OA

Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text, 1953-2023

Nick Montfort

Technology & society

Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text, 1953-2023

Edited by Nick Montfort, professor of digital media, and Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

MIT Press · 2024

The discussion of computer-generated text has recently reached a fever pitch but largely omits the long history of work in this area - text generation, as it happens, was not invented yesterday in Silicon Valley. This anthology aims to correct that omission by gathering seven decades of English-language texts produced by generation systems and software, long before ChatGPT and Claude.

From Summer 2025 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News). Cover image via Google Books.