Will AI conquer literature?

AI's Impact on Creative Writing

Great news for students who despise writing: as reported by the Guardian, AI is working very hard to become "good at creative writing" and will soon be able to regurgitate stories that will fool any weary teacher buried under a pile of marking. At least, that is what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – the man who unleashed ChatGPT – has been hinting at as he develops an AI model that can take on creative writing. Altman's model's story, a metafictional piece on grief, managed to sway author Jeanette Winterson, who labelled the story "beautiful and moving".

Writer Reactions

But are other writers as easily impressed? Kamila Shamsie on the fence. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Best of Friends author Kamila Shamsie told the publication, "If an MA student handed this short story into my class I'd never suspect it was AI. More to the point, I'd feel excited about the work, about the writer who was still at the relatively early learning stage and already producing work of this quality."

If Shamsie's assessment of an AI work of fiction strikes fear into the heart of any budding writers who dream of making a living writing novels, they are not alone. Shamsie, too, is worried, and goes on to add, "I can't stop thinking about what it means for writing, for creativity, for our relationship with AI and with ourselves."

Human Creativity vs AI

According to Shamsie, the AI story under question reminded her of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun – and, unlike human writers, it isn't because the AI model fell in love with Ishiguro's writing and unwittingly replicated it. Rather, it is all to do with how large language models are trained, risking copyright infringement along the way.

"As a writer I have to wonder what it will mean for my vocation, my livelihood, if AI the writer is already this good while still in its infancy," noted the Burnt Shadows author.

Shamsie could not help but add that it did not take her long to begin to appreciate the very human-esque AI story that was presented to her – an emotion that unnerved her. "By the third sentence of the story, I had stopped reading it as someone examining a text to see how far AI has come in mimicking human creativity, and was simply enjoying it, as a short story," she confessed.

Other Writers' Perspectives

Shamsie may have enjoyed this metafictional AI story from the get-go, but other writers were less forgiving in their assessment. Nick Harkway, author of Karla's Choice, described it as "alternative intelligence" with an "elegant emptiness."

David Baddiel, who wrote My Family: The Memoir, feels similar to Harkway. Slipping in a snide remark about singer Bob Dylan's literary prowess, Baddiel stated, "I agree with some who are saying that much of the story seems to be sound without sense – the phrase 'democracy of ghosts' reminded me of Bob Dylan's 'the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face'."

Finally, Tracy Chevalier, who penned the novel The Glassmaker, was ruthless in her verdict. "A story with a prompt to be metafiction is inevitably going to engender self-referential navel gazing that's even more ridiculous than the worst we can imagine of AI 'creative writing'," she said.

Impact on Human Creativity

Like Shamsie, Chevalier, too, feels that it could spell the end for writers if AI improves and learns to flawlessly mimic – and overtake – the humans who created it. In a haunting HONESTAI ANALYSIS, Chevalier finished, "The question is whether it can put all that together in a way that retains the magical essence of what we define as 'human'."

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