#  Shakespeare and AI

     Details    Matthew Hetz   ![logo](https://www.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         June 26 2025      [  ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/June-2025/051i.jpg#joomlaImage://local-images/stories/June-2025/051i.jpg?width=932&height=628)    ](https://www.citywatchla.com/voices/31074-shakespeare-and-ai)

  [VOICES](https://www.citywatchla.com/voices)   - [  Previous Article **I Refuse To Defend The Indefensible** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31078:i-refuse-to-defend-the-indefensible&catid=375)
- [  Next Article **Metro Finally Releases DEIR—Three Years Late and Still Misleading** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31072:metro-finally-releases-deir-three-years-late-and-still-misleading&catid=375)

  ###### Typography

- [](# "Smaller Font")  ****Smaller** **Small** **Medium** **Big** **Bigger****  [](# "Bigger Font")
- [](# "Previous Font Style")  ****Default** **Helvetica** **Segoe** **Georgia** **Times****  [](# "Next Font Style")

- [ Reading Mode](# "Reading Mode")

> <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a><a class="a2a_button_print"></a>[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)
>
>  [Comments](#disqus_thread)

 SONNET WATCH - AI is now firmly entrenched in our lives, and we move into questionable and nervous times because of it.

Facebook posts get rewritten when a name is highlighted.

Attorneys use AI for legal briefs, and AI hallucinations can occur when the AI written briefs cite non-existing legal cases.

One inquiry into AI on how to add more minerals to one’s diet was answered by suggesting to eat rocks.

On my Mac, emails are now summarized in the most boringly prosaic manner.

AI can destroy the individuality of us all, and that would be a disaster unforeseen in the history of humans. (And how would AI reword that?)

As a lifelong admirer and student of Shakespeare, I thought I would rewrite his Sonnet No. 18, not using the internet, cold hearted, hallucinating AI, but my own native intelligence, however limited that is.

**Here is Shakespeare’s Sonnet, No. 18, and my own AI mocking is in italics.**

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

BY [WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-shakespeare)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

*You’re like summer,*

*But watch your temperature:*

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

*It’s windy in May,*

*And pay the rent;*

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

*Keep your eyes on heaven,*

*And polish your gold;*

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

*Life may not be fair,*

*But sometimes nature needs gardening;*

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

*It’s an endless summer,*

*Don’t get robbed;*

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

*You can die in the shade,*

*When timelines grow;*

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

*Be sure to breathe, get your eyes examined,*

*And you can live a long life.*

*(Matthew Hetz is a Los Angeles native, a composer whose works have been performed nationally, and some can be found [here](https://www.matthewhetz.com/)[.](https://www.matthewhetz.com/) He is the past President of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra and Marina del Rey Symphony. His dedication to transit issues is to help improve the transit riding experience for all, and to convince drivers to ride buses and trains to fight air pollution and global warming. He is an instructor at Emeritus/Santa Monica College and a regular contributor to CityWatchLA.)*

  - [  Previous Article **I Refuse To Defend The Indefensible** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31078:i-refuse-to-defend-the-indefensible&catid=375)
- [  Next Article **Metro Finally Releases DEIR—Three Years Late and Still Misleading** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31072:metro-finally-releases-deir-three-years-late-and-still-misleading&catid=375)
<div data-id="1" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-emailform eb-1 eboxContentLocker"
	data-options='{"trigger":"onPageLoad","trigger_selector":"","delay":3000,"early_trigger":true,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":1,"reverse_scroll_close":true,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":10000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"slideInDown","animation_close":"fadeOutDown","animation_duration":400,"disable_page_scroll":true,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #1 - Global Email Signup Form","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog eb-formVer" role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog1" aria-label="dialog1">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<form action="https://citywatchla.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=34d69f33624fd058ee9b56516&amp;id=4bfa422f51&amp;f_id=00d6c2e1f0" class="eb" method="post" id="mcform-1" name="mcform-1" target="_blank">
			<div class="eb-form-header"><p><img src="/images/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png" alt="be a city watcher" width="350" height="97" loading="lazy" data-path="local-images:/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png"></p>
<p>Sign up to receive our special e-news blasts on Monday and Thursday evenings!</p></div>
	
					<div class="eb-field-row">

			
			
			
			<input class="eb-input" type="email" name="EMAIL"  placeholder="Email address"  id="EMAIL" value="" required>

			
		</div>
										
	<div class="eb-footer">
    	<button class="eb-btn" type="submit" name="subscribe" style="background-color:rgba(93, 183, 93, 1);color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)">
    		Sign up    	</button>
    </div>
</form>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>
<div data-id="3" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-yesno eb-3 "
	data-options='{"trigger":"onScrollDepth","trigger_selector":"","delay":0,"early_trigger":false,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":2,"reverse_scroll_close":false,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":1000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"fadeInUp","animation_close":"fadeOut","animation_duration":300,"disable_page_scroll":false,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #3 - Yes \/ No Donation Popup Box","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog " role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog3" aria-label="dialog3">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<div class="ebox-yes-no">
	<div class="ebox-yn-text">
		
		
		<div class="ebox-yn-headline" style="font-size:22px;color:#888888">
			<p>If you only give once a month, would you consider giving to CityWatch?</p>
<p>Your support fuels our mission to promote and facilitate civic engagement and neighborhood empowerment, and to hold area government and its politicians accountable.</p>
<p>Would you like to help? Even if you can only give $5, it will make a difference.</p>		</div>
			</div>
	
	<div class="ebox-ys-buttons" style="font-size: 16px;">
		
<a
					data-ebox-prevent="0"
		data-ebox-cmd="close"
				target="_self"
		href="https://www.citywatchla.com/donate"
		rel="noopener"
	
	
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#2ec664;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Yes
	</a>
<a
	
	
			data-ebox-cmd="close"
		href="#"
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#ef2345;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Not Right Now
	</a>	</div>

	</div>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>