- AI is the ability of a computer programme or machine to replicate or learn from human intelligence processes, automate tasks, and stimulate human behaviour.
- OpenAI’s GPT-3 AI can produce text that resembles that of a human and is flexible enough to convey abstract ideas and related concepts in subtle detail.
- While AI is an invaluable tool that enhances efficiency and potentially opens up new paradigms in creative writing, there are some things that cannot be replaced, such as the unique human essence.
Is it possible to have a symbiotic relationship between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human creativity in Creative writing?
With the looming change resulting from technological advancement, the education sector, is equally affected like other domains of existence.
The study of literature and creative writing as a discipline is among the disciplines that have highly felt the touch of this enormous change.
As a young Kenyan Creative writer who looks forward to a future of creative writing and literature that is worth the hidden treasure we seek in books, the influence of Artificial Intelligence has not bypassed my curiosity.
Being an active writer, editor, and critic of literary materials, it pieced through my heart and I boldly recognize an unfamiliar sequence in creative writing of this era domiciled in the tyroots of AI. Can that be a threat in any way? Is it a blessing?
Artificial Intelligence is becoming a major part of our lives, and this technological advancement has changed almost every aspect of our lives, most notably how we approach creative writing.
The impression of AI on creative writing is indisputable. Its function has been described as a complex conflict between advocate and opponent, friend and rival, and as both a devoted ally and visceral practitioner.
In the field of creative writing, this essay outlines a two-way comparative analysis with a focus on the dyadic relationship between AI and human intelligence.
Before it skips my memory, I should say, creative writing has been in existence from time immemorial, people wrote on stone tablets in the ancient times, but this has undergone a notable evolution process and that is where technology comes in.
What is AI?
Investigating what AI actually means is essential to comprehending the initiative of AI in creative writing.
According to Purdy and Raghavan (2018), AI is the ability of a computer programme or machine to replicate or learn from human intelligence processes, automate tasks, and stimulate human behaviour.
Artificial Intelligence in the creative writing domain has benefited greatly from human language and cognitive abilities to recognise patterns, understand abstract ideas, and compose gripping stories.
AI-authored content appears to be becoming more and more prevalent in a variety of industries, including news articles, advertising copy, and screenplays for motion pictures.
According to Brown et al. (2020), for example, OpenAI’s GPT-3 AI can produce text that resembles that of a human and is flexible enough to convey abstract ideas and related concepts in subtle detail.
By using data from millions of web pages, GPT-3 refines its ability to think creatively and emulate the style of writing used by humans.
It elucidates the efficiency of AI as a helpful tool in generating creative content, notwithstanding the human-like quality of its writings.
However, progressing towards AI-led authorship presents a two-sided paradigm fraught with opportunity and apprehension.
Questions about the influence and consequences on human creative writing and the subsequent negotiation of this relationship are naturally raised by the allure of expediency and the growing sophistication of AI-oriented content.
Conflict
Predictive algorithms used to create AI copies of J.K. Rowling’s writing style, for instance, change the dynamics and produce a conflict between AI efficacy and creative authenticity (McCosker & Wilken, 2020).
It is undeniable that the quality of the literature we read today has changed significantly. I get a chill down my spine when I see how similar these artistic pieces are, rather than how unique they are.
Despite the remarkable effectiveness AI-generated content demonstrates, it highlights an important point.
AI’s programming is derivative of human intellectual contribution reflected in their ability to learn, discern, and predict based on patterns, experiences, and preferences.
Human Creativity
The depth of human intuition, experience, and emotion — the fundamentally rich foundations of creative writing — might ultimately be too complicated to distil down to algorithms.
AI can use human creativity as a creative substratum, but it cannot truly produce or replace the laborious and exquisite process of human creativity, especially when it comes to writing (Picton, 2021).
Even though AI has made a significant technological advancement in creative writing and has a great deal of room to grow in sophistication, it still primarily benefits from human creativity.
Its abilities, such as pattern recognition, data processing and generation, are regularities hinged on the unique human ability to think outside the box, to feel, and to experience.
Daniela Hernandez (2022) stated that while AI may imitate, it still lacks the qualities that make creativity truly human, such as emotional nuance, inventive sparks, and the capacity to produce something wholly original.
It should dawn to us all that this technology is here with us, as a friend, as a competitor, as saviour, and as an enemy.
To the creative writers who are true to the cause of creative writing, it would be stupid to ignore the contribution AI is “generously” making in the industry, but it would also be disastrous to turn a blind eye on the flaws it comes with, lest our future literature be infiltrated, jumbled up, not-well- thought ideas.
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Ultimately, even with AI’s notable advancements in creative writing, a dual comparative analysis indicates a convergent relationship characterised by co-production as opposed to unilateral domination.
While AI is an invaluable tool that enhances efficiency and potentially opens up new paradigms in creative writing, there are some things that cannot be replaced, such as the unique human essence, intuition, and creative spontaneity.
The potential of a harmonious symbiosis between AI and human creativity could herald an intriguing new age in the future of creative writing.
