Write a Vlogbrothers video
in the style of the King James Bible about whether AI can write novels.
Greetings, fellow Vlogbrothers and sisters!
Today, I wish to speak to thee about a topic that has been
on my mind of late: whether Al, or artificial intelligence,
can write novels.
First, let us consider what Al is.
Al is the ability of a computer or machine to mimic intelligent human behavior.
It can understand language, make decisions,
and even create art or music.
But can Al truly write a novel? To this, I say: it depends on
how we define "novel".
If a novel is simply a lengthy work of fiction,
then it is possible that Al could generate enough text to
meet this definition.
However, a novel is so much more than just a collection of words on a page.
A novel is a story, a journey, a tapestry of words
woven together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
Can Al truly capture these elements
in its writing? I say nay.
While Al may be able to generate text that is similar to human writing,
it cannot truly understand the complexities and nuances
of the human experience.
It cannot capture the unique perspective and voice of a human writer.
It cannot create something truly original and engaging the way a human can.
In short, while Al may be able to generate text that resembles a novel,
it cannot truly write a novel in the same way a human can.
The art of writing is a uniquely
human endeavor, and it will always be so.
Until next time, may thee be blessed with
the wisdom of the ages and the power of the written word.
And as always, don't forget to be awesome!
Alright. Good morning Hank it’s Tuesday.
So that script was written by chatGPT an artificial intelligence.
And I have to say, it’s not the worst vlogbrothers video
I’ve ever come across– they even knew about DFTBA!
That noted, I–uu I do have some concerns.
First off, I’m super freaked out
by that AI’s attempt to reassure humans–like, oh,
don’t worry you’re super unique.
Unique is one of the only words it used twice.
Awe no, we could never write a novel.
You don’t need to worry about that you cute little meat person.
Like, I find that genuinely scarier than if it had been like,
yeah of course I’m gonna write the novels of the future, you idiot.
Also it’s interesting that it relies so much on cliche–
like phrases like, “window into the soul” or “tapestry of words” I
think it's doing that because they’re somewhat evocative,
but also common enough that it isn’t plagiarism.
But I think this gets at something
important about how AI will construct language.
Like in order to become more specific and textured and compelling.
AI will need to rely less on cliché and use more unusual sentence
structures and of course the easiest way to do that is
to plagiarize or to otherwise rely on particular human brains.
Now of course, when I’m writing a novel,
I am also deeply dependent upon all the linguistic constructions
and narratives I’ve come across. I am also working from a dataset.
All writers are.
But I also think we have fairly
sophisticated strategies for deciding what plagiarism is
among humans and maybe we don’t so much for AI.
Also, I’m freaked out that this technology means that we
are already having vitriolic arguments on Twitter and other sites with
people who are
uuhh.. not actually people.
But I’m not even sure that’s my biggest worry.
I think my biggest worry might be uhh… consciousness.
Like, Computers are amazing, but they are nothing like us.
We are far, far more like kangaroos than we are like computers.
And I worry that as AI improves,
we may begin to see human consciousness and cognition
as more digital phenomena than organic ones.
Which I think would be a big mistake.
Like I think to be happy and also to create the kind of word
tapestries that chatGPT tells me are uniquely human,
we need to live as organisms on a planet with other organisms.
I am not that worried about attempts to make technology more similar to us,
but I am very, very worried about
attempts to make us more like technology.
Hank, I’ll see you on Friday.
They didn’t know about that one.