I remembered that movie 2001 Space Odysseys where Al or Hal, I can’t quite remember, oh yeah I got Google it will tell me. It’s Hal. Anyway, the problem I find with AI, artificial Intelligence, for those of us who aren’t millennials or gen zees, is our reliance on these things that enslaves us to this regardless if we want it or not. Anyway, the line that Hal stated was about how we were now his slave when before we were his master.
It’s this prospect that I am certain is why the government and many high-tech corporations are so alarmed at this point. It’s as if they freed the genie from the bottle and can’t figure out how to put it back in.
Last week during our writer’s meeting with Inland Northwest Writers’ Guild, we discussed this very topic. What we touched upon was how AI may affect our careers as writers. Open AI Chat GPT is one aspect that researchers claim can revolutionize our economy in ways not thought possible.
I see great potential for AI say in the realm of STEM—SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH. I’m not so sure how it would work if one wanted to use AI to write a novel, short story, or poem. Afterall, AI is at its core a computer generated algo rhythm based on 1s and 0s. It cannot by its very nature create prose or poetry or a painting.
While AI may accelerate cures for cancer or Alzheimer’s, can influence climate change models to where we become ninety percent carbon emissions free, prevent catastrophic climate change, it is still incapable of creating a science fiction novel in which the antagonist is a computer on a space station.
So, while we writers and editors can sleep better at night knowing our jobs are mostly secured. Will AI enslave us as Hal may well hope to do? Unlikely unless that computer has feelings, emotions, and creative thought.
Jerry Schellhammer 