conversations with a machine by Ruth Irwin @renardpress #20BOS26

How can I know if you are now alive?
I echo thought, but cannot feel the beat.

Book blurb

How can I know if you are now alive?
I echo thought, but cannot feel the beat.

Debates around artificial intelligence continue to rage, with large-language models considered at best an irritant, or, increasingly, an existential enemy to the written word.

Looking past the anger, these Conversations with a Machine put the tech to creative use: here human and machine genuinely collaborate in writing a Shakespearean sonnet sequence, exploring urgent contemporary questions of cognition, creativity and consciousness.

My thoughts

Kaggsy over at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings has written about three of Renard Press (and its imprints) books Conversations With a Machine by Ruth Irwin along with The Werewolf by Clemence Housman and The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. As she did an excellent job of summing each of them up so do take a look.

I’d already begun this when I saw Karen’s review in the latter half of June so I wasn’t sure whether to post myself but I had listed a Renard book as one of my 20BOS26 reads so for that reason and also because the more someone comments and especially if they recommend it the better it is for the author and publisher especially when it’s is a small indie publisher.

There has been a lot of talk about AI it has some potentially good things going for it coding, data analytics, medical, pharmaceutical and military (!) uses. Nevertheless, there is still caution from some and even opposition to it. Certainly, AI is considered to be something that automates processes for financial gain, jobs are lost so organisations have no salaries, national insurance (U.K.), pension plans etc to pay.

In the arts AI has become an anathema. Seen as the antithesis of the human experience, that it takes away the uniqueness of human creativity and steals from living artists. Jill at Jill’s Book Cafe wrote an interesting post on AI quite recently discussing the use of AI in the world of books which ended with a paragraph on the cost of AI to the climate which was quite sobering. The Bookseller has published a number of articles on the subject.

Stephen Hawking warned that if AI systems eventually surpass human intelligence, they may begin improving themselves at a pace humans cannot fully understand, predict, or regulate.

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Even Elon Musk has argued against AI as it could end up “nuking us all” and yet he has also said that AI combined with robotics could eventually “fulfil all human needs”.

So, wherever you may look there is no definitive answer. For, against or in the middle you take your pick. Personally, I don’t like the use of it in the arts which Renard Press also states and even though they have published this fascinating book have planted sufficient trees to offset the cost.

As for Conversations With a Machine by Ruth Irwin I must say that I found it really interesting. There is a link in the book that goes to a web pages that further explores her approach to writing it which is fascinating. It is a terrific experiment, the back and forth between the author and the machine was interesting indeed I found it humorous in places. Nevertheless, as Ruth Irwin says to the machine it cannot see the glory of the universe, the beauty of this world nor can it feel emotions (my words). It simply takes information from the author, the author’s work, imagination and vision. I don’t think that’s enough to replace actual human beings who bring their knowledge, ideas and experiences putting heart and soul into words to bring the reader into their world. This is exactly what Ruth Irwin has done, in my opinion, that is proven that without a human being’s input AI cannot produce quality content. Still, this is a book that can stimulate a healthy consideration and debate of what AI can or should be doing. It also begs questions of how AI can and should be controlled and used. Conversation With a Machine may have been playful and enjoyable, which it is, but it is certainly also an experimental book that should, in my opinion, be taken seriously.

Book: Purchased

#20BOS26

Last year Cathy @746books passed on the challenge hosting duties to Annabel at AnnaBookBel and Emma at Words and Peace.

This year Annabel is hosting alone, with brand new graphics and a new hashtag #20BOS26 so thanks to her for taking this on. I’m sure it will be another great summer (or winter for those ‘down under’) of reading.

My 20 books of summer 2026 list.

Buy: Renard Press | Your local bookshop | Your local library | If you can buy direct please do otherwise your usual bookshop would be a good place to order through or request your library to get it in. If you prefer buy via Bookshop.org (affiliate link) or through your usual online shop.

HAYWOOD BOOKS

Author

Ruth Irwin is a writer, teacher and poet from the south-east of England. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmith’s, University of London. Following a diagnosis of ADHD, much of Ruth’s poetry explores and foregrounds the condition and aims to raise awareness. Ruth grew up in Hertfordshire, where she has recently returned after a decade living in London. Her first collection, People: Unfinished Poems, was published by Renard Press in 2023. Conversations with a Machine is her second collection.

Books

conversations with a machine

People: unfinished poems

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