Writing is difficult. Anyone claiming otherwise has not attempted it successfully. The task sounds simple: generate ideas, record them, and publish content. Life rarely follows with that much ease. Writing is an art form. We, as writers, are artists. We craft stories to entertain or inform. Enter Artificial Intelligence bots. With the right prompt they can compose a story to entertain or provide relatively reliable information. Is the use of AI cheating or a tool to make the art of writing easier and often better?
Like the fountain pen, the typewriter, and word processor, AI bots, used properly, are a tool. I personally use Siri and ChatGPT for different parts within my writing process. I often use ChatGPT to create images of characters or locations that I describe in detail. Often it takes several attempts to get the image to match what’s in my mind, but I use these images to refer back to later while I write. I do this because my ability to sketch is limited to stick figures and a plain hill with a few plants. With AI I get something to reference later in the writing process. I use Siri and Apple Intelligence to proofread my writing before I give it to my beta readers or editors. This is not only to save a little bit of money, but it also saves time. My editors thank me for not wasting their time with slop. At least with Siri I get the grammar right, and that is only getting better with Apple’s Siri AI in the latest version of their operating systems. In the end, what I use AI bots for is to get what is in my mind on the page, not to write or create the story. That’s my job as the writer.
The flip side of the coin is when users use AI bots to create the content itself. When the computer is the writer, and the user claims that as their own work, that is plagiarism. The user stops being the artist and becomes a user—not to be confused with a programmer, which is an art form all its own.
AI should be used in the writing process. Not to create the story, but as a tool to make the story better. Just another step in the process of writing. Do you agree? If not, tell me why.
Discover more from AndyFifer.com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.