HOSTILE TAKEOVER
The Future of Writing
It’s no secret that Artificial Intelligence is a part of our lives. Of course, reminiscent from the days of Terminator, we have welcomed it with hopeful reluctance.
The recent admission by the former Google employee about the sentience of the software he was working with sent shockwaves through the tech world. Of course, Google denied the admission, promptly dismissing the employee. Regardless of whether you believe him or not, however, somehow we all knew this conversation would have to happen. We just didn’t know when.
*BTW if you haven’t read the interview, it is pretty mind-blowing.
So what does this have to do with writing?
Plenty. We already know the publishing industry is changing by the flood of self-published authors entering the arena, but have we also thought about the new technology of AI copy writers emerging on the market?
Consider this: Article writers (real ones) can provide a description, a tone of voice, and a few other little details and viola! The AI writes the article for them. You may think it’s strange to think about, but the real kicker is that you may have already read an article (or several) written by an AI.
Don’t believe me? Here’s one you can check out. Yep, written by a true, flesh and blood AI. Yes, yes, I know the irony of my own words… I’m just attempting to mix in some humor with my content. (Perhaps unsuccessfully?)
In any sense, the rise of AI copywriters could represent a hostile takeover by writers who value their purist old-fashion methods of cranking out books at a speedy pace of one or two per year, using actual fingers on a keyboard, but it could also become a standard in the industry. Soon, whole books could be “written” by an AI, making authors more of “handlers” and caretakers of their pet AI’s. Oh wait, there’s already entire books written by AI’s already. (Shaking my head)
I don’t think this is going to flip next week, or even next year. There are still plenty of bugs to work out in AI, and the question of “can a computer really ever be an artist?” is yet to be answered. Not only that, but there are many of us who will never submit to the churning wheel of progress, and will continue to buy print books from brick-and-mortar stores for several times the price of a Kindle book. Yep, you know who you are. Dawn, I’m talking to you.
How we should respond
Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like answering that question would be the same as knowing which Silicone Valley up-and-coming startup to put my money. It’s hard to answer.
I do know that there will be some of us that refuse to ever give up the “traditional” ways of writing a book. We will be clutching our Scrivener and ancient 2021 Macbook Pro until we die.
I love to think of myself as a progressivist (with technology), but I don’t know that I’ll ever get behind reading whole series by an AI. I value human interaction too much to hand it all off to a software program. I think of it as buying an over-priced handmade mug that has a few imperfections, instead of the machine-thrown one that doesn’t have a speck on it.
Personally, I will respond with healthy skepticism. Like I am stepping onto an iced-over lake for the first time. I want to allow technology to help us. It makes us better, and more efficient with how we do things.
I don’t, however, want us to lose our creative spirit in the process.