You exist on the same internet I do. You see a lot of what I see. More books and articles being generated by programs. Even fewer people questioning whether or not something AI generates is true. People defending the use of AI in publishing who have, I’m just guessing, never actually published anything before.
What’s the point of writing anything if other people are just going to use a computer to do it faster? What’s the point of trying to get our stories out there if it feels like the market is just going to flood with slop we can’t find our way through?
I’m going to try to offer all of us some hope. I don’t feel very hopeful most days about these things, but I also think giving up on writing because anyone can generate a book in minutes — seconds? — is just too silly. I don’t want to do that.
Publishing, In All Forms, Feels Doomed
I know what it looks and feels like because I see it every day. Just this morning I was doing inventory for my personal library and found multiple books in a search (not in my collection) listed as “written by [author] and ChatGPT.” The state of the economy, especially here in the US, has resulted in the cost of books going up — and no, authors certainly aren’t getting paid more to write them.
And in the online media space, where I currently do most of my work, it’s next to impossible to find a job that doesn’t involve some kind of AI generation AND pays a living wage. Worse now than it’s been since I entered the workforce, for sure.
But is it really true that more people are seeking AI slop online or in “print” than not? Are all editors really spending most of their time rewriting AI-generated material to make it readable? Is all of this really spiraling as hopelessly as we all think?
It’s Not As Hopeless As It Seems
I engage with online media every day. From my own experience, at least, I can tell you that many of the people actually responsible for the content published on websites are merely tolerating the current state of things. It’s not fun to read AI slop all day long. It’s a job, and we do it. And there are plenty of people out there who don’t work in this industry who are either coming around to the reality of how frustrating all of this is — or they were never on board in the first place.
Deep down, people don’t just want to escape into stories. They want to engage with media that understands their humanity. And artificially-made stories can’t do that, and will never be able to do that. If you really want to, you can ask AI to write an article sounding exactly like me. But my soul is nowhere to be found in that. And all I can hope for is that eventually, everyone will get tired of reading things that don’t understand them.
Maybe the Better Question is ‘Who?’
Perhaps I’m asking the wrong question here. If we’re still going to write original content, “what” that purpose is could be irrelevant. The “who” of it all might matter a thousand times more.
Because I can only speak for myself here … but I’m writing for people who care about people. I’m writing for people who want to read human-crafted work. I do write for myself — we all do. But mostly, I’m still writing because someone out there might actually want to read it. And if my words might mean something to someone out there, it would feel wrong to never release them into the world to be found.
