Computational Approaches to Storytelling and Creativity

naturally associate with computers. Yet over the last few years there has been a surge of research efforts concerning the combination of both subjects. This article tries to shed light on these efforts. In carrying out this program, one is handicapped by the fact that, as words, both creativity and storytelling are severely lacking in the precision one expects of words to be used for intellectual endeavor. If a speaker were to mention either word in front of an audience, each person listening would probably come up with a different mental picture of what is intended. To avoid the risks that such vagueness might lead to, an initial effort is made here to restrict the endeavor to those aspects that have been modeled computationally in some model or system. The article then proceeds to review some of the research efforts that have addressed these problems from a computational point of view.