“I Don’t F*** with AI”, Says Writers (AI and Creative Writing, Part 2)

This Article is part of a side-by-side written example comparing Artificial Intelligence writing an article to a human-written article about the same topic to showcase the increased capability of bots. There are 3 articles involved, one written 100% by AI, another 100% human written, and the third mostly AI written, with some human input and guidance from me.

The writing community has been angered by Artificial Intelligence becoming a cheaper and faster alternative to creative writing. Writers believe the value of art is depreciating, and the integrity of the art is on the line.

“It’s very disappointing, if I Google something, it’s just AI-generated and people think they’re real,” said University of California, Santa Barbara student Belle Davis.

Creative writing has existed for millennia. The existence of timeless fictional literary works is due to those who wanted their work to last. It is the appreciation of this creativity that makes art have an everlasting impact, and AI is diminishing the beauty and timelessness of these masterpieces.

“There is a lack of creativity [in A.I. produced work] because it is trained based on existing works, often without the consent of the original authors. The writing I have seen is dry and generic.” Said Riley Johnson, a University of North Carolina at Asheville alum.

Through the Writers’ strike, we have already seen writers express their frustrations with the lack of compensation. Artificial intelligence has not helped reduce these frustrations, as it has been incorporated more freely into work.

The more people use things such as ChatGPT, the more knowledge or insight the system gains. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to spot the difference between something written up by AI and something written by a human.

AI is also being incorporated into academic writing, causing what some may say is an easy way out. Students have taken advantage of the easy access to bots, and writing as a skill is withering.

“In an academic context, people are going to have to find better ways of not allowing it; it can corrupt our ability to write. You will never learn to write a proper essay because it is an easy route. I think the skill of writing is important. We need good boundaries for AI and writing, it’s going to become better at writing, and it’ll be harder to see, it’s terrifying.”Said Davis.

Though anger towards this taking over is apparent, it is not without recognizing the usefulness of certain aspects of AI..

“There are good uses for AI, especially when considering the ways it could make life easier for disabled people. For example, the AI technology that assists blind people by giving audio descriptions of what they are looking at.”Said Johnson.

Belle Davis and Riley Johnson have both noted one resourcefulness that AI can provide for creative writers in general. However, they struggled to find any additional beneficial uses for creative writing.

It can be useful for storyboarding. It’s, s not the same though, when it comes to writer’s block. “I don’t f*** around with it. I refuse to go to AI with writer’s block, it would not be original for me. I am not comfortable with it, I want to feel ethical when I use it, I just don’t know right now.”Said Davis.

Writer’s block is a part of the artistic process; having access to AI to help with it takes away the writing experience and value. Johnson expresses more thoughts on this:

I believe that people find AI writing prompts helpful in generating some new ideas. But do you feel camaraderie with AI when you make a discovery in your work? Do you feel excited by the process of writing, or do you just think of it as an obstacle to your having already written something? The threat that worries me about AI in writing is that writing will be devalued in the public eye. I don’t like the idea of being passed over because I work too slowly. I write because I love discovering things and seeing how the details of a story, or another project, come together in the end. It’s beautiful, atmospheric, and exciting.

Creative writing competitions have now allowed writing written by artificial intelligence to enter, to not discriminating. Specifically, for National Novel Writing Month, the goal of this competition is to write 50,000 words through November; however, there is a new policy in place stating that AI-entered work can be judged against other works.

Davis feels that this approach, to be inclusive of all minorities and disabled persons, is unfair and more detrimental to writers.

“They[ National Novel Writing Month] are not banning AI work. They say it can be judged against my work; It shouldn’t be judged.”Said Davis.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t provide enough sustenance and satisfaction when reading its creative works. There is a disconnect between the author and the writing.

“AI’s ability to simulate creativity and emotion often misses the joy of creating something new, of crafting a pathway between the author and the audience, and of expressing one’s own experience of the world. “Said Johnson.

Through writing this article and comparing it to ChatGPT’s version of the article, it has increasingly become more difficult to differentiate between human and bot writing. With Journalism, especially, being a nonfiction form of writing. Had I asked GPT to write an article even a year ago, I think the outcome would have been different, but as more information goes into these bots, the more knowledge and understanding they gain of the world and humans. I do not think AI will take over creative writing just yet. However, Journalism may be next on its list. Aside from formatting, there are a couple of things to be on the lookout for when reading an article. Harsher transitions, between topics, AI tends to be more logically organized, and a sort of uncanny valley feeling comes over. Human writing transitions a lot smoother than AI. When AI writes something, it comes off as more formal as it doesn’t understand how to change the tone of its writing and cannot fully mimic a human talking. Lack of verified sources! AI pulls from the general public.