A.I. Who?

It feels like everywhere you look in the creative sphere we're either being infiltrated by AI or talking about being infiltrated by AI. The never ending flow of generated slop drowns out the creatives and floods the algorithms at an insane pace. (If you want to go down a fun rabbit hole look up the dead internet theory)

I for one refuse to be intimidated by the AI craze. Not to toot my own horn but I'm a damn good writer, and no matter what, a machine can't take a job that isn't a job. I think many creators will agree with me when I say that creating isn't just a way to make money or to start a career, it's a passion. Even if AI became good enough to be better than me (press x to doubt), I wouldn't stop writing.

Even without AI the going is tough as a writer. It's not the most glamorous pursuit nor is reading culture the most mainstream of the narrative art mediums but it is incredibly rewarding. So what's one more obstacle?

And how much of an obstacle is AI really? Half of the AI panic is entirely unnecessary. AI is not good at writing. It's really bad at writing, no matter what some tech bro on TikTok says. You could probably get away with composing an email or an okay short story. But a full length novel? Definitely not. And even when a human polishes the output enough to be readable they better cover their tracks perfectly because the literary community HATES liars. In that way its a little bit of a flex to be able to say you don't use AI nowadays.

I am not staunchly against all use of AI. I believe it can be used as a tool. I'm not a fan of using it because of the unethical data gathering and environmental impacts. But I cannot deny there are useful, ethical applications of AI, like for gene study and automating menial tasks.

Not everything that gets called AI is generative. It's become more of a buzz word and catchall term. At the same time it's being forced down our throats at every turn. Every app, every website, every search engine, every social media platform. There's no escaping it and more than immediate issues I'm worried about the future.

I hope AI doesn't make us lazy and forget the value of good writing. I have faith though, a good writer can't be a lazy writer and a lazy writer will never be a good writer. So hopefully their will always be people out there willing to get their brains dirty; maybe that's you, but it's definitely me.