I attended a writers' conference last Saturday. Writers are a curious breed, convinced their unique perspective on describing something as mundane as a sunset is groundbreaking and essential. I love them, but they’re weird.
This year, though, a frequent topic was artificial intelligence. How do writers use it if at all? Speaker after speaker claimed they don’t use the stuff, choosing instead to remain “pure.”
“Huh,” I thought. I wonder if mathematicians once dismissed calculators because they weren’t pure or cooks refused kitchen blenders because electrified blending wasn’t pure or the ancient Chinese dismissed matches because fire made from flint and steel was somehow more pure.
"AI just doesn't have a soul," the authors seemed to be saying. "It can't experience love, loss, or regret." True enough, but then again, neither does my toaster, and it still reliably performs its job every morning without any existential angst. Plus, it doesn't complain when I burn the toast.
Truth be told, I wanted to agree with the speakers wholeheartedly. Part of me wanted to stand triumphantly on my chair, fist raised high, shouting, "Yes! AI can’t possibly write the way we can! Its unpure." But as I sat listening, I couldn’t help remembering countless times when I've stared helplessly at a blinking cursor on an empty screen, desperately begging for inspiration to appear. More often than not, what I ended up writing about was mindless junk that I needed to fill a page and make a deadline. Maybe a dash of AI could have given my writer's block exactly the jump-start it needed.
Yet, could an AI authentically capture the awkward silence after a joke falls embarrassingly flat, something I've personally experienced far too often, or perfectly describe the unique blend of ego and insecurity that simmered quietly throughout the conference room? Could it mimic the quiet desperation of writers jockeying for the attention and the validation of their peers?
The honest truth is I don't know, and frankly, I'm not sure these writers at the conference really knew either. Perhaps they're right, and artificial intelligence will always lack that elusive "human touch," but who can say for sure? Maybe someday, an AI will pen a poem so profoundly moving that we'll all toss our beloved notebooks aside and question every choice we've ever made.
STOP. FULL STOP.
Everything you’ve just heard was written this morning by ChatGPT using the following prompt:
Write a 450-word commentary based on my Keepin' it Real commentaries for Alabama Public Radio, written in my voice. In it, discuss a writer's conference I attended last week and how many writers felt that AI could never replace the sound of the true creative's voice. Make it humorous and poke a bit of fun at the writers who said this.
And folks, I can promise you this is the first time I’ve used AI in any of my 300+ commentaries, and I pledge to you going forward, I intend to Keep It Real.
