DH, one of the original techies (he designed both hardware
and software when few knew what those “wares” were) mocks the big to-do about
AI. He maintains it isn’t different from the digital tools we have been using for
forty years, only more sophisticated and functional, but not fundamentally a
new species of “ware.”
I tend to agree, and I’m no techie. Digital tools have been
with us since the mid-20th century, and in our homes since the late
part of the same. They just keep getting more able and their functionality is
replacing an increasing number of functions that once required living breathing individual beings to operate.
Digital tools are just that, TOOLS.
Cars replaced horses, typewriters replaced pencils.
Spellcheckers replaced thumbing through printed dictionaries, and printed
dictionaries were replaced with ones brought to light on screens.
Now AI tools also manage technical writing once done by hardworking
humans with the job title “Tech Writer,” and genre fiction can be spewed in
minutes by the same tools. Echoes of the assembly line workers being replaced by
machines? You bet.
It is uncomfortable to be replaced. It is both exhilarating
and uncomfortable to adjust to most changes.
It’s also pointless to whine or rail against it.
Digital tools are here, and they keep getting better in the sense of becoming more
precise.
But the point where we give up on meaning in our creative
lives is nowhere here and never will be. I’m reminded of chapter 23 in The
Little Prince, where he comes to a train station and someone is selling “water
pills.” The salesperson promises it would save the buyer some minutes they
would otherwise have to waste drinking water. The Little Prince is baffled, as
he’d rather take the few minutes saved and go to the nearest brook or water well
and take in the fresh drink of water.
If you want to churn a novel, AI is a (still mediocre) tool, but it will do, and it will keep getting better at it. If you want to grow through the journey of creating a novel with all the amazing insights and emotional experiences it will provide you, the creator, you will write it, every word of it, as it flows out of the fountain of your God-given creative stream.
6 comments:
What you didn't mention are the unintended/unexpected consequences of AI, which we are still in the semi-darkness about. Yes, I'd prefer to engage in the creative process than have some robot do it for me, but not everyone is interested in or enjoys that up-and-down journey. We are fortunate to be the ones who do.
Good post. Tools--yes. But there are consequences. For the most part, I love how much technology (a washing machine to wash clothes, refrigerator to prevent food spoilage, a computer and word-processor that makes editing easier) has freed up time to have a more leisurely life (write, sing, paint, garden, cook) but I balk at the tools that would harm my ability to think.
I think what annoys me most about AI is when someone else--for example, a marketer-- chooses to use it to communicate with me. Just try arguing with a bot! Or when my blog was invaded somehow by Adobe Acrobat and I wanted to get rid of it! Luckily I managed somehow to "uninstall" it when I hadn't installed it in the first place.
Like my experience of having an AI "tool" implemented (against my wishes, the webhost called it "a glitch") to change my wording into something more "promotional" and frankly, ridiculous. But I think these will smooth out and be used only at our choosing. (Not for me, thank you)
Interesting post.
Good perspective from your DH! One of my co-teachers uses it often, and I shy away from it as the publishing industry rallies against it. But my son & husband love it.
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