Many of us have already had our lives impacted in some way by the rise of AI, including those of us working in creative fields. And if ChatGPT’s new creative writing model lives up to the hype, even Stephen King may have to watch his back.
Sam Altman Claims ChatGPT Can Now Write Good Fiction
ChatGPT is now capable of creative writing, with a new model trained just for that purpose. This week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a short story written by ChatGPT on X, claiming it proves that ChatGPT is now “good at creative writing.”
You can read ChatGPT’s short story in full to see if you yourself are impressed. You can also see the prompt which Altman fed ChatGPT’s creative writing model, with the keywords being “metafictional,” “literary,” “AI,” and “grief.” Here’s what ChatGPT came up with in response…
Altman seems very impressed, but then he may be just a little biased. However, the external reactions range from people claiming it means that “the future is not bright for flesh and blood authors” to people calling it “trash” that would “get you laughed out of grad school.”
To be fair to ChatGPT, its new creative writing model, AND Sam Altman’s assessment of this short story, metafiction is a tough genre to write. But still, I’m not that impressed. On the surface, it looks well-written and quite compelling, but a quick scratch beneath the surface, and its failings are there for all to see.
AI Will Never Be Able to Write As Well As Humans, Right?
Artificial intelligence is very good at a lot of different things, but especially at completing tasks where there’s a defined and definite process. But that isn’t the case with fiction writing. Sure, you can break it down into a series of tasks, but fiction also requires an extra sparkle of creativity.
Related
What Is AI Writing? Why It Can Never Replace Humans
AI writing tools are picking up pace and can write a whole article from scratch. But, can they ever replace real, human writers?
AI doesn’t do creativity well because it isn’t a creative force. AI works by absorbing what others have written, and then spitting out its own take on that. It’s a form of copying rather than creating. And unlike humans, there’s no lived experience involved.
It’s for this reason that I cannot see AI writers ever being as good at creating writing as humans are. However, ultimately, I’m not sure whether that will matter.
There are already plenty of books written by AI available to buy. And as it’s cheaper and easier to have artifical intelligence write fiction for you, publishing companies are likely to lean into this way of producing books more and more.
