What does AI (artificial intelligence) mean to writers? With Microsoft investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the model, ChatGPT, can interact conversationally. This is good news when we look at writing tasks that need a two-way discourse to succeed in communicating, such as emails, customer service chats, and bots. It frees everyone to utilize this in everyday business tasks to move on to something more productive and lucrative.
On the downside, AI will and already has begun to eliminate the need for actual human beings to hold any communication job that engages the whole customer service culture and supports writers financially. Copywriting, blogs, content. Don’t get me started on some writers’ contempt for the layman trying to communicate in online retail chat. I have always maintained that working with the public is hard, damn hard, and many of us wouldn’t last one day in fast food or retail environments. Even if the pay is low, only some people are good at it.
Writers who write for profit could be alarmed at this invasion of robotic machines and software systems that will stamp out the creativity and soul of the written word. Or, they could do what we have been doing since the eighties first started to disclose a glimmer of the potential of computers in our lives.
We can use the power of technology in any form we want. We can utilize computers as we always have, using AI as a jumping-off point for a great article or a nudge from hitting that writing wall. It can be a source of inspiration. Language is a bridge, and I have met many a fine person behind the writing and heard their original, distinctive voice sing through the paper or tablet.
We can choose to believe the aliens have landed, the hybrids walk among us, and the robot uprising has begun. Or, we can embrace change, use it to our advantage, and continue to do what writers have done for centuries.
Write.