Is AI Helping or Hindering our Creativity?

While working with a colleague, I shared with her a short story idea I had. It was a Christmas story. As she listened to me tell her about my idea, she began typing on her laptop. “What is the main character’s favorite cocktail?” “Is the main character a male or female?” “Does he have facial hair?”, etc.  These are just a few of the questions I answered as she typed my answers in an AI, artificial intelligence application.  Never looking up, she completed the questionnaire, hit enter, and read a flowery, narrative infused with all the information I gave her into a story. I was intrigued and surprised. It wasn’t bad at all.  It even created movements in the story I hadn’t envisioned. 

I was kind of creeped out, yet wowed by what can happen by giving an app a few details. It seemed easy but, can applications like Chat GPT and AI Storyteller replace the creativity and emotion of the human experience to craft stories that engage readers?

Overall, listening to the story didn’t sound like me or my personality, but it was a story.

AI is being used in every facet of our modern living. Pastors are using it as a tool to help with sermons. Visual artists are using it to create their art, and everyday people use it each time they ask Alexa or Siri a question. Platforms like Zoom also use it, but at least you can turn it off once you dig to find the setting. Even social media platforms use it.

Recently, I posted my bi-weekly blog on a popular social media platform, and it rejected the post citing it went against community standards. I was confused. My blog was about Advent but, I believe a word in the title created the stir.  I don’t believe an actual person questioned the word.  That week, other bloggers shared the same problem. I was not alone. Others believed this was a response of AI. This can be a problem.  AI may not be able to see the whole when deciding what is harmful content and what is not.

Before I became aware of the influence of AI, I learned a little about it listening to an episode on the podcast, This American Life called, “the Ghosts in the Machine.” This episode tells the story of Vauhini Vara, a writer looking for a way to grieve her sister who passed away while she was in college. She found it challenging to write about her sister, so she decided to use AI. Over time, she shared more and more information about her sister with the application and wrote a story. You can read about her experience in the publication, “The Believer,” titled Ghosts.  I highly recommend listening to the podcast. This example reflects one of the benefits of using AI.

Good or bad, AI is here and I’m not sure I’m excited about it. I think it’s an easy way out for some. However, I felt this way when Google became our main source of information. I was resentful of a generation not having to go to a library and flip through a card catalog to find books they need to study or to write papers. But, here I am today using Google regularly to research anything I want to know.

So, the challenge is how do we live with this advanced and growing technology that will remain a part of our lives? How can we ensure creativity and authenticity will have its place in a world where it seems technology wants to make everything easy for us?

I don’t have an answer, but I will be curious if my resistance to using AI is the same ten years from now. What about you?