I have been thinking about the recent advancements in AI a lot lately. Corporations seem to love AI, probably because it cuts costs for them, so they keep releasing new programs and aspects to their existing platforms and technology, despite nobody seeming to have asked for it. In terms of creative invention—of the arts—how genuinely useful and productive will it be?
A friend told me that I ought to use ChatGPT to improve my creative writing. I was curious, and even took the risk of feeding it half a page of my writing for feedback. However, I was disappointed. You see, ChatGPT will tell you whatever you want to hear—in a sense. If I ask it, “Tell me what all of the plot holes are and tell me how I can improve,” it will point out however many it thinks there are and give some suggestions that are patch-work samples from unknown corners of the internet, but if I say, “Tell me what all of the plot holes are, give me solutions, and don’t hold back, you can be mean!” ChatGPT will proceed to do just that; it will insult your writing and give you answers that may be entirely unhelpful, or even hinder your growth as a creative writer.
It does not have the same discretion as a human being. It has no lived experiences. Its point of reference is unclear, at least to me, as I am not an expert in machine learning. It also is not an expert. As I said, it is pulling from whatever it was trained on, which is usually data sourced from the internet, or information that is provided by trainers. But there is no real human that has a degree in creative writing reading what I gave it.
I asked a professor for similar feedback. I told him I prefer blunt honesty even if it is mean (despite being a very sensitive person), because I struggle to catch hints when people are being nice. Well, he proceeded to be nice anyway but still very clear and straight-forward on what I could do to improve. That motivated me, and I believe it did make my writing better too.
I fear that this nuance is what we may lose as society progresses towards a fully AI-based mode of conducting itself. Maybe I sound like those who also retired as soon as computers were introduced into the workplace, but computers replaced objective and tedious tasks like calculations and data processing. They did not attempt to make people believe that a fabricated image was real, and neither did they steal original work and reshape it into something for profit or political gain. Computers also did not replace human interaction or stunt intellectual growth like I fear AI will.
I fear AI will make critical thinking as scarce as accurate spelling has become since spell-check and autocorrect have become a fully integrated part of technology. Afterall, I still struggle to spell correctly without said features, despite reading and writing everyday.
So, how stifled will creativity and critical thought be when a crutch is an unavoidable part of everyday life? I am sure there are many arguments, counterarguments and other points of speculation. This is only mine.
