which injected more machine free will and originality, to create the 'Love Letter Generator.'

The Love Letter Generator randomly selects templates and randomly selects words, such as adjectives following 'You are my' or nouns following 'Your.' Although there is not complete freedom, as only a limited number of words are chosen within the constraints, the resulting writing is very original. The site ' Love Letters ' recreates Strachey's Love Letter Generator in a browser, generating a number of love letters over time.



Generating love letters with a computer is thought to have been an ingenious endeavor by Turing and Strachey, as Strachey explains, 'A simple trick in this program could produce unexpected and interesting results.' 'Can a computer make something that a human can't make?' is what Turing and Strachey were motivated to do as a quest for intelligence. On the other hand, Fancher says that generating love letters was more than just a theoretical experiment.

Both Turing and Strachey were renowned computer mathematicians, but they were also known to have been homosexuals. Turing was arrested by police in 1952 for homosexuality, which was illegal at the time, and was on probation until his death two years later. Testimony from his sister suggests that Strachey also suffered from homosexual tendencies.

In his book '

Queer Techne: Body, Rhetoric, and Desire in the History of Computers ,' Fancher points out that 'Turing's research had a sexual desire.' Since homosexuality was a crime in the UK in 1950, it is possible that Turing sublimated his desires into computer-generated love letters. Both Turing and Strachey were homosexual, and Turing sometimes collaborated on research with the homosexual community, so similar points are often made to Fancher's work. On the other hand, although the love letter generator is interesting as the first algorithmic text, it is difficult to say that the generated text is properly established, so it is difficult to imagine that he entrusted his own desires and affections to the generated love letters.



Turing was found to have had an affair with a younger man, was charged, and after being found guilty, was given a 'scientific castration' by continuous drug injections as a condition of his release. Fancher said, 'What happened to Turing spread fear and distrust in the British gay community. It is this fear and distrust that Turing and Strachey are arguing for. Homosexuals who are forced into the closet have no freedom to openly express their desires, and instead they turn to computers to express their desires.'

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