As we enter this Brave New World of writing alongside generative AI machines, I am watching how the writer’s world is changing, seemingly overnight. I’m not looking at this world through a lens of mistrust or fear, but of change and opportunity. In the midst of all of this raid change, we’re also seeing what’s never going to change in the writing world. And this is a great comfort.
What has changed in the writing world in the advent of generative AI?
A lot.
For me personally, the mass churn content mill jobs I worked ten years ago likely don’t exist anymore. Or rather, those roles will become “prompt engineers” more than writers.
In the short-term future, the commercial fiction markets I’ve been writing in will be heavy with AI generated books. AI audiobooks will become a norm (I already use AI to publish audio content, and I’m excited to watch this technology improve). The publishing industries will change. There will be little point for a human writer to compete in the rapid release space against platforms that can create a product that will meet a reader’s needs just fine in a fraction of the time and energy.
In the long term, who knows?
AI will change the way we consume stories, the way we ideate stories, and the way we write stories. For some of us, at least – there will still be those who will not listen to AI audiobooks or read AI books (to those I ask what they will do when they won’t be able to tell the difference!).
So, what will AI NOT change?
AI won’t change our drive to consume story and it will never eliminate our drive to create story.
Story is fundamental to human consciousness, and those of us who have the ceaseless compulsion to write our stories and make up new ones will never be replaced by AI robots.
Sure, the robots might help us make our stories better, or spark new ideas, but this will never douse the human creative spirit. If anything, it might even make it burn all the brighter.
