Writing teachers, be afraid — well, a little. The new GPT agent for writers offers some good advice but can't (won't?) distinguish good prose from stinking bad
I'm glad to hear it! The funny thing is, I found that I've been trained so well as a magazine writer that it was hard for me to come up with a paragraph that truly doesn't hang together. My sample, awful as it is, still has a beginning, middle, and end. Sometimes paragraphs need busting up, as does the logic of exposition, something I struggle with in doing more creative work. But that's just where this bot coach seemed most unhelpful.
Oh my god. Let me get this out of the way first: A CREATIVE WRITING COACH SHOULD NOT BE A BOT.
No self-respecting creative writer should be thinking about going to a non-human for coaching, but if they do, I hope they'll accept that they've just destroyed the 'creative' part of creative writer. They're no longer entitled to the tag.
It's terrifying that your 'coach' caught that first line of 'Ah, Wilderness' and knew the author, as well as understood the meaning. It hit me the same way those ads appear on Facebook right after you've talked about any little thing somebody is offering for sale. It's a creepy clever trick. So clever it's scary.
Nothing says AI and the new Bot Colleges can't just be ignored, but you're right that new writers will see this as the miracle they've been looking for. A dream come true. All they have to do is submit any old thing and Creative Writing Coach will fix it for them. Every single time.
This is the stuff of nightmares. I'm going back to bed...
Ha ha! I knew this would get your ire up, Ramona - the thing is, there’s the naive faith that an AI bot can fix your prose - and the reality that it can’t distinguish between good and bad - my worry is that everyone will start accepting this as “good enough” for writing “content,” because who cares what all those words mean anyway? It’s just filler between ads. That’s why none of us can sleep on this - we need to keep calling it out for the dumbing down of human expression that it is <picture a soap box here>
I agree. I'm already being called 'elitist' for trying to protect what we do as serious writers, as if anyone should be able to latch onto that title, 'Writer', whether or not they're deserving of it. And now this. A new battle.
How do we get those new writers to understand there's a long learning process, an apprenticeship before they've earned the right to that title when every huckster, every opportunist is telling them all they have to do is want it and they'll tell them the way to make it happen--without the time and the work.
How do we do that, now that AI is rolling over us, making it even harder to expect some respect for the effort we put into what we do?
I don't know, and I'm worried. I'm a member of the Authors Guild and they disappoint me, too. Instead of fighting against any hint of using AI for actual writing rather than for grammar or punctuation or the usual craft aids, they're trying to reconcile the use of non-human bots in the actual formulating of our compositions, suggesting it's inevitable, so we're going to have to figure out how to adjust.
Like hell!
But now what? How do we fight this? Are there enough of us? HELP!!
I think we resist. Saying it's inevitable that AI will be generating writing is true as far as it goes — but that doesn't mean there should be no input or dissent from writers about how that plays out or what it means. Both things can be true at the same time, but if we don't start pushing back now and contributing to constructive ways to use AI as writers and researchers, we will be giving up control to a bunch of for-profit tech companies that own and control the platforms for media.
The trouble for most writers is that they aren't activist types — I'd far rather be by myself or get lost in my own thoughts than rally crowds. But I think there are ways to rally support among authors, as Ursula Le Guin did a few years back in opposing Amazon and the way it had throttled book publishing. (I'll put the video link in another Note.)
So, get in touch if you want to collaborate on a piece about this with me or chat about some options, Ramona. BTW, I've never found organizations like the Authors Guild, AWP, or CLMP, or others representing literary authors and presses to be very helpful in navigating digital-media trends. They seem to ignore them as long as they can — then get blindsided by something like AI.
I'll get in touch soon, Martha. First I have to give all of this some more thought. Right now I'm in the 'emotional fireworks' stage, and that's not good. I'll need to calm down and do some major thinking. Not about what AI is, but about what it should be. And how we can make that happen.
I'm feeling rather lowly right now. I'm going to have to get my Oomph up. 😏
Sorry to hear you're feeling low, and I do understand. It's hard shuttling between anger and despair, and I've got my own challenge there. I do find writing about it helps or having conversations like this one.
Absolutely resist, but also innovate. Merely resisting generative AI is not enough, bc the forces supporting these technologies are too well funded, and too determined. If they didn't care about scraping the internet to train the models, they sure as hell won't care about the rest of our careers, or the future careers of our children.
I have some thoughts about all this that I'd be happy to share on a call for those of you interested, Martha, Ramona, and anyone else.
Are you using ChatGPT or other AI bots to help? No judgment! I have opinions, but I'd like to know what other writers think.
I adored your bad writing samples. Best laugh I had today!
I'm glad to hear it! The funny thing is, I found that I've been trained so well as a magazine writer that it was hard for me to come up with a paragraph that truly doesn't hang together. My sample, awful as it is, still has a beginning, middle, and end. Sometimes paragraphs need busting up, as does the logic of exposition, something I struggle with in doing more creative work. But that's just where this bot coach seemed most unhelpful.
Oh my god. Let me get this out of the way first: A CREATIVE WRITING COACH SHOULD NOT BE A BOT.
No self-respecting creative writer should be thinking about going to a non-human for coaching, but if they do, I hope they'll accept that they've just destroyed the 'creative' part of creative writer. They're no longer entitled to the tag.
It's terrifying that your 'coach' caught that first line of 'Ah, Wilderness' and knew the author, as well as understood the meaning. It hit me the same way those ads appear on Facebook right after you've talked about any little thing somebody is offering for sale. It's a creepy clever trick. So clever it's scary.
Nothing says AI and the new Bot Colleges can't just be ignored, but you're right that new writers will see this as the miracle they've been looking for. A dream come true. All they have to do is submit any old thing and Creative Writing Coach will fix it for them. Every single time.
This is the stuff of nightmares. I'm going back to bed...
Ha ha! I knew this would get your ire up, Ramona - the thing is, there’s the naive faith that an AI bot can fix your prose - and the reality that it can’t distinguish between good and bad - my worry is that everyone will start accepting this as “good enough” for writing “content,” because who cares what all those words mean anyway? It’s just filler between ads. That’s why none of us can sleep on this - we need to keep calling it out for the dumbing down of human expression that it is <picture a soap box here>
I agree. I'm already being called 'elitist' for trying to protect what we do as serious writers, as if anyone should be able to latch onto that title, 'Writer', whether or not they're deserving of it. And now this. A new battle.
How do we get those new writers to understand there's a long learning process, an apprenticeship before they've earned the right to that title when every huckster, every opportunist is telling them all they have to do is want it and they'll tell them the way to make it happen--without the time and the work.
How do we do that, now that AI is rolling over us, making it even harder to expect some respect for the effort we put into what we do?
I don't know, and I'm worried. I'm a member of the Authors Guild and they disappoint me, too. Instead of fighting against any hint of using AI for actual writing rather than for grammar or punctuation or the usual craft aids, they're trying to reconcile the use of non-human bots in the actual formulating of our compositions, suggesting it's inevitable, so we're going to have to figure out how to adjust.
Like hell!
But now what? How do we fight this? Are there enough of us? HELP!!
I think we resist. Saying it's inevitable that AI will be generating writing is true as far as it goes — but that doesn't mean there should be no input or dissent from writers about how that plays out or what it means. Both things can be true at the same time, but if we don't start pushing back now and contributing to constructive ways to use AI as writers and researchers, we will be giving up control to a bunch of for-profit tech companies that own and control the platforms for media.
The trouble for most writers is that they aren't activist types — I'd far rather be by myself or get lost in my own thoughts than rally crowds. But I think there are ways to rally support among authors, as Ursula Le Guin did a few years back in opposing Amazon and the way it had throttled book publishing. (I'll put the video link in another Note.)
So, get in touch if you want to collaborate on a piece about this with me or chat about some options, Ramona. BTW, I've never found organizations like the Authors Guild, AWP, or CLMP, or others representing literary authors and presses to be very helpful in navigating digital-media trends. They seem to ignore them as long as they can — then get blindsided by something like AI.
I'll get in touch soon, Martha. First I have to give all of this some more thought. Right now I'm in the 'emotional fireworks' stage, and that's not good. I'll need to calm down and do some major thinking. Not about what AI is, but about what it should be. And how we can make that happen.
I'm feeling rather lowly right now. I'm going to have to get my Oomph up. 😏
Sorry to hear you're feeling low, and I do understand. It's hard shuttling between anger and despair, and I've got my own challenge there. I do find writing about it helps or having conversations like this one.
Me too! Thanks.
It was Ed's birthday yesterday, my second without him. That may be what this is, more than what I've said above.
It'll pass. 💕
Absolutely resist, but also innovate. Merely resisting generative AI is not enough, bc the forces supporting these technologies are too well funded, and too determined. If they didn't care about scraping the internet to train the models, they sure as hell won't care about the rest of our careers, or the future careers of our children.
I have some thoughts about all this that I'd be happy to share on a call for those of you interested, Martha, Ramona, and anyone else.
Thanks, Birgitte. I'd like to be in touch once I get through the holidays and my teaching semester. This could be a fruitful conversation :-)