It's the first Wednesday in March so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!
The awesome co-hosts for the March 6 posting of the IWSG are Kristina Kelly, Miffie Seideman, Jean Davis, and Liza @ Middle Passages!
This month's question is very topical...
Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?
I have to admit that I have played around a bit with ChatGPT. Out of curiosity more than anything else. Not to write a synopsis, but I did feed a synopsis to the AI to see what kind of a query letter it might make of it.
The answer? Not a very good one. It gave some weird comp titles that I didn't think matched my book at all, and focused the query on a sub-plot rather than the meat of the story. Perhaps my synopsis wasn't good enough? Or AI isn't as smart as it is cracked up to be. I certainly would never use what Chat GPT spat out in any real-life scenario.
Maybe if I'd persevered and given the bot more guidance, I would have got something better out of it. But frankly, doing that defeats the time-saving purpose of using the bot to begin with. It took me far less time to write a more compelling query by hand than it would have to keep engaging with the AI to get something useable.
I don't think AI can ever replace real writers. Even if you ask the bot to write something in the "style of Writer X", it's never going to capture the nuance of that writer's voice which comes from their experiences and emotional responses to situations. Yes, maybe the bot can find words the author is partial to and use those in whatever text it spits out, but it still won't feel or read the same as something actually written by that author.
I don't think AI has any place in any creative field. Creativity is something uniquely human that is born from the particular experiences, emotions, values and sensitivities of individual people. A computer is never going to be able to replicate that in a way that feels wholly satisfying because it doesn't have those influences shaping its thought processes from birth. All it can do is replicate stuff that has already been created and spit it back at us after it has been through its electronic filter.
So I would never use AI as a tool in my writing work. I don't find it that helpful. Where I have found it useful is in creating things like NDA agreements or generic job description documents or form letters. Things that have been created many times before and can be tailored to fit your own needs. These things can take a long time to pull together from scratch, and using the AI created document as a framework for your own can save a significant amount of time.
I just wouldn't use it exactly as it is when it comes out of ChatGPT... There are always some weird phrases or terms that need some adjusting before they say what you truly want to say.
What are your feelings about AI? Would you use it in your creative practices?
I agree with you that Al shouldn't be used for writing creatively. But it does have other uses. I find giving it detailed instructions helps when I write my articles for work. I still have to rewrite and heavily edit what Al writes.
ReplyDeleteAI should be illegal. It runs on stealing other people's work, among other problems it causes.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a well-written post...and argument. The word nuance sums it all up. Maybe AI creates a jumping off point, but a writer has to make it "right."
ReplyDeleteI don't care for AI. My significant other is a software engineer and he's found it useful for aspects of his job, but I don't want it anywhere near any of my work.
ReplyDeleteI'm right with you on AI, Kate! Happy IWSG Day!
ReplyDeleteTime saving is one of the main reasons I haven't tried AI yet. I'd spend just as much time feeding prompts as I would if I just wrote.
ReplyDeleteFair. I do use it for writing adjacent tasks. So far, so good. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
AI as a creator or artist is a monstrous enemy to me. I dont touch it. Yet, as with much computer technology, it's fascinating and so I can see how you wanted to experiment with the synopsis. However, myself, I prefer to use computer technology that helps with other aspects of writing such as spell checking and formatting. But the creative aspect was meant for humans.
ReplyDelete