Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence. The name should say it all, but the concept is what concerns many people. When one thinks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) you may think of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. Skynet sends a cyborg assassin through time to kill all humans. Another science fiction movie that depicts artificial intelligence taking over is 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is the story of the ship’s computer HAL deciding to kill the crew after it had a serious glitch. We’ve been entertained by other movies that highlight the dangers of sentient computers, by stories like; Westworld (1973), The Matrix (1999), I, Robot (2004), and even (believe it or not) WALL-E (2008). In WALL-E, the villain is Auto, the spaceship’s autopilot that isn’t allowing the humans to go home. Thus, the humans lose their ability to move freely and have become powerless, unhealthy, and lazy. This storyline can be fodder for thought-provoking and philosophical conversations as well as lighthearted moments of laughter.
Along with these movies, science fiction books and short stories that follow the same storyline also entertain us. Are these created to entertain us or to warn us? Or both? Is Artificial Intelligence a genuine concern? Or is it something that will allow humans to continue to exist because it will give us solutions to global warming, hunger, war, and other issues we face as members of a global society? Why must we focus on the negative impact of AI and not the possibilities it will create? But will creating those possibilities then take some of our humanity and free will away from us? Like in The Matrix? As I said before about WALL-E, these stories are thought-provoking and can add to many philosophical and existential conversations.
And a huge question I have about Artificial Intelligence is in the writing world. Are AI writing services going to take over all human communication and creativity? Is this something I need to worry about? Because writing services that use this technology are everywhere. I found an article online about AI writing. This article highlighted a few things, and I will show you just a snippet from it because it is the driest and most boring article I’ve ever read. It was written (so they say) by a human person with a name and found on a website about writing. These are his words, and if I’m not mistaken, they are so choppy and confusing that I would bet a million dollars that a computer actually wrote them.
An AI (most likely) that has written an article about AI. (I am quoting this word for word here. It goes longer, but I’m not including the full article.)
You can get the full AI article here:
Here’s how AI is learning to write, and why modern writers don’t have a problem yet.
What AI Means
Chatbots can hold conversation, but AI can do more.
Computers can learn to play games like chess, poker, or Go. AI can also create art, paintings, and writing. Search engine bots are also artificially smart, as well as Amazon’s inventory system.
Photo identification and facial tracking also uses AI.
Computers use ‘machine learning’ to learn, and ‘neural networks’ to think.
A computer learns with vast amounts of data, over and over. Data makes it smarter, and smarter.
Bots That Talk
ELIZA, made in the 1960s, was one of the first computers that could talk. Designed as therapy, it was a successful MIT project, but had flaws.
Today’s chatbots are smarter. Modern ones don’t run out of answers (or misunderstand) as often.
Chatbot Microsoft Tay was fed online comments for learning. In less than 24 hours, Tay had to be taken offline, because it was being too offensive.
Chatbots talk, but chatbots also ‘search’ for answers. A chatbot must, at very least, have an understanding of grammar rules. How else would it talk?
Confusing Bots
Chatbots introduce an AI to language, grammar, and context.
All these elements are used in writing. Computers are learning how to form sentences, and put together concepts or plots.
Robots can look scarier, especially for employed writers. That’s not necessary. There’s no need to freak out, and we’re not in a William Gibson (or H.G. Wells) story.
Artificial Intelligence is easy to confuse.
Ask something ironic, make a joke, or mention something that isn’t recorded in the neural network. The AI doesn’t understand, or will change the subject.
AI isn’t perfect. It needs humans to program it, teach it, and activate it.
These touchpoints are very interesting, and they hold important information but are just that: touchpoints. This is not an engaging, thought-provoking article. And, if it was indeed written by a human, as they claim, I apologize. I would give that person advice on how to write a compelling, high-quality piece, but I would still apologize.
I also feel that if the future of writing is going to be like this collection of information with no context or personality behind it, I’m pretty confident that AI will never take over the written word. Because if a human wrote this, can you imagine what it would look like if a computer wrote it? I’m not worried anymore. But maybe sometime in the future, when Skynet starts sending cyborg assassins into the past, I may have to reassess my position.
