AI Got You Down?
This past week, in the swirl of conversation around AI and whether or how it will replace writers and other artists, word broke of Jane Friedman's discovery of work attributed to her on Amazon. She isn't the first author to have this happen, and she won't be the last, but her profile is sufficiently high to draw media attention to her story.
The rapidly accelerating advent of AI has caused many of us to think about our futures as writers. The profession is already shaky, with journalism, magazines, and publishing making big changes and steep cuts in recent years. Writers have had to be resourceful in finding other ways to support their craft. The worry is this: if the machines are going to do it all, where does that leave us?
I have three thoughts on this (well, more than three, but I'm trying to be brief). First is that current AI modeling can't produce great creative works. Do heads of corporations care that the AI output is subpar? The Writers Guild of America and Hollywood studios are duking this out. Second is that we are going to write anyway, aren't we? The human urge to create will not be stopped by AI. We will still want to build stories, pick up paint brushes, sketch on notepads and screens.
And third, is that the magic of creation isn't in the few seconds or minutes an AI can produce something. The magic of a great work of art is knowing that the writer/artist labored over their idea and refined it, using all their skill and experience. The magic of their work isn't that it's perfect but that they poured themselves and their imagination into it--that there is a distinct point of view, born of a moment in that artist's life or in the reflection of a societal issue. AI can't even begin to achieve that.
One of the benefits of AI is that it is opening up this conversation about what art is and how we value it. We have the opportunity to decide what kind of world we live in, and the choices we make today will reverberate into the future. Are we each too small to make a difference? I don't think so.
Defining the kind of world I want to live in is something I'd been thinking about a lot, even before my layoff in May. It's why I decided to pursue book coaching and why, when our local bookstore announced they had an opening, I leapt at the chance to work there. I want to surround myself with writers and books, and I don't want to throw up my hands on this issue of AI produced "art". I want to enjoy movies, TV shows, paintings, digital art, and, yes, books that are human produced. And I bet you do, too.
If AI has got you down, chin up. Keep writing your glorious, original stories, and keep supporting your favorite artists, writers, and local bookstores.
A version of this post appeared in my weekly newsletter.
