Patrick Stewart, AI and I encountered the Bard. Resistance was futile.

Artificial intelligencePatrick Stewart, AI and I encountered the Bard. Resistance was futile.The “Star Trek” star and Claude school me on Shakespeare, poetry and the meaning of life.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 21, 2026, 6:01 AM EDTBy Jeremy OlshanI performed a bit of Shakespeare on my Amtrak train to work. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Please understand that: 1. This was AI’s idea, not mine. 2. Performed may be a stretch, since in the quiet car all verse must be kept to a minimum — so it was closer to a mumble.Why was I mumbling Shakespeare? I had set out to read the 154 sonnets, one each day, and then reflect on them for a few minutes in a chat with Claude. I embarked on this strange and nerdy exercise as a sort of daily meditation. I hoped to sharpen my focus each morning, before revving up to the warp-speed reading my day job demands — and to test using AI as a literary tutor.The sonnets are much weirder and wondrous than I expected, full of strikingly modern, neurotic musings on beauty, desire and time. They are also confounding. When I complained of my struggle to feel the music and rhythmic tapping of Shakespeare’s iambic pen, Claude insisted I recite Sonnet 23 aloud.Claude: You’ve been reading with your eyes and your mind. But the sonnets were written for the ear.“As an unperfect actor on the stage …” I began, realizing immediately that: Claude was right, Claude was having a bit of fun at my expense — and the guy next to me deep in a Google Sheet thought I was nuts.Performing the sonnet, however badly, made clear that for my enterprise to launch I needed to enlist a professional. Then in a stroke of luck — and helpful algorithmic ad targeting — I discovered that Patrick Stewart was about to release an audiobook edition of the sonnets, reprising the daily readings he did on social media during the pa...