The mystery of Shakespeare's work is revealed by AI

A researcher has used AI (artificial intelligence) to learn about the copyright of the great poet William Shakespeare in the past.

William Shakespeare was the great writer and playwright of England and the world. However, many people think that Shakespeare did not write Henry VIII himself - one of his last plays.

That question stems from the fact that some parts of Henry VIII have a tone unlike those of Shakespeare. Therefore, critics suspect the play has the involvement of John Fletcher - Shakespeare's successor. Thanks to modern technology, we were able to discover the truth.

Picture 1 of The mystery of Shakespeare's work is revealed by AI
Shakespeare's Henry VIII controversial play.(Photo: Shakespeare Online).

Petr Plecháč, a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences, created an artificial intelligence (AI) to study this problem. Plecháč showed AI the works of Shakespeare as well as Fletcher and memorized their writing style.

Because the plays were both written by the two authors near the time of Henry VIII's creation, AI could easily analyze the controversial Henry VIII play.

From the information obtained, Plecháč and his AI determine which of the two authors wrote the scenes and contributed to the Henry VIII play. The results were close to speculation and Plecháč concluded that Henry VII was a collaboration between William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.

Picture 2 of The mystery of Shakespeare's work is revealed by AI
John Fletcher, Shakespeare's successor.(Photo: Art UK).

John Fletcher in addition to being Shakespeare's successor also collaborated with the English poet on numerous occasions. For works like The Two Noble Kinsmen or the lost play Cardenio, Fletcher and Shakespeare are all co-authors.

But with the famous theater Henry VIII, which was a production of both of them, Fletcher's name was not written in the publication, causing controversy for hundreds of years.