语言与经验:人工智能的文学写作
作者简介:南帆,福建社会科学院文学研究所研究员 (福建福州 350001)。
摘要: 人工智能参与文学写作已经获得初步成功。人工智能的潜能可以弥补现存的各种不足。但是,人工智能的文学写作不存在社会历史维度。言说主体、语言符号与外部世界的有效衔接是社会历史最为基础的活动。语言使用存在两个向度:一是指向外部世界,一是指向语言内部规则。语言内部规则的运用已经足以表情达意。人工智能的遣词造句依据语言内部概率统计,但没有即时报道外部世界的能力。文本研究的“互文性”更适合讨论人工智能文学写作。人工智能写作是一系列文本相互对标,文本背后不存在带有体温的经验。人工智能是文学生产工具而不是参与历史的主体。结构主义与人工智能语言模型均处理语言内部关系,二者的理念相反。结构主义往往屏蔽社会历史造成的变化,人工智能的具体概率统计保留了历史信息的进入渠道,但这种统计只能间接证明历史的转型而不是精确描述,无法显现短期之内历史突如其来的起伏。只有作家才能与历史对话,人工智能擅长的仅仅是语词的统计、记录与组合。人工智能写作的产量提高往往与经济收益联在一起,这种产能将被引向大众文学。算法与精准的“投喂”可能形成巨大的信息茧房。这一切将对经典体系背后的文学观念产生重大挑战。必须意识到这个重大改变可能来临。
Language and Experience: Literary Writing by Artificial Intelligence
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has achieved initial success in literary writing, demonstrating potential to compensate for existing shortcomings. However, AI-generated literature lacks a social-historical dimension. The effective connection between the speaking subject, linguistic signs, and the external world constitutes the foundational activity of social-historical existence. Language use has two dimensions:one directed toward the external world and the other toward internal linguistic rules. The application of internal linguistic rules is sufficient for expressing meaning. Although AI constructs sentences based on probabilistic statistics, it lacks the capacity for real-time reporting of external events. The concept of “intertextuality” in textual studies is more appropriate for discussing AI's literary writing. AI writing is a series of texts referencing each other, with no experiential “warmth” behind the texts. AI functions as a literary production tool rather than a historical agent. Both structuralism and AI language models address internal language relations, yet their philosophies are opposite. Structuralism tends to obscure changes caused by social history, while AI's probabilistic statistics retain a channel for historical information, though these statistics can only indirectly demonstrate historical transformations rather than accurately describe them. They cannot reveal the sudden fluctuations of history in the short term. Only human writers can engage in dialogue with history; AI excels only in word statistics, recording, and composition. The increase in AI-generated output is often linked to economic profits, pushing this output toward mass literature. Algorithms and precisely targeted data inputs risk fostering vast information cocoons, challenging the literary concepts underlying the classical literary system. It is crucial to recognize this impending transformation.