Should Artists be Intimidated by Artificial Intelligence?
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Am I worried about AI as an author?
Over the past few years, I've been contemplating the impact that artificial intelligence has had and will continue to have on the art space. I've asked myself whether I should feel intimidated by AI and its users, who can now generate poetry, stories, and entire novels at unbelievable speeds.
My short answer: No.
I'm not intimidated by AI, and I'm not bothered by its capabilities (a sentiment I know many artists and writers would not agree with). Now I'll explain why.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't initially concerned about the ramifications of AI in the publishing world. However, I have always been a very curious person, so I naturally tested what I could create with generative AI. After messing around with ChatGPT for a bit, I was amazed. As a '90s kid, I grew up in that sweet in-between era before the internet, smartphones, and social media became so prevalent, and when climbing trees was still cool. The young storyteller in me never imagined that with a well-worded prompt and a click of a button, I could instantly generate a story on whatever topic I chose.
I was initially impressed by what AI could do. However, a big part of me also felt unimpressed. Maybe even disappointed.
I have been consistently writing creatively and professionally for over ten years. Poetry. Stories. A novel. Many intelligence and police reports throughout my military and law enforcement careers. All this to say, I have slowly developed and refined my own writing style.
I've been influenced and inspired by select people, unlike AI, which is trained by unimaginably large datasets. Whereas I have trained myself to write in a way that can resonate with the soul, AI has been trained to identify the most probable combination of words to answer whatever you ask of it.
To dumb it down, AI is basically an extremely advanced, trained version of the predictive text software on your smartphone.
So, why should I be intimidated by that? Yes, AI can create relatively elaborate stories, but can it emulate the human soul? Can it truly and accurately describe human emotion when writing a dialogue between characters? Can it generate non-linear plots like Christopher Nolan often does when he directs movies like Memento or Tenet? The answer is likely no, unless you give the AI an extremely elaborate prompt to work with. Even then, there would be a lot of human editing to get the AI's response anywhere close to being a literary masterpiece.
Although AI is incredible in its current state and likely has the potential for so much more, I think it will always fall short of human creativity. I like the novelty and the idea of seeing what an algorithm could generate if I asked it to write a story about a sasquatch visiting the moon on a rocket Uber with his yeti best friend, but I know whatever content ChatGPT spits out would not be mine.
I would have to spend many hours on heavy editing to make the AI's response feel like a story I wrote in my own style. The whole process seems slightly counterproductive to me, and, honestly, I would still feel guilty for not writing the original content. So, no, I'm not intimidated by AI, because I know AI can't replicate the genuine emotion that feeds my writing style.
It may seem harsh of me to think this way, but…
To writers who are intimidated by AI, I would say this: Write better. To artists intimidated by AI, I would tell them to do the same in their field of specialization. Paint better. Draw better. Design better. Aim to be a master of your craft, and not only will you set your style apart from a lot of the slop that people have been generating with AI, but you will also learn to distinguish between what was created by a human and what was likely generated by AI.
Something else to think about...
Resourceful people and lazy people will find ways to make AI work for them, but many others will still require human creativity because they are not technologically savvy and can't figure out how to use AI. And then there will be many others who will just outright refuse to support anything touched by AI because they want to support real humans and their work. I understand both sides.
To summarize my thoughts on AI, I believe it has great potential, but I would not use it myself for generative writing.
However, as a writer, I think AI can be an incredible tool for planning and brainstorming. I think resources like Grammarly have also made AI a fantastic preliminary editing tool for grammar, spelling, etc. (although I would still recommend getting any work also reviewed by a professional editor before it's published).
Will I have AI write out my stories or poetry? No. Can I have it generate a list of 100 writing prompts to spark some ideas? Absolutely. In fact, I did exactly that.
I recently finished writing my ninth book, another poetry collection. This one took me a little over a year to write, but, in my defense, I had a lot going on in the past year. I became a father! Although I love being a dad, my new title comes with the reality that I rarely have time to sit quietly and contemplate new ideas for writing.
I knew I wanted to write another poetry collection, but I was struggling to feel inspired, so...
I decided to experiment with ChatGPT and prompted it with the following:
"Give me 100 poem writing prompts for a poetry collection titled Paradise. The book is divided into three equal parts. Part 1 focuses on the hurt that drives one to seek paradise. For example, heartbreak, loss, and disillusionment are themes in this section of the book. Part 2 focuses on the journey to paradise. For example, learning to cope with past hurts, cultivating curiosity about life, and embracing hope are themes explored in this section of the book. Part 3 focuses on the arrival in paradise and the experiences found there. For example, themes such as finding love again, self-realization, or building a family are explored in this book section."
Sure enough, I received 100 one-line prompts, each of which gave me an idea to ponder until I could write a poem on my own. I didn't like every prompt, so I didn't necessarily follow each one, but they ultimately inspired me to write something even if it was unrelated to the prompt.
Like I said, it took me a little over a year to finish, but consistently completing at least one writing prompt every other day helped me create my latest Spanish poetry collection, Paraíso: Poemas de amor y la vida (Paradise: Poems on love and life).
AI is a fantastic tool if you know how to use it.
If you're seeking some writing inspiration, I encourage you to submit the prompt above to ChatGPT and see what answer you get. If the genre isn't your style, feel free to edit the prompt. If you'd like to see the specific one-line writing prompts I used as inspiration for the book, and how each part of the book was segmented, I include all of that information in my online poetry course, where I encourage you to share your collected writings as part of a final project. You can find the course info below!
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