16 Comments

Loved this. I am definitely curious how much the average reader will be able to tell or care whether the author has bled for the story they are telling. Guess we'll see in coming years.

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Yes, I suspect we’ll create tools for analyzing what might have been AI generated vs written. It’ll only work backward looking, but we’d be able to root out people who were faking it after the fact. Kinda like Lance Armstrong and PED testing.

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The question then becomes what percent of writing needs to come from a human to be deemed "original-enough" to be authentic. That'll vary person to person but I imagine the writing community will arrive at some sort of consensus. I just have a hard time imagining what that number will be.

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Bet the AI won't miss the subheaders. And that too makes this piece uniquely human. 😂

Even humans don't get true vulnerability right. It's gonna take the AI even longer. And while it'll feed the content machine, the good stuff will inevitably rise, because we share the things that make us less alone.

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Hahahah I'm not even sure what happened to III...

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Superb take.

Another way to think about this: it’s the right brain emotions, feelings and lived experiences that AI can never replace. The left brain logic, lists and order are what’s for the taking.

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Wow, that hit different.....Love your work mate!

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Thanks Viggy!

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Currently doing AI for a living (VP of AI for a BigCo in Corporate America) but starting my writing journey. Couldn't agree more with this: “You’ll need to experience a life worth reading. Either through the wildness of your adventures or the depths of your introspection. If you’re not willing to reach that level of honesty in your work, you should probably give up now. Anything short of the rawest, most honest human connection will be gobbled up by robots.”

Thanks for taking the time to write this article, Nat!

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A very interesting topic, one I will pay more attention to.

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As a writer, I feel like the first sentence after reading this.

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Great article Nat, although I think you shouldn't be too worried. See it this way, once an AI can do your job perfectly to the point that it is no longer augmenting you, then all intellectual labor is on the chopping block.

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Respectfully disagree. Writing and language is what AI is *really* good at and Nat's correct the low-value content is going to be the first to be eaten by AI. Speaking from a bit of experience as I'm currently doing AI full-time in corporate america.

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When you put it like that, bug goop starts to sound a bit tastier 😆 🫣

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Thanks Nat, that read was an awesome little journey for me. From fear of the creative AI future to some optimism.

Will the introvert writers of the future have to come more out of hiding and pair their writing with some kind of online personal brand which demonstrates their humanity? e.g. short-from video, podcast etc, so people feel a deep human connection beyond just the words on a screen.

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AI will be able to create voice and video, too. Check out GPT-4's voice feature it's already pretty insane. I have my four year old talking into it, asking for stories, and then asking the AI to read him stories that incorporate his sister into the story.

I'm not sure it's going to be the medium, probably more the content -- how personal and raw and transparent is the writer / podcaster / youtuber?

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