Which is the monster

Can a natural-language, text-generative computer program (aka 'AI') be used to write an interesting, entertaining, engaging fictional story with a 'human' feel to it? If it can, I have yet to read one. The AI-generated stories I have read, even the better ones, have a wooden, rigid, clumsy obvious feel to them that takes away any of the joy of reading. But this technology is improving rapidly so who knows where it may lead us?

This is the best fiction writing I have read so far from an AI

More importantly, what can we, as authors, do with the level of technology that is currently available, assuming we would want to do anything with it, other than moan about it on social media?

I for one remain open minded about what could be done with generative AI and what should be done with it. I don't have enough information to make a decision and I have not yet gained enough experience using it to know how best to exploit this developing technology.

On this basis, I have been conducting an ongoing experiment into use of text-generative AI. I already use image generation to illustrate some of my stories on Vocal and am learning all the time about how to bring this type of application to bear on my creative efforts. I have even taken some of my AI-powered illustrations to an art exhibition.

But, as I say, the experiment, the learning, continues when it comes to natural language text-generation.

Yesterday, I started to write a story inspired by an image I had generated (using Gemini) and which I couldn't really find an angle to continue. What if I got Gemini to continue the story? I thought to myself today. So I gave it a go, and here is the result.

Is it easy to tell the difference between the part of the story written by me and the part of the story generated by Gemini? What did you think of the story as a whole. Did it hang together well? Could I have improved it by editing? Was the Gemini-generated bit cold and unfeeling as AI writing so often is?

I thought it was quite a readable story and I credit myself for setting the tone of the whole thing, even though I only wrote the first seven lines. When I did this, my aim was to generate the story and then to produce an edit to compare with the AI original. Having read it, I am not sure I could do much to improve it. In short, the result was much better than my previous attempt at generating an entire short story using AI:

More importantly to me, I think that in the process of allowing Gemini to complete the story I started, I have learnt something about writing stories that are more feelings based than action based. I tend to focus on action and find it harder to write 'mood' pieces. I may well try to write a different story with a similar approach, having learnt something of the art from using Gemini. Am I saying that I might become a better writer by using AI as a role model? Well, yes, I guess. Perhaps not a role model but perhaps as a way of stimulating my brain to think more creatively, if only because I don't like the idea of a generative AI being able to do the job of writing better than I can.

This also begs the question, what if I were to get a generative app to do some (or indeed all) of the legwork of writing and restrict my input to commissioning, setting the scene, prompting the AI to create an outline for me to change/approve, then generating the actual story? From that point on, I could act as the editor, as if I were the editor of a story written by a new writer for a publishing company. As it happens, I own a publishing company with only one author (me). As an almost completely unknown publishing company, it does not have authors flocking to it to be published. Why not just generate some short stories, or even a complete novel, and edit for publication? It would be an interesting experiment, I think.

What do you think?

Please let me know in comments.

Thanks for reading