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Juleps Betelt's avatar

Readers, at least ‘regular’ readers, should be able to fathom out ChatGPT written Fiction.

Extant authors styles are signature. Will AI be able to mimic it ‘exactly?’ I don’t know, but any divergence, however small from their style will be obvious.

New(er) Authors, if using it will likely appear a little formulaic and repetitive. From some limited use (so far) of AI, I see a lot of ‘typical’ behaviours that would show in Fiction.

I don’t dispute ChatGPT can be an ‘assistant’ to help organise, plan and ideate, but if an author wants to cheat, sure, you’ll maybe make money. Great!

If an author wants to write, and be an author and enjoy writing for the love and beauty of writing, why would you want to cheat?

I’m all for progress, but not at the cost of originality, genuine wit, wisdom and craft.

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Michael Woudenberg's avatar

Totally agree

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Great conversation. "The key to not being replaceable is to have...an understanding of what makes humans unique that can’t be algorithmized away."

This is the quote I want to amplify from this piece. This is the thing to pay attention to, folks.

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Zan Tafakari's avatar

So true. I'd also add creativity is something that remains uniquely human (for now at least) - so it's important we lean into that.

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Michael Woudenberg's avatar

I cover that observation in more detail here.

https://www.polymathicbeing.com/p/can-ai-be-creative

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Paul Backhouse's avatar

If AI can become the co-creator of the story, rather than the subject, perhaps the issue is not so much about sharing credit with the AI, but rather the many human authors from which AI's learning scraped fragments of literary material use as a basis for output? Untraceable post-generative perhaps, until an author recognises their own work?

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Michael Woudenberg's avatar

That's a good point. Yet we currently do that already without AI support. We build through mimicry.

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Martin Prior's avatar

“AI’s impact on fiction writing is multi-faceted. On one hand, AI tools like predictive text engines can assist authors by suggesting sentences or helping to overcome writer's block. On the other hand, AI-generated stories challenge traditional ideas about authorship and creativity. While AI can produce content rapidly, critics argue that it lacks the emotional depth and nuance of human-authored works. Overall, AI serves both as a tool for writers and as a subject of ethical and artistic debate.”

ChatGPT, 2023

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Michael Woudenberg's avatar

Love the source.

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