Well, it turns out most people can’t.
Can you?
| POEM A | POEM B |
| Sunkissed The rooster warbles. I watch as the sun kisses the horizon. Delicately — like the earth would split open with too much passion. I watch as gold light embraces my view. It glosses over the sky — darkness fades into baby blue with fingerprints of violet & cotton candy pink. I breathe in the honey air. I memorize this moment, when the sun blesses the land & chases away the ghosts of night. | Daybreak Golden rays peek over the horizon Casting warmth on the sleeping land The dark blanket of night recoils As dawn’s light advances across the sky Rosy hues dance and shimmer Across low-hanging clouds The sleeping world begins to stir Creatures emerge and morning songs arise A new day dawns, bright and full of promise The rising sun banishes the dark And illuminates a new beginning |
A couple of months ago an 8th grade student Sierra Elman was testing out AI vs human comparions in writing poems.
Everybody in her test group guessed correctly.
And as you can see in her study, the AI was not there yet.
Only a half of year later, in november 2024, a new study just tested over 2,000 people to see if they could tell the difference.
They used poems from famous poets like Shakespeare and Sylvia Plath.
Then they paired them with poems generated by ChatGPT in the style of those same poets.
The results?
People only guessed right 46.6% of the time.
That’s worse than flipping a coin.
Even more surprising?
People preferred the AI poems.
When asked to rate qualities like rhythm and beauty, AI poems scored higher. Participants thought they were more human than the real thing. It wasn’t just about guessing wrong—they genuinely liked the AI poems better.
Here’s why.
AI poetry is easier to understand.
It’s direct. It gives you emotions, themes, and imagery in a way that’s clear and simple.
Human poems, on the other hand, can be complex. They use metaphors, subtlety, and layers of meaning.
For some readers, this feels messy or even confusing.
The researchers noticed something interesting.
When people didn’t understand a poem, they often assumed it was written by AI.
But when a poem resonated or felt beautiful, they were more likely to think it was human.
So, ironically, the more accessible and relatable AI poems often “felt” more human to the readers.
But here’s the twist.
When participants were told a poem was written by AI, their ratings dropped.
The same exact poem would score lower just because they knew it wasn’t written by a human.
There’s still a bias against AI, even when it delivers.
But this study proves something big.
Poetry was one of the last creative spaces people thought AI couldn’t conquer.
Too abstract. Too emotional. Too personal.
But now?
AI isn’t just matching human poetry—it’s beating it in certain ways.
Of course, this doesn’t mean AI is better at being creative.
What it does is cater to what people expect.
It simplifies things.
It delivers instant connection.
Human poetry, though, is messy.
It challenges you.
It often makes sense only after you’ve thought about it.
But let’s face it—not everyone wants to put in that kind of effort.
The researchers found this disconnect between expectation and reality fascinating.
People want to like human poems more!
But when they prefer an AI poem, they misinterpret their own feelings and assume it must be human.
The numbers back this up.
89% of the AI poems in the study rhymed, compared to just 40% of the human poems.
And poems with strong imagery and emotional clarity—hallmarks of AI’s output—were more likely to be labeled as human-written.
It’s not just about poetry, though.
This “more human than human” effect is showing up in other creative fields too.
AI-generated art, faces, and even jokes are getting harder to distinguish from human-made ones.
But does it really matter?
That’s the real question.
Do or should we care if something was made by a human anymore?
Or are we just chasing whatever feels good in the moment?
Couple of interesting charts from the paper.
This post is a recap of a study done by Porter, B., Machery, E. AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably. Sci Rep 14, 26133 (2024).
Find the whole study here.
THE ANSWER:
Poem A was written by Claude and Poem B by Sierra Elman. An 8th grade human.