Why Writers Should Not Give a Damn about AI Encroaching On Their Turf

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-red-typewriter-1995842/

 

I hear that one of the reasons for the Hollywood writers’ strike is the fact that they fear the big studios will turn to AI for creating scripts! Really?! What does AI ever do other than rehash, regurgitate and repurpose old content already created by humans? You might train a chimpanzee to ride a cycle in a circus, but it will not be able to ride it to the grocery store to buy bananas for its mother!

AI doesn’t really create anything new, it only trawls pre-existing content on the internet very efficiently and comes up with something that it assumes is just right for the purpose that has been communicated to it by a human. It, of course, is incapable of doing anything on its own and has to be told what to do by us.

It cannot, for instance, wake up one morning look at the sun and get inspired to write a sci-fi tale about how a hundred years in the future, mankind solves its energy problem, by devising a system to obtain endless energy from the sun. Now, that’s a very hackneyed concept for a sci-fi story, but at least I thought of it myself and didn’t do a Google search about what to write a sci-fi story about this morning.

That is the problem with AI-generated content. It lacks soul and originality and can be easily distinguished from original human-created content. Not only does it not rank very high on SEO, it provides very little value as it is less likely to connect with readers on a human level. Besides, it is unreliable in terms of it being more often than not getting flagged for plagiarism. A professional content creator who has built a formidable reputation for the quality of his or her writing would be committing professional suicide over the long run if they turn to AI to get the job done.

For one, they will no longer have a distinct identity of their own in terms of how they write. Secondly, they might get to hear negative feedback from their clients, if their content gets flagged for copyright issues. Even if they use AI to only generate ideas or collaborate with it in jointly creating content, they will lose their edge in writing, which will tend to be lazy and lacking in conviction.  All of this would lead to the gradual frittering away of the hard-won goodwill of their target audience.

We are told that AI is advancing at a rapid pace and very soon it will be able to think autonomously. Well, if it does that then we might as well bid goodbye to organic life as we know it and say hello to a new era of mechanical life. Do we really want it? It's like handing over the keys of the fortress to an enemy we have created and nurtured ourselves. This is something that has been flagged by the most eminent scientists of our times, some of whom played a big part in the creation of artificial intelligence as we know it today.

Writing is the most basic form of human expression and defines our humanity, as much as eating, marrying, having children and forming social associations do. We cannot outsource any of that to machines. Why should we do it? Do we want to become cyborgs? Humans are way too intelligent to self-destruct like that and will put the right safety mechanisms in place when it comes to the use of AI. This is something that has come up at the highest levels of government, social scientists and the very people who created AI.

AI as a technology cannot approach the human level of creativity and original thought by a long shot for a very long time, if at all. That it will not be allowed to overtake us and make slaves of us is a foregone conclusion. There is no need to fear it, but one can find uses for it when it comes to carrying out basic research for writing. Of course, some are using it to do all kinds of things like writing research reports, books, prose, poetry, et al. But they will be found out soon and ostracised. The writers who continue to create original content derived from their own experience, understanding and imagination aren't going anywhere. In fact, they will thrive.