You 'bout done in there?
READERS WHO ARE ALSO WRITERS, PAINTERS, MUSICIANS,
DANCERS, OR ANYONE ELSE WHOSE LIFE WOULD BE CHEAPENED IF THE CREATIVE ARTS YOU
LOVE WERE RENDERED OBSOLETE—READ THIS, IT’S URGENT.
I
wrote the first paragraph of a possible post (below) and gave AI (Copilot)
instructions to add two paragraphs in the same style on the perils facing
writers as a consequence of AI. I had the result in about twenty seconds.
Tell
me why I should expend time and energy to make this case when AI can do it in
one third of a minute—all grammatically correct with no spelling or punctuation
errors.
AI’s
assistance cost me $0.00.
Let’s
not shrug off the implications of this enormous transition to productivity
over the arts.
Enjoy
the irony of AI being tricked into arguing against its own existence.
Share
with your creative friends. Respond to gg.epp41@gmail.com
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So much is being said and written about AI:
its “enormous benefits” for health, its contribution to productivity, etc. An
article on Canada Writes verbalized the near panic AI has raised among
artists, in this case, creative writers. The article reiterates an obvious point:
AI is the result of the theft and accumulation of masses of data which are then
raided and recombined by pre-constructed algorithms to produce a product with
amazing similarity to something a human mind might have created. Any such
image, video, song, story can be the result of the recombination of bits of
human work by thousands, who certainly won’t be rewarded for their contributions.
For
creative writers, the ascent of AI technology casts a long shadow over the
traditional notions of authorship and originality. With algorithms capable of
generating prose, poetry, and entire narratives in a matter of moments, human
writers face the unsettling prospect of competing not only with their peers,
but with machines that never tire, hesitate, or doubt. The marketplace for
stories, once shaped by human voice and unique perspective, is increasingly
crowded with works whose lineage stems not from lived experience but from data
synthesis. This relentless proliferation risks diluting the value of authentic,
personal expression, as readers struggle to discern between what is born of
genuine imagination and what is the clever product of computational mimicry.
Furthermore,
the economic implications for writers are profound. As publishers and media
platforms turn to AI-generated content for its efficiency and
cost-effectiveness, opportunities for human writers may dwindle, threatening
livelihoods and diminishing the diversity of literary voices. The labor of
writing—a craft honed through years of discipline, intuition, and
vulnerability—becomes vulnerable to commodification by software that
effortlessly assembles passable imitations. In this shifting landscape, creative
writers must grapple with the fear that their words, their stories, and
ultimately their identities as artists may be rendered valueless, not by lack
of merit, but by the inexorable advancement of artificial intelligence.