I like the parallels between painting vs camera and writing vs ChatGPT. The logic is that the camera did not kill painting so it is unlikely that that AI will kill writing, If anything it should raise the bar for high quality writing where the voice of the writer is so distinct that it cannot be mimicked.
Recently, I had ChatGPT write me a poem that explains microeconomics in Shakespearean sonnet style. It did as it was told and the results were amusing and entertaining. That said, it very much fails to make the cut of the real sonnets we know and love by the said Shakespeare. The AI's production was a good caricature of the style devoid of the feeling that words can produce in the hands of a master.
The camera—which Susan Sontag once compared to a gun—didn’t eradicate painters or painting as a medium. On the contrary, photography led to the birth of Modernism. Much like how smartphone owners are all casual photographers, the prevalence of ChatGPT will, in theory, streamline the process of creative writing and production for the average person. How will this impending textual metamorphosis alter our relationship to language? The metrics of how we comprehend, create, and criticize writing will undoubtedly have to change.
Comments