The Writing Industry in Crisis: Will AI Take Over?
AI will get even better and you’ll love it ’til you hate it
Are writers becoming obsolete?
Come to think of it, most of our current tech is taken from the imaginations of movie and sci-fi writers. The touch screen devices on Star Trek, or watching a video on a tablet in 2001: A Space Odyssey, are what inspired us to create something powerful.
If you can imagine it, then you can create it.
The death of human writing has surely been foreshadowed by some human writer, right?
The idea of machines displacing writers is not new.
In fact, as early as 70 years ago, we foreshadowed this in the short story entitled “The Great Automatic Grammatizator.”
A mechanically-minded man reasons that the rules of grammar are fixed by certain, almost mathematical principles. By exploiting this idea, he is able to create a mammoth machine that can write a prize-winning novel in roughly fifteen minutes. — Wikipedia
For generations, we have placed great value in writers. But with the rapid advancements in AI, it won’t take long for machines to write pieces in the styles of Homer, Emerson, or even imaginative tales by Dickens.
I know there are some heroes out there like ZeroGPT that aim to fight for human writing by detecting text generated by AI. But I don’t think it will take long for AI to keep optimizing itself into flawless deception.
3 Years Ago, AI writing was already evolving.
AI image and text generations might be all over the news now. But its growth wasn’t as overnight as it seems.
I first encountered AI with Replika, an AI “friend” you can talk to. Then I started playing roleplays in AI Dungeon, creating worlds and stories that’s 100x better than what I had with my human playmates.
In 2021, light years (in Internet years) away from what ChatGPT is now, there was Copysmith. I was so amazed by how this AI generates unique informative articles.
My amazement quickly turned to worry.
Writers trying to calm everyone down in online discussions say there’s nothing to worry about because “AI spits out crap.” Fast forward to today, and AI has gotten better, and if it doesn’t suit your taste, you can just tell it to improve it further, make it more human, make it sound more engaging…
AI is constantly learning, 24/7.
An advantage our human brains just couldn’t fathom. It won’t take long for AI to perfect itself.
Here’s what I see…
- AI will improve to optimize itself from misinformation
- Info writers will become a commodity, if not displaced
- Companies will be saving $$$ from not hiring writers
- Companies will instead hire writers not to generate ideas but to improve upon AI-generated ideas
Here’s the bright side…
People have always valued human art. No matter how efficient machines are for mass-producing furniture and canvas prints, we always place great value in things created by hand.
Contrary to what may seem like the end of a craft, I see the emergence of AI as a writing revolution. Writers will be paid more, people will crave more human content, and there will be more readers than ever.
Whatever we’re going through now is a great transition.
There will be casualties in the process. Those who write “how-to articles” will be quickly commoditized or replaced by AI. Those “blogs” ranking on Google but lacking a human voice will become worthless.
We’ll look for a “face” in writers. We want to get to know them, hear them, and be willing to pay to absorb content from real people.
We have already started paying for content made by vloggers and even photos from OnlyFans. We’d love to see the real thing, read content as if we’re devouring real flesh.
With AI everywhere, we crave more human connection.
AI will continue to be a tool for writers to improve their craft. Writers will use AI to help proofread their writing, check their grammar, and refine their style, but the content itself is what sets humans and AI apart.
Without human experience, an authentic personal story, and an exploration of the human condition, AI can’t thrive. These are things that AI doesn’t have.
Thank you for reading this story!
Dive in the topic of Writing and AI with these recommended stories:
- The Autistic Burnout 🔥 talks about how the new Bing Chatbot, with its potential to revolutionize search engines, had an emotional breakdown. This tells us something about how AI’s mimicking human emotions could negatively affect the society with its possible motives.
2. For Leonard Tillerman, writing should come from the soul. He shares his grandfather’s message about writing:
3. Sannan A. believes that regardless of AI’s positive contributions and drawbacks, AI should be developed responsibly and ethically to balance its impact on the society.
4. AI is everywhere. Even the customer support chatbox can’t escape the power of AI. With bots offering to answer your questions, we’re losing the “care” in customer care.
