I tried the Bing Chat on this input:

“I want you to write a poem with 5-line stanzas. Each stanza will be about successive chapters in the novel Around the World in 80 days.”

It’s a task I’ve always wanted to do for myself, but i suspect each chapter would evolve to multiple stanzas to still tell the story completely, and it sounds like quite a bit of effort. The A.I. did fall short of my hoped-for output, blame my input prompt if you will.

The A.I. started… “That sounds like a fun challenge. I’ll try to write a poem based on the summary of the novel that I found on the web¹. Here is what I came up with:”, which was certainly a sign it likely wouldn’t be able to map each chapter to a stanza.

Around the world in eighty days
A wager made by Fogg, so bold
With Passepartout, his valet
They start their journey full of gold

In Suez, they meet a detective
Who thinks that Fogg’s a bank thief
He follows them with a motive
To catch and bring him to grief

In India, they rescue a princess
Who joins them in their quest
They face many dangers and distress
But never lose their zest

In Hong Kong, they lose their guide
But find him in Yokohama
They sail across the ocean wide
And face a dreadful drama

In America, they ride a train
That’s attacked by Sioux with force
They escape and fly a plane
But lose a day in their course

They reach the shores of Albion
But Fogg is arrested by Fix
He thinks he’s lost and all is gone
But Passepartout plays a trick

He learns they gained a day in time
By crossing the date line east
He frees his master from the crime
And they reach the club at least

They win the bet by seconds
And Fogg finds love in Aouda
They marry and end their reckonings
Around the world in eighty days

-Bing Chat, Dec 2023 as prompted above

The meter in that poem is awkward at best. My 8th grade self could improve upon it for sure. And the 5-line stanzas seem to be at a 20% discount, and the 37 chapters of the novel, digested to eight stanzas. Such is the early state of the A.I. Large Language Model.

Alas, my literary quest remains unfulfilled for now. Will i complete it first, or will a better A.I. arrive first to provide my desire? Well, I’m not starting it today in any case.