With the fast-paced development in GenAI tech industries, many AI writing tools have emerged, such as CopyAI, JasperAI, etc. These tools are incredibly simple to use. Just share your idea in writing, click the “Generate” button, and an article or story will be created in just a few seconds. This development and rise in AI writing tools has led to many discussions about the future of writers, with some fearing that AI will completely replace writers’s jobs. But, is it really the case?
As a person who always uses a significant portion of spare time in reading, reading is not only an entertaining habit, but more like creating a path to discover the magical mental world of different writers. I like reading novels, especially mystery fiction/detective novels. For example, “Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, and The A.B.C. Murders” by Agatha Christie, the “Queen of Crime”, my favorite female writer. I also read many Japanese mystery fiction, such as “The Devotion of Suspect X, Malice” by Keigo Higashino, I read his novel series for years and always drowned in it.
However, as many AI writing tools can write articles, and narratives by simply sharing an idea on the website, there are waves of concerns about the future of human creativity and literature. People started to become concerned and feared that GenAI would completely revolutionize the literature industry and take away most writers’ jobs. But, is it really like that? Should writers feel desperate and threatened by GenAI? My answer is NO! When I read the crime/detective novels from Agatha, one thing can’t get away from my mind is how she wrote such amazing detective novels and crime scenes in the early 20th century, a time that writers could only write with pen and paper. How can she create these twisted ideas with her ability to keep readers guessing until the very last page? The answer to these concerns lies in her creativity, intuition, and deep understanding of human psychology, which are the characteristics no GenAI can replace and the reason why literature can be so powerful. “The time spent imagining the repercussions of that thought and rendering ideas in the particular language it needed was more valuable to me, as a human than the quick production of formulaic work.”, quoted writer Anita Felicelli, who also has similar opinions like me towards the trend of GenAI and its impact to literature (Felicelli, 2023).
To sum up, while these GenAI tools can serve as valuable writing assistant tools, in my opinion, they will never replace writers and completely revolutionize literature. Instead of feeling threatened by GenAI, writers should perceive them as tools to improve their writing procedure.
What are your opinions? 🙂
Reference
Felicelli, A. (2023, December 31). Writers, don’t despair — AI robots can’t replicate our imaginations – Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-12-31/ai-books-writers-literature-robots-novels-lawsuits
I completely agree with you on the topic of AI never fully getting rid of writers, as it is not able to creatively think and write about emotions in the same way humans can. New inventions always scare the public in different ways, fears which often end up being unfounded. However, I am interested in hearing your opinion on writers losing their jobs to AI whose books are quite easily replicated. One example could be the books by Colleen Hoover, which follow many of the same romantic plotlines and often receive criticism for being ‘badly written’. They appeal to the general masses because they are easy to read, but necessarily difficult to write. These books could, in my opinion, easily be created by AI when given the right training data. Do you think in the future these writers will slowly disappear and only the great novelists will remain? I am very interested in hearing your opinion!
Great article in itself that leaves a lot to think about. As a reader myself, I often wonder if we will reach a stage where the creativity in writing could also be mechanised. In fact, it often reminds me of the Infinite Monkey Theorem, that if a monkey is given infinite chances, in one chance it will be able to replicate the exact copy of the complete works of Shakespeare.
However, GenAI might be quite more advanced than a monkey, and it is also worth thinking about how understanding evolves and when we say humans are distinctly different from machines in their understanding of intuition, psychology, etc. These are probably more philosophical questions or questions that neuroscience might answer in the future. But it often makes me wonder if we are biased in our understanding and supremacy of human creativity.
However, I do agree with you that the current GenAI models are nowhere near generating as engaging novels as the writers do, but it would be interesting to see what the future holds.
I wrote my blogpost on GenAI tools possibly replacing artists’ works and I completely agree with your perspective! GenAI tools like CopyAI and JasperAI can obviously assist in speeding up certain tasks, but they can’t replace the touch of human creativity, intuition, or emotional depth that writers bring to their work. Writing, especially in genres like mystery and detective fiction, relies heavily on a deep understanding of human behavior, psychological twists, and the ability to keep readers on edge, which AI simply cannot replicate with the same nuance.
I think that while AI can generate content very quickly, it often lacks the personal touch and insights that come from a writer’s lived experience and imagination. I also think that rather than seeing AI as a threat, I believe writers can use these tools to enhance their productivity, focus on refining their craft, and explore even deeper creative ideas and let AI do the repetitive things.
Great blogpost on itself but I do believe artificial intelligence will be able to develop a deep understanding of the human psych and what humans will like and that some writers will be replaced by some sort of artificial intelligence, be it the next generation of Large Language Models with bigger context windows or new artificial intelligence paradigms. At the same time, I believe that despite the potential arrival of capable enough artificial intelligence that we will always have some extremely talented writers that will be able to put their own personal touch to it.
Further, I do believe that even these talented writers will be able to sophisticate their craft with AI writing tools such as Sudowrite, and this is underlined by New York Times bestsellers and journalists alike (Sudowrite, 2024). My final take is that the future of writing is at an interesting inflection point, where AI and talented writers will seem to interface and bring about great content.
Sudowrite. (2024). Sudowrite – Best AI writing Partner for fiction. https://www.sudowrite.com/