Have you tried using generative AI for creating a piece of creative writing yet? If you didn’t, you should. If you are feeling a little (understandably) jittery about how AI is going to change the landscape of your writing career, you definitely should take a look at what you are up against.
I have read some prompt engineering cheat sheets for marketing, and though they are cleverly created resources, suck the marrow out of the writing. What we end up seeing is some regurgitated internet copy that is prone to ‘hallucinations’.
IBM describes them this way:
“AI hallucination is a phenomenon wherein a large language model (LLM)—often a generative AI chatbot or computer vision tool—perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent or imperceptible to human observers, creating outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate.”
If we zoom out a bit, it is a case of the generative AI behaving wildly. Imagine the implications if these hallucinations are a part of analyzing a court case, a skin lesion, or some other equally critical applications. Then it is not so funny, is it?
Now, interestingly, IBM suggests that AI hallucinations can help artists create surreal scenes. Now, that could be a use case. But going to a chatbot and soliciting AI hallucinations for, let’s say, creating riveting fan fiction, now that doesn’t sound like something a writer would be inclined to do. It not only undermines the self-respect of the writer but is also sort of unlikely. First, you need to prompt the LLM with the right phrase. Then, you need to go look for AI hallucinations. Then, you need to use your imagination to create those surreal scenes in your artwork. “Sounds devious”, an old-school writer may say.
Coming to the applications of AI in creating literature, it is used in creating characters and plots, editing, and proofreading. And the author is still expected to be the final authority on this output. To me, it sounds like AI can potentially turn writing activity into editing and proofreading activity. Where’s the fun in that? No self-respecting author who has honed his intellect, creativity, and expression by reading literature would give up their agency in creating those characters and plots by himself.
But what about new-age authors, like the Gen-Z kind? And how are the schools of creative writing going to adapt their curriculum to the onslaught of AI? And what are the chances they would? In case they do adapt, we are in for a massive churn in the way literature is created and consumed. In case they don’t, we still can’t be sure if the authors of the future will not deploy AI to create characters and plots. And in case they do in part, which is the most likely thing to happen, AI will slowly worm into the process of creating literature. Authorship as we know it will have changed forever.
Coming to good old school homework, those puppy dogs don’t need to be chided for eating the homework anymore. Children can rope in generative AI and publish their homework with a flourish. It is only a matter of time.
Microsoft says, “AI writing tool will gather information based on what other people have said in response to a similar prompt. The bot will search the internet for information about what you’ve asked it to write, then compile that information into a response.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that is a ridiculously narrow stream of information to base all your work on. Of course, one place it could be used with gay abandon is in business writing, where a piece of work can afford to sound sterile and emotionless. That is what everyone says, though I prefer even content/copy to be a storytelling feat rather than the blurting out of cold facts and analyses.
Also, I have always wondered what would happen if two writers sitting on two different continents used the same AI tool to generate a similar plot line with similar prompts. Would AI not be a clumsy and clunky robot compared to human ingenuity?
More, what pride can an author take in a piece of writing with such heavy lifting being carried out by an “intelligent” bot? Finally, how will a reader connect with such a writer in his mind-space – how will she relate to the artwork created knowing full well that it is the output of man-machine collaboration?
It won’t be long before we find answers to these questions.
But if I zoom out of the tool that generative AI is, I want to ask you, writers, out there: Do you think internet writing can pass muster as a stimulating source of information for creating rich literature? Do you feel daunted or dissuaded by these new-fangled toys that at best, mimic human creation? Do you even know what this is going to bode for the future of literature? In times like these, I urge you to double down on what you are reading and stimulating your mind with; I implore you not to lose faith in artistic imagination and eternal wonder; it is not a time to despair, but a time to march on regardless with determination for human ingenuity to prevail.
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