I listened to a podcast recently where a popular author and ChatGPT were both tasked with writing the beginning of a short romance story. Then the stories were read aloud.
Listeners were then asked to guess which one was written by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and which one by the author. On a side note, this author’s books were some of the thousands used (without permission) to create better storytelling for ChatGPT.
Guess what? I chose the wrong stories. I thought the AI-produced story sounded more like a human author and the human-written story sounded computer generated. Granted, I’m no literary wizard, and my wife and daughter clearly are because they picked the correct stories. But for me, I felt that the author's story was a little cheesy, while the AI-generated story was more subtle and refined.
This could just reflect my preference in writing styles. I prefer stories that are believable. The author's story was about a woman showing interest in a middle-aged bald guy on an online dating site. The AI story was about a woman noticing a good-looking guy (with hair) in a coffee shop. You tell me which one sounds more believable!
According to the podcaster, however, it was abundantly clear which story was AI-generated. A lot of it had to do with the attention to detail. Maybe if I had looked at the stories side by side, I would have also observed that the AI piece was less original in its storyline and vocabulary.
But it sure came close for this male reader, and at a fraction of the effort. While the author spent countless hours writing her piece – even consulting people on various aspects of the 1000-word story – the AI came up with its (his/her?) story in a mere 17 seconds.
That simple fact could be a game-changer for writers around the world. Imagine the capabilities of publishing houses which could, in the future, simply enter a few key words and push out a novel every 17 seconds. Granted, it would require some editing and re-work, but this happens already. Novels are routinely edited and painstakingly re-written. Even a prolific author like Stephen King says his first draft requires significant editing, with at least ten percent of it cut. He's a polished, full-time writer who takes about three months to write his first draft. What if a similar rough draft could be generated in three minutes?
I know what you’re going to say: There has to be some “soul” to the writing. That’s what this podcaster argued. She said there has to be a human element to writing that exudes a certain style and specificity.
I'm still not buying it. However cold you might take me, I felt “soul” in the computer-generated story, too. I hate to say it, but you can program “soul” into a story. It’s not like stories and novels don’t follow a certain formula – they all do.
And while I think it will be some time before ChatGPT produces literary masterpieces, I don’t doubt that it will eventually create some instant bestsellers. As my teenaged daughter recently informed me, “commercial fiction” may have less character development or “soul”, but it makes more money. Because people read it!
Good writing keeps us reading until the end, whether it be a John Grisham novel or a self-help book. It doesn't have be the next Pride and Prejudice or Moby Dick (and no, I've haven't read either).
So what if the author isn’t human and the editor is unknown? Many ancient stories have unknown authors and editors. These are still good stories! They’ve been edited over time to become even better. In many cases, they may no longer resemble the original story that was told.
What this means is, we could have a lot of AI-assisted bestsellers on the horizon. An author could simply enter some ideas, have a story produced, and then adjust a few elements to make it more “human”. Will the publisher question the author as to whether AI was used? Will it really matter?
We might come to a point in human history where we can order our own novels – type in a few key words and voila! In a few minutes, you can read it on your phone. No more libraries! No more bookstores! (I forgot, that’s already happened.)
Now I doubt that our love for physical books will ever cease. Most people like a book they can grasp in their hands.
But as to who originally wrote the book, readers may not even care.
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