Will AI replace writers?
It depends, but it will.
As far as some writers are concerned, the Singularity is here
Large language models (LLMs) the likes of ChatGPT have already stirred quite the commotion in the society of computer science gurus, politicians, and other experts whose relevant qualification is having a Twitter account. Soon, as the effects of this technology become manifest, society at large will be shaken to the core.
It’s gotten crazy. Computer scientists, many of dubious fame, shout from the rooftops how Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), meaning something akin to human intelligence, not merely specialized AI (aka quasi-impotent Machine Learning (ML) efforts), is something we will never be able to produce, yet at the same time, the same people, sign the infamous petition to block further AI research. Make up your mind, then: If AGI is intangible, why bother stopping research?
We’ll never get AGI, not with this attitude.
What’s your shtick?
Are you writing dime-a-dozen smut and/or emotional pornography that you wrap in an enticing (i.e., salacious) package, usually consisting of a book cover boasting some half-naked version of Christian Grey, that you then dump on the Kindle Store?
Then the answer is yes: You will be replaced by AI. AGI not required. This needs not be tragic. Simply switch sides: get AI to do your work for you, write that schlock in your stead, then just market it as per usual. Profit at scale.
Perhaps you’re writing copy for commercial purposes, landing pages and ads. If your copy is bland, generic, purple, conformist, then the answer is also yes: You’ll be replaced by AI soon enough. Do not despair. As is the case with the smut writer, you can turn AI into your ally. Most people don’t know better anyway.
Polish or perish
In the coming world of AI-powered, write-by-numbers verbalism, great human writing shall rise like oil above water.
The deafening background noise of AI pseudo-creation already makes the human signal all the more salient.
This is a good thing: Mediocrity now has an infinitely scalable competitor. Rise above, or drown in that lukewarm ocean of probabilistic droplets.
Polish your craft or be surpassed by the machine.
The opportunity here lies in arming gifted human writers with unobtrusive AI tools to take over the menial tasks, provide a second set of "eyes," offer alternatives, assist and help—in short, like a tireless personal assistant or secretary, remove much of that friction that isn't promoting creativity, nor expression; unblock and facilitate, clear the path, unburden humans of everything but that which compels them to write in the first place.
What seems to some as the ender of professional writing is only the raiser of the standards.
At Novelitist, we’re not judging. Nothing wrong with writing schlock.
Here we encourage writing in general, and our business is providing the best tools to write with, to the businessman as well as the literary enlightened.
“The best” now means AI-enabled tools. They give you technical abilities inconceivable (or all but impossible to implement) just one year ago, ranging from assistance with style and research to writing and entire first draft.
That’s why AI is coming to Novelitist. It’s going to be opt-in and kept completely separated from our other facilities (meaning you can simply shun it without losing anything else we provide), but there’s no turning back.
The genie has left the building.
* Generated using OpenAI’s DALL·E model.