Molière ex Machina: AI used to create 'new work' by beloved French playwright.

Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English; a master of historical literature, drama, wit, and satire. Now, more than 350 years after his death, this 17th-century dramatist has been revived. Scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style. "L'Astrologue ou les Faux Présages" (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, premiered at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week. The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy Parisian bourgeois who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer named Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker. While the theme could have been conceived by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes, and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat). A group of researchers at the Sorbonne worked on the project, called "Molière Ex Machina," for two and a half years. The team included a group of artists and researchers called Obvious. One critic described the AI imitation as "striking, almost disconcerting" and said the dialogue was "entirely believable." The production involved what they described as "intellectual ping pong" – approximately 20,000 exchanges between researchers, classical literature scholars, linguists, historians, and Le Chat. As the team fed more information into the AI assistant, each word and scene it generated went through numerous revisions as the researchers explained to the AI why certain passages didn't work and asked it to try again. "The process was long and demanding," said the play's director, Mickaël Bouffard, head of the Théâtre Molière Sorbonne. He added that Le Chat's first draft was only eight pages long and "not very interesting," resulting in "scenes having to be revised multiple times." Bouffard told France Info that "AI has a superpower: the ability to store everything Molière wrote and everything Molière read." "We human beings can't do that." The theme of astrology, which appeared in at least one original Molière play, and the play's title were suggested by the AI and touch on current concerns regarding the use of the technology. "Astrology allows us to discuss manipulation, false beliefs, and disinformation, which are particularly topical subjects," said Pierre-Marie Chauvin, an associate professor at the Sorbonne. Plans are in place to perform the play across France and internationally. Molière, who died in 1673, was so influential that French is often referred to as "the language of Molière." AI remains one of the most sensitive issues in the entertainment industry and has generated intense debate. Using it to imitate Molière would have caused outrage in France were the project not being carried out by academic experts at the Théâtre Molière, which specializes in accurately reconstructing 17th-century productions. A report submitted to the national assembly last year suggested that generative AI was a "marvellous opportunity, a stimulating tool, and a powerful driver of creativity." However, it also stated that AI "poses a threat to many professions in the cultural sector because it enables the production of content that may compete directly with human creations," adding: "It is necessary to strike a balance between different forms of creation." Chauvin said that "L'Astrologue" struck that balance. "We are demonstrating in concrete terms something that can be achieved in a novel way with AI. Not a play written by AI, but a play co-written with it," he said. An audience of 100 people, including Catherine Pégard, the culture minister, saw the play during two performances last week. Afterwards, one audience member said: "I think it's a success. The plot feels so real, the subject matter is so close to what we're used to hearing in these [Molière] plays." Another theatre-goer was less impressed. "A decent writer can do this without artificial intelligence," he said. "I think we [humans] still have a bright future." Christophe Séfrin, the technology editor for 20 Minutes, attended one of the two performances. He described the AI imitation as "striking, almost disconcerting" and said the dialogue was "entirely believable." The magazine Telerama described it as a "crazy venture" but said the play at times "seems like a pastiche of the playwright's work." The Théâtre Molière Sorbonne and Obvious plan to perform the play across France and internationally.