It’s here. The days of people physically writing want-ads, rental descriptions, installation and assembly instructions are over the onset of ChatGPT and AI generators will (not could…will) eliminate the need for many of those writing jobs. Time will tell if this turns out to be a good or bad thing. Regardless, it’s a not so slow moving glacier that’s parked itself on our labor pool.
Many writers I know are vehemently against using AI for their work. And I agree, especially for those of us who write fiction. “Hey ChatGPT, write a 60,000 word love story between a spaceship and a turkey dinner.” I mean, I’d read that story, but I’d rather someone actually write it (jots down notes for future reference).
That being said I think it’s important to ask if the same people that are so angry and vitriolic about using AI use self-check out or stand in line for a cashier. Are they driving a car that was built by a robots? Now, the blowback I get when I ask these questions is “You can’t compare burger flippers and cashiers to artists.” To which I reply, “Tell that to someone who can’t get a job as a cashier or lost their job due to automation.” Labor replacement is labor replacement, and it’s crucial that we put everyone in the same context. Artist aren’t special. One of the problems I have with so-called “creatives” is the same problem I have with any fundamentalist…anyone that defines themself through a single lens is a weak person.
I’m never for anyone losing their job. Once you remove the human from the labor you remove the humanity from the work. That’s not to say I’m a purist. You won’t see me pounding my laundry on a rock. But, we have to remember that we use the tools to get our jobs done. We shouldn’t substitute the tools for the work. AI is not any different. Every tool is double edged. Beneficial when they’re used properly, dangerous when they’re abused.
I heard a similar spew of negativity about sampling during the 80s when it came to hip hop. “They’re using someone else’s melody.” “It’s plagiarism.” “It’s not real music.” Meanwhile The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Public Enemy, NWA, Eminem are all part of the rich American music lexicon, and all used samples. It wasn’t the end of music then. and AI won’t be the end of art now. Though it’s important that we stay vigilant to make sure it stays that way.
Cloning was going to ruin the world, too. Governments were going to manufacture test tube armies. Remember? We adapt. We innovate. We improvise. Personally, I’m not worried about an AI writing fiction. I going to continue to tell the stories I want to tell. Maybe an AI can write it too, but the AI can’t reach into my skull and change the way I feel about what I do. Ten, twenty years from now when the AI we know today has gone by way of the rotary phone and the cassette tape, we’ll be using it as the example of how the next great invention won’t destroy us either. Because it never has.