Is AI coming for professional writers?
- Elaine Cooney
- Nov 7, 2024
- 3 min read
I fell into an AI cavern at 3am.
Sitting bolt upright after dreaming of robots controlling the skies and land, flying eyeballs zooming in to spy on us starving peasants huddled in our hundreds under a derelict bridge, I began scrolling.
Had the AI monster finally bitten me? Was I beginning to panic much like some other small business owners…predicting we only have a few months or years left of life as we know it? It was joyriders ripping up the gravel bend outside my fence that released me from my nightmare. As I scrolled and watched doomsday predictions due to AI, I slipped back to a light slumber where the screeching of brakes and revving of engines became AI police patrolling the streets, chasing down the rebels who broke curfew set by their mighty metallic dictator.
Beaming from the small screen on my pillow a smug Elon Musk told his YouTube audience that within three years AI would be able to do almost anything humans could do. Bile rose in my chest, and I dropped the phone to the floor. Red and blue lights beaconed through the uneven space above the bedroom blind from my clumsy human-style installation. I cursed my fallibility as I pictured the robots measuring it to perfection…maybe in three years’ time. They would lift me from my bed with their steely claws and dump me on the lawn, throwing my suitcases and unironed shirts and jeans after me like a cheated lover from a 1980s rom com. I would weep on the unevenly mowed lawn as the robots fixed those crooked blinds. A whole metallic army would walk over me and invade my humble home, each carrying futuristic tools to clean, repaint, redecorate, and inhabit. The red and blue lights were not for my protection. As the light continued to churn across the ceiling turning from red to blue, I fished under the bed for my phone, which already dictated when I would wake…if the fear would ever let me rest. Elon was muted and I swiped him away, remaining wide-eyed about those robots.
Returning to Earth I asked how these creatures were encroaching on my space right now. Some clients had fallen victim to their mundane words. Every time I see AI's fingerprints on copy – it’s always telling you to “elevate” something or other – I smirk. When I read chunks of untouched AI copy, I feel more sanctimonious than Elon and wonder when they will return to humans for their writing chores. Perhaps they will remain blissfully unaware or maybe the robots will lift their game… maybe in three years.
In three years’ time I may be clawing the uneven lawn while being dragged backwards towards a space shuttle rounding us up for our voyage to Mars, but right now I can go back to sleep knowing AI does not have the heart and soul that we need to connect and thrive as a community and in business. Projects completed in AI cannot be copyrighted and such content may be plagiarising existing copyrights and end in lawsuits.
AI does not clarify details in copy to ensure a clear and consistent message is being delivered and enjoyed by the intended audience. It doesn’t spot that you said Julia’s sister was a hairdresser in chapter three and she is suddenly a baker in chapter seven – and it does not pick up character nuances that entraps the reader. And most importantly, AI does not feel that sense of accomplishment when you have gone through oceans of emotions together on a project that has finally been completed.
The robots may open your champagne bottle one day, but they won’t share a drink with you.
@writeforyouec writeforyou.info
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