Toward a Poetics of Life: Geographical Writing in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has profoundly reshaped human society and significantly impacted academic research. In the current era of intelligence, geography requires the development of new theoretical frameworks. By constructing and elaborating the theoretical framework of the "Poetics of Life," this study explores new pathways for geographical expression within the context of human-AI integration. The relationship between AI and humans manifests in four modes: tool, partner, friend, and soul. In the process of human-AI integration, place, body, and emotion emerge as three key vectors that are currently irreplaceable by AI. Drawing on existentialist philosophy, geographical poetics, and humanistic geography, and employing a digital autoethnographic approach, this article conducts an in-depth analysis of 122 songs co-created by Ye Chao(The first author) and AI and published on the personal WeChat Channel "Ye Shenxun." It compares the characteristics of individual writing with those of human-AI collaborative creation and summarizes their public communication effects. What distinguishes Poetics of Life in the new era from geographical poetics lies in three fundamental shifts: the creative subject has transformed from a solitary author to human-AI co-creation, the form of expression has expanded from single-text delivery to multisensory stimulation, and media dissemination has evolved from one-way output to multidimensional interaction. The song samples exhibited diverse styles and themes, reflecting the interplay of emotion, place, and AI, thereby highlighting the importance of new forms of geographical writing and expression in the intelligent age. In terms of communicative effects, a top-ten analysis of the texts revealed that audiences with a background in geography paid more attention to the mutual construction of place and everyday life, whereas other audiences focused more on emotional resonance. Surreal works, such as Chronicle of Light and Dust, demonstrate a cross-disciplinary, future-oriented dimension. The Poetics of Life in the intelligent age not only extends and deepens the humanistic tradition of geography but also provides new theoretical insights for interdisciplinary fields such as digital art and media geography. The expression, performance, and public communication of the Poetics of Life constitute key directions for future research.