I'm A Real, Flesh And Blood Writer

I'll start this off by being the first to admit I'm not up on the latest technology. I'm somewhat of a Luddite when it comes to these things.

You really can't blame me. I'm a Gen Xer. We didn't have computers in school when I was a kid. Atari was high-falutin' and advanced, you know, with its 2D graphics and all.

I didn't have an email address until my second year of university.

Heck, I still write out my poetry by hand with a good old-fashioned pen and paper before typing it.

That said, I love my laptop and the internet and having access to a world of information and opportunity at my fingertips. Then, over the past few weeks, I started to read about artificial intelligence (AI) programs that could write on demand. I didn't like it, not one bit.

As a writer, I immediately worried about what this would mean for the future of writers like me. How could someone like me, who earns their bread and butter creating original works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry compete with a computer program? I'm not Bobby Fisher and this isn't 1972 tech.

And why should I have to compete? It didn't seem fair to me. What's to stop someone from generating a story on one of these AI sites and passing it off as their own work? People plagiarize all the time and avoid getting caught. I've seen stories ripped off from others become Top Stories. So how is this different?

Oh, I know, there's some sort of technology that's supposed to be able to weed out the technology, right? And we're all working on the honour system, creators are supposed to label their work as having been AI-generated. Well, I was a lawyer and you don't have to look any further than the paragraph above regarding plagiarism to see the value and utility in that. I don't like to see cheaters win.

A Facebook post on the subject got me thinking today. The author used ChatGPT to create a story about a talking wall. Do note that she DID NOT enter it into any challenge or publish it; she was making a point. I'm not sure if her point and mine are the same, but it did make me think a little differently.

I decided to try it myself. I logged in to ChatGPT and asked it to create a story about a talking wall for me. The first story it generated was identical to the one on Facebook. I asked for another:

Here it is:

Once upon a time, there was a talking wall in the middle of a bustling city. At first, people were afraid of the wall, but they soon realized that it was friendly and wise.

The talking wall would listen to people's problems and offer advice. It seemed to know everything about everyone and everything that happened in the city. People would often come to the wall to ask for its guidance, and it never failed to give them the right answer.

As time passed, the talking wall became famous, and people from all over the world would come to see it. They would ask it questions about their lives, and the wall would give them answers that would change their lives forever.

The wall's popularity continued to grow until one day, the government decided to tear it down. People were devastated and protested against the government's decision. They argued that the talking wall had become an essential part of the city's identity and culture.

But the government didn't listen, and the wall was demolished. However, what the government didn't realize was that the talking wall had a secret. It had imprinted all the knowledge and wisdom it had gained over the years into the bricks that made up its structure.

And so, even though the talking wall was gone, its knowledge and wisdom lived on. People would often come to the spot where the wall had stood and touch the bricks, hoping to gain some of its wisdom.

And so, the legend of the talking wall lived on, and the people of the city were forever grateful for the knowledge and advice it had given them.

I can say this for the story, it made me rethink my position on AI-generated writing.

Here's one of my wall entries, for the sake of comparison:

Now granted, my story is no work of great literature. But do take a look and honestly tell me which one you prefer. If I'm wrong, I'm okay with that.

But, I don't think I am. The ChatGPT story is technically sound in terms of punctuation, grammar, and spelling. But that's it. It looks like something a 13-year-old would hand into their 8th-grade English teacher, one that's trying to sound clever, at that.

And if I were that teacher, I'd give the work a C, maybe a B-. Harsh? Maybe, but I don't think so. Creative writing is about being creative. Punching something into a computer and having it spit something back isn't creative, it's data entry.

Also, the AI story lacks something. Again, look at it and look at mine. And if you don't want to look at mine, look at whatever writer you like, it doesn't matter, the point still stands. It lacks humanity. It lacks emotion, feeling, humour. My story might not be perfect, but I can guarantee you that you will feel something and you might even chuckle.

Think about it, why do we read the stuff we read? Why do we watch the stuff we watch? Because it makes us feel. Because there's a character, a situation, a tone, a voice that resonates with us and draws us in. Some writers do it through masterful character development, others through vivid scene-setting.

But it doesn't matter how they do it, they do it. Human, flesh, and blood authors. That's what elevates the technical aspects of writing and story-telling to an art form.

Maybe this AI stuff is good for more technical pieces, research stuff, I don't know. Even then, I still think as a society we're losing something by letting machines do all our thinking for us, but that's another rant for another day.

All I know is I've tried it and ChatGTP, you got nothing on me!