What Does AI Mean for Writers?

Artificial intelligence, more commonly referred to as AI, is the hot tech topic of the day. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) wants AI addressed in their contract negotiations and Congress is holding a series of AI Insight Forums to gain a better understanding of it.

If you find yourself wondering what AI means to the average writer, read on.

Chat GPT

To gain an understanding of just what AI can do, let’s take a look at a highly popular AI app: Chat GPT. Chat GPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer.” It was developed by Open AI, an AI research company, and it generates content in response to prompts. That means you can type in a command or ask a question and it will produce a written response that sounds like natural human language.

On the surface, it doesn’t sound much different from a Google search. However, responses generated by Chat GPT and similar chatbots don’t respond with links to assist you in your own data collection. Chat GPT contains a large dataset of text, and it searches that data set, applies algorithms, and produces a text response.

This type of AI can actually be helpful for writers. For example, you can prompt the system to generate ideas for a sci-fi story that takes place on Mars, outline a mystery that involves a female bookshop owner and a rare book that’s missing, or create a shopping list for someone who wants to transition to a Mediterranean diet.

You can even prompt the app to “Write a 500 word article about the benefits of AI” and you will get what you asked for. AI systems pull from the language patterns, information, and ideas of existing works to generate the text you want.

Writers’ Concerns

Once you see what AI can do for you, some nagging concerns begin to arise. Can this be termed as “stealing” from existing creators?

On one hand, it looks new. What’s the difference between a tech tool borrowing from existing patterns and an artist being inspired by them? But on the other hand, the product is not new and original. The “creation” is generated from the images that have been programmed into it.

This is where it gets sticky for writers. Technically speaking, it’s not creating new work – it’s regenerating data points from established work in a whole new way. So, if you prompt the system to “Write a 500 word story about a horse that is appropriate for an 8-year-old reader,” it will produce a response based on the dataset contained within it. Which means, based on text that was previously written by humans.

Text generated by AI systems pulls from the language patterns, information, and ideas of existing works. Technically speaking, it’s not creating new work – it’s regenerating data points from established work in a whole new way.

This capability rightfully sends up red flags for authors and illustrators. What qualifies as copyright infringement in this strange new world? Why pay a writer to produce a story when your computer app can do it for you?

The Authors Guild

Writers have been concerned about this for a while now. Back in October of 2022, The Authors Guild posted a cautionary article by Mary Rasenberger entitled “How Will Authorship Be Defined in an AI Future?”

One major concern presented in this piece is fair compensation for creators. The Authors Guild is actively advocating for changes to copyright laws that will prevent AI from taking over the market for written works.

Rasenberger presents a list of ways AI has already been used in journalism, corporate texts, and literature. She cites two examples of AI achievements that are more than moderately concerning. An AI-generated novel was a finalist for a Japanese literary award, and there was an AI-generated article about the harmless nature of AI published in The Guardian.

Rasenberger goes on to explain that AI is not actually “creating”; it is auto-generating texts and images using existing works that have been programmed into it. She argues that copyright laws need to adjust for AI infringements, and she details a list of concerns that need to be addressed.

However, the author also concludes that she does not foresee AI being able to replace true art. Human art reflects the very real experiences and emotions of its time and place. And that cannot be generated from existing works. In Rasenberger’s words, “I think we can all agree that a world without the arts, which help move us forward as a society, is not one that we aspire to.”

Conclusions

Does AI have the potential to eliminate human creators from the equation? Probably not. Regenerating text and images from what already exists does not move the world forward. AI will never have the capacity to think, feel, empathize, and imagine.

However, from the business perspective, all that thinking, feeling, empathizing, and imagining costs money. It’s got to be tempting to let the app do the writing. For example, a company called G/O media recently published four articles that were generated by AI engines.

As often happens with chatbots, the articles contained errors, and there was no editing from a human. They ran the stories with the errors. And the company isn’t facing humiliation over it; they’re planning to continue the process.

It’s hard to derive real conclusions from all the AI information out there right now because this is just the dawn of the age. However, it’s safe to say that AI is here to stay, and writers need to be aware of both its positive and its negative potential.