So many good books; so little time! Original stories, poetry, book reviews and stuff writers like to know.

Saturday, November 29, 2025

To swap creativity for convenience is like selling one's inheritance for a bowl of Lentils. Can anyone really be that hungry?

 

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

 









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.

1 comment:

  1. The interesting thing is that the youngest generation has a great capacity to sniff out ai-generated works and seeking soul-generated opinions, creativity, stories and works of art. With the rampant hallucinations getting to be a greater problem in AI, one sees a future not as artificial as we think. It is a tool, perhaps an editor, but works of art, video, animation, thoughts, stories that are connected to a human soul have just become infinitely more valuable. And the youngest generation knows this.

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