This is such an important topic and a beautifully written peace. It definitely speaks to my own anxiety about the future of AI and art and the way that our society values each. On the topic of AI giving writing structures, I personally don’t think of it as human written because AI is still mostly guiding the structure and thinking process, which I feel is still part of writing even if it’s not the exact words. Such a good piece!! 🫶🫶
ahh thank you so much <3 I get what you mean. some label themselves as co-authors, when writing with AI assistance, and that does seem to make sense. but again, not something I'd be comfortable with.
Loved this and the effort you put into all the AI examples. I wrote a post against chatgpt a few weeks ago and even if it sparked some good conversations, soon I was flooded with comments and complaints about how it’s “not wrong” to use it, even for personal writing. I deleted it and thought: If people prefer to use a robot instead of their brains it’s not my problem and they’re the ones who will inevitably regret with time. A world without our own creativity is a rotten one. Hope this doesn’t reach the wrong crowd 🤍
aahhh Ella <3 thank you x I would've loved to read it. I was very scared about this reaching the wrong crowd because for some reason, especially the older crowd on my feed, have been totally okay with using AI to completely write what they post as creative writing. People will make reasons to justify it, but honestly, there is so many things wrong with it. I wish I could write about it all but its such a vast topic and I wouldn't have known how to end the post lol.
I use AI in my journalism work for exactly three purposes:
1.) to transcribe audio recordings of interviews. (Otter.ai)
2.) summarize rambling by interviewees into usable quotes from said transcripts.
3.) to identify gaps in a nearly finished piece, that I might otherwise be overlooking.
I unashamedly use Grammarly to quickly proofread before three sets of human eyes go over it on production day. I feel that in this day and age there is no reason for me to spend hours on hours manually transcribing or proofreading. To my mind, anything that includes AI in the actual creative process is too much.
I still use a thesaurus, I still use handwritten notes. These are among the great loves of my life.
I was guilty of using AI when I first started but as I grew, read widely and broke off into my own voice any style I have found I like MY writing better than AI. I can say that because I have been putting in the work to practice my own writing and analyze what works and what doesn’t and asking peers for feedback. I kind of only really use it for grammar and proof reading but when it tries to “correct” what I write it ends up sounding like mush. I’m low key super proud of myself! :p
ahhh thank you!! perhaps i will. i’m glad you found your own voice, who cares how you found it, got it or came by it. it’s yours now and do what you will with it. i’m so so so glad you like it! it took me a while to like my writing and i’m still wrapping my head around it as i grow.
I recently participated in a formal debate on whether the economic advantages of integrating AI in art outweigh the ethical drawbacks. The line “AI won’t replace you but humans using AI will” really speaks to me after having researched into the topic from the pro AI perspective as an anti AI person. Part of our argument was that if artists do not integrate AI into their workflow while the rest of the industry does, they will fall behind the curve when it comes to their productivity and therefore their pay. In all I think it’s ridiculous that creative industries are trending this way regarding AI. I don’t trust AI to improve or check my work, and I think that it’s so wrong that creatives are beginning to be forced to be comfortable with it for the sake of their job. This is a wonderful piece!
The part where you wrote about the students poetry being mostly AI generated was truly upsetting. I remember when I was in the third grade and used to write shit poetry my English teacher still encouraged my class and me especially (perhaps she saw something in me idk, she was sweet) but point is the whole class used to be fun for us all, I feel like the addition of creativity and childlike whimsy in classrooms (as well in life) is coming to a decline in exchange for efficiency and grades which i wish we could turn away from but it seems everyone's influencing the other to turn to Ai for help rather than to one another.
And in the case of the children using Ai to generate their poetry, I've heard it myself from my family members who ARE in fact teachers, they say to their students "Why are you asking me for help when chat GPT exists, go ask it". They say that for their own convenience and honestly the gap between convenience and ignorance is a fine line! This was so worth the read by the way thank you for this guide!
Nice piece! The questions and concerns raised about AI and creativity are valid and for me not easy to answer. I don’t use AI in any of my work, but as artists we should be curious. That’s part of being an artist! I think limiting our thinking just to the output that AI generates and ending the conversation there (not saying you’re doing this) could cut us off from interesting explorations. Is there art in the interaction itself? There are emergent properties that vary by tinkering with the human elements of the interaction (and your piece even showed some of this). The current concerns about the corporate elements of AI are totally valid, but I think from a strictly creative point of view there is interesting ground to cover if we stay curious.
AI kills my creativity. I used it to grammar check and help improve structure where it feels messy, but as far as writing fiction goes, I think adopting AI into a trade that I regard seriously just feels like it paints my respect and regard for the craft as a joke. plus, it'd be a huge step backwards from months and months of honing my writing skills.
I don't know about what you might think of the idea of using AI to help brainstorm for writing ideas. I've attempted it in the past, but I noticed there was this unfulfilment inside regarding the story plot etc. Luckily I never finished any of them. I guess it comes from being aware that you cant take credit for any of the creativity because AI fed it to you. How crazy though that ideas for plot twists, character, and scenes are like, everywhere around us and in the stories we love, the 'what ifs' we wonder about, etc and yet, there's that dangling feeling of the easy way out. It's not like AI will help you write faster though, there's still a lot to figure out.
At the end of the day, I'd rather not have my creativity to be influenced by mannerisms of AI.
I'll admit, I have used AI to finish a few sentences, but I did start out with a thought on how I wanted to end them so there's that input when prompting.
In that regard, there's still a bit of unlearning to do.
Thank you soooo much for reminding us artists what's truly important. I think in all the access to convenience, we lost ourselves and needed to remember again
And thank you again for writing this! As this week is ending I'm reminded of your words in this post 😁. I want to share that I recently attended a reading festival and it felt great to be around people who work hard for their output and who toiled for their stories to happen. And I came away believing that truly, our own efforts will reward us more than the feeling AI could supply
I think AI will fall into place in time when it comes to creative work. It is just a tool, like how adobe programs are tools for graphic design and it only eased the technical details of creating an artwork. Did it solve everything? No. We luckily still have artists and designers using pen and paper or paint. All of them are tools, and digital artists have their own set of skills they master to create their artwork. Therefore, just like how we can differentiate the digital art from traditional art, we will always be able to tell that a piece of work is done with AI. However, I think it will eventually create its own message and content, just like how any other medium creates its own message. In this case, I am very hopeful about the future of art. On the other hand, I cannot say the same for our regular lives. Phones definitely have affected our memory skills since we don't need to remember phone numbers or dates anymore. But I think we already lost our general practice of communication via social media, and AI will only make it slightly worse for the people who cannot even write an email to their students anymore. This is a beautifully written piece! Thank you.
I loved this post, anya! Human creativity is something that can't be replaced by AI. I do not say AI can't be used to embrace your creativity or accelerate your progress, but AI just follows a clear logic to structure thoughts. I have tried to use it, but for me every pharagraph or chapter it generated looked like a search engine optimized "bull.it" -> felt like I am reading a Netflix series. Since I am a person who really wants to create something new, and I also try to engage my readers to explore and understand the wolrd I created, I just simply cannot afford to rely on such "marketing-measuerd", "sellable" stories.
I love your pieces. You write so wonderful. I'm glad somebody addressed this whole ai thing. I think if it helps to chunk things together for the nonwriter...its all good. Its definitely great to use for writing code. From what I understand, it helps code writers cut their work in half. One day we will compete with AI..but it's not there yet. As a teacher I'm always batteling plagiarism. Right now, you can tell what AI sounds like. There's a technology to it.
I love your writing.
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i love this so much. i was just writing in my notes app about how revolted i am by ai today, because is it really so “smart” with its surface level evaluations of anything beyond pure facts and knowledge? it perpetuates the idea that intelligence is a measure of knowing facts and other standardized metrics, which i believe is completely untrue. thank you for this post, it was so insightful.
exactly!! reasoning and shallow analysis isn't the only indicator of intelligence. there is so much more to it, that AI can never comprehend. thank you so much for reading <3
This is such an important topic and a beautifully written peace. It definitely speaks to my own anxiety about the future of AI and art and the way that our society values each. On the topic of AI giving writing structures, I personally don’t think of it as human written because AI is still mostly guiding the structure and thinking process, which I feel is still part of writing even if it’s not the exact words. Such a good piece!! 🫶🫶
ahh thank you so much <3 I get what you mean. some label themselves as co-authors, when writing with AI assistance, and that does seem to make sense. but again, not something I'd be comfortable with.
Loved this and the effort you put into all the AI examples. I wrote a post against chatgpt a few weeks ago and even if it sparked some good conversations, soon I was flooded with comments and complaints about how it’s “not wrong” to use it, even for personal writing. I deleted it and thought: If people prefer to use a robot instead of their brains it’s not my problem and they’re the ones who will inevitably regret with time. A world without our own creativity is a rotten one. Hope this doesn’t reach the wrong crowd 🤍
aahhh Ella <3 thank you x I would've loved to read it. I was very scared about this reaching the wrong crowd because for some reason, especially the older crowd on my feed, have been totally okay with using AI to completely write what they post as creative writing. People will make reasons to justify it, but honestly, there is so many things wrong with it. I wish I could write about it all but its such a vast topic and I wouldn't have known how to end the post lol.
I use AI in my journalism work for exactly three purposes:
1.) to transcribe audio recordings of interviews. (Otter.ai)
2.) summarize rambling by interviewees into usable quotes from said transcripts.
3.) to identify gaps in a nearly finished piece, that I might otherwise be overlooking.
I unashamedly use Grammarly to quickly proofread before three sets of human eyes go over it on production day. I feel that in this day and age there is no reason for me to spend hours on hours manually transcribing or proofreading. To my mind, anything that includes AI in the actual creative process is too much.
I still use a thesaurus, I still use handwritten notes. These are among the great loves of my life.
more than fair. if I were you, id do the same
Please make more of these! I’ve learned so much!
I was guilty of using AI when I first started but as I grew, read widely and broke off into my own voice any style I have found I like MY writing better than AI. I can say that because I have been putting in the work to practice my own writing and analyze what works and what doesn’t and asking peers for feedback. I kind of only really use it for grammar and proof reading but when it tries to “correct” what I write it ends up sounding like mush. I’m low key super proud of myself! :p
ahhh thank you!! perhaps i will. i’m glad you found your own voice, who cares how you found it, got it or came by it. it’s yours now and do what you will with it. i’m so so so glad you like it! it took me a while to like my writing and i’m still wrapping my head around it as i grow.
Name twin
ahaha yes
It’s basically plagiarism. Ew.
I recently participated in a formal debate on whether the economic advantages of integrating AI in art outweigh the ethical drawbacks. The line “AI won’t replace you but humans using AI will” really speaks to me after having researched into the topic from the pro AI perspective as an anti AI person. Part of our argument was that if artists do not integrate AI into their workflow while the rest of the industry does, they will fall behind the curve when it comes to their productivity and therefore their pay. In all I think it’s ridiculous that creative industries are trending this way regarding AI. I don’t trust AI to improve or check my work, and I think that it’s so wrong that creatives are beginning to be forced to be comfortable with it for the sake of their job. This is a wonderful piece!
That is a very interesting debate, and i wholeheartedly agree with you. Thank you so much for sharing x
The part where you wrote about the students poetry being mostly AI generated was truly upsetting. I remember when I was in the third grade and used to write shit poetry my English teacher still encouraged my class and me especially (perhaps she saw something in me idk, she was sweet) but point is the whole class used to be fun for us all, I feel like the addition of creativity and childlike whimsy in classrooms (as well in life) is coming to a decline in exchange for efficiency and grades which i wish we could turn away from but it seems everyone's influencing the other to turn to Ai for help rather than to one another.
And in the case of the children using Ai to generate their poetry, I've heard it myself from my family members who ARE in fact teachers, they say to their students "Why are you asking me for help when chat GPT exists, go ask it". They say that for their own convenience and honestly the gap between convenience and ignorance is a fine line! This was so worth the read by the way thank you for this guide!
thank you for sharing your thoughts <3 it really is upsetting. and I couldn’t agree with you more
Nice piece! The questions and concerns raised about AI and creativity are valid and for me not easy to answer. I don’t use AI in any of my work, but as artists we should be curious. That’s part of being an artist! I think limiting our thinking just to the output that AI generates and ending the conversation there (not saying you’re doing this) could cut us off from interesting explorations. Is there art in the interaction itself? There are emergent properties that vary by tinkering with the human elements of the interaction (and your piece even showed some of this). The current concerns about the corporate elements of AI are totally valid, but I think from a strictly creative point of view there is interesting ground to cover if we stay curious.
hmm, that’s an interesting way to look at it indeed. thank you for sharing <3
AI kills my creativity. I used it to grammar check and help improve structure where it feels messy, but as far as writing fiction goes, I think adopting AI into a trade that I regard seriously just feels like it paints my respect and regard for the craft as a joke. plus, it'd be a huge step backwards from months and months of honing my writing skills.
I don't know about what you might think of the idea of using AI to help brainstorm for writing ideas. I've attempted it in the past, but I noticed there was this unfulfilment inside regarding the story plot etc. Luckily I never finished any of them. I guess it comes from being aware that you cant take credit for any of the creativity because AI fed it to you. How crazy though that ideas for plot twists, character, and scenes are like, everywhere around us and in the stories we love, the 'what ifs' we wonder about, etc and yet, there's that dangling feeling of the easy way out. It's not like AI will help you write faster though, there's still a lot to figure out.
At the end of the day, I'd rather not have my creativity to be influenced by mannerisms of AI.
I'll admit, I have used AI to finish a few sentences, but I did start out with a thought on how I wanted to end them so there's that input when prompting.
In that regard, there's still a bit of unlearning to do.
Thank you soooo much for reminding us artists what's truly important. I think in all the access to convenience, we lost ourselves and needed to remember again
you've put in words better than I could have. Thank you so much for sharing <3 I definitely agree
And thank you again for writing this! As this week is ending I'm reminded of your words in this post 😁. I want to share that I recently attended a reading festival and it felt great to be around people who work hard for their output and who toiled for their stories to happen. And I came away believing that truly, our own efforts will reward us more than the feeling AI could supply
its probably finally i found the right writer on my substack journey...
Would love to know more...
I think AI will fall into place in time when it comes to creative work. It is just a tool, like how adobe programs are tools for graphic design and it only eased the technical details of creating an artwork. Did it solve everything? No. We luckily still have artists and designers using pen and paper or paint. All of them are tools, and digital artists have their own set of skills they master to create their artwork. Therefore, just like how we can differentiate the digital art from traditional art, we will always be able to tell that a piece of work is done with AI. However, I think it will eventually create its own message and content, just like how any other medium creates its own message. In this case, I am very hopeful about the future of art. On the other hand, I cannot say the same for our regular lives. Phones definitely have affected our memory skills since we don't need to remember phone numbers or dates anymore. But I think we already lost our general practice of communication via social media, and AI will only make it slightly worse for the people who cannot even write an email to their students anymore. This is a beautifully written piece! Thank you.
thank you for sharing your opinion and reading my words x
I think using AI for efficiency is great but not for creative purposes. It takes away so much.
I loved this post, anya! Human creativity is something that can't be replaced by AI. I do not say AI can't be used to embrace your creativity or accelerate your progress, but AI just follows a clear logic to structure thoughts. I have tried to use it, but for me every pharagraph or chapter it generated looked like a search engine optimized "bull.it" -> felt like I am reading a Netflix series. Since I am a person who really wants to create something new, and I also try to engage my readers to explore and understand the wolrd I created, I just simply cannot afford to rely on such "marketing-measuerd", "sellable" stories.
thank you daniel! understandably so. you get it! i couldn’t agree more
I love your pieces. You write so wonderful. I'm glad somebody addressed this whole ai thing. I think if it helps to chunk things together for the nonwriter...its all good. Its definitely great to use for writing code. From what I understand, it helps code writers cut their work in half. One day we will compete with AI..but it's not there yet. As a teacher I'm always batteling plagiarism. Right now, you can tell what AI sounds like. There's a technology to it.
I love your writing.
If youd like to receive a new poem every morning, please subscribe.
thank you for your words <3 i’m glad this stuck with you
i love this so much. i was just writing in my notes app about how revolted i am by ai today, because is it really so “smart” with its surface level evaluations of anything beyond pure facts and knowledge? it perpetuates the idea that intelligence is a measure of knowing facts and other standardized metrics, which i believe is completely untrue. thank you for this post, it was so insightful.
exactly!! reasoning and shallow analysis isn't the only indicator of intelligence. there is so much more to it, that AI can never comprehend. thank you so much for reading <3