What Might the Future of Writing, Creativity, and the Reality of AI Look Like?

The future is here. AI is gaining prominence. What will that mean?

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I started my journey as a creative writer when I was 9 years old.

While writing is my first love as a creator, it’s by far not my only love.

In High School, I took vocal lessons. I was a trained, 4-octave baritone at my best (and still have a nearly 4-octave range).

I discovered I loved acting – but loved stagecraft even more. In college, my focus and degree program was theatre, specifically directing and sound design.

I was a DJ at the college radio stations throughout my entire undergraduate career. Additionally, I was Production Manager my senior year, and that led to my audio production minor.

I’ve also dabbled in amateur photography, woodworking, painting, drawing, graphic design, website layout, content creation, and lots and lots of other creative endeavors.

Many of my creative skills are among those now gaining AI assistance.

Generative AI is here, and it’s here in a big way.

To some, this is utterly terrifying. And to be fair, there are tons of unanswered questions about how this will impact the arts and other creative endeavors overall.

Some people are cautiously optimistic, while others are embracing the new generative AI tools. But there are still a ton of myths and misunderstandings about what these are and what they can and can’t do.

Let’s look at the future of creative endeavors and AI a little more closely.

What is AI and generative AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been the stuff of sci-fi for ages. Much of it has been negative.

What is AI? It’s the ability of something not human (artificial) to take information that’s input into it, perceive and research questions posed to it, and produce a result (intelligence). More advanced AI remembers prior data and learns anew with everything you give it. Thus, it grows and gains more flexibility and information.

One of the early fictional examples of this concept was HAL 9000 in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001, a Space Odyssey. Famously, HAL was responsible for killing one of the human scientists on the mission and was depicted in the film as scary and out of control.

There are many fictional examples of AI running amok. And then there’s the concept of the Singularity. This is a hypothetical future where the tech of machine learning outpaces humanity and overruns us. Movies like the Terminator series and The Matrix are examples of this fear realized. It results in cataclysm, apocalyptic destruction, and humanity reduced to survivors struggling to keep on keeping on.

None of this is pretty. But it’s also not necessarily the end result, nor what AI is in reality.

You have many examples of AI active in your life now. Amazon’s Alexa, Google, Cortana, and Apple’s Siri are all artificial intelligences.

Now there’s ChatGPT, Bard, Midjourney, Adobe Sensei, and other algorithms with far more capability. This is where generative AI comes into the picture.

Generative AI can do more than just learn and share information. It can create content. Hence, yes, it can create new writing, music, and graphics.

This is where AI can, will, and does impact creative endeavors.

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The future is here before you know it

The future almost always arrives before most people are ready for it. In college, I learned audio production via cut-and-splice editing of reel-to-reel tape. We had a little digital in the Digital Audio Tapes (DAT) we employed for back-ups and were starting to edit things to.

My college went to real digital editing the year after I graduated.

I remember the internet being new, and terrifying people in much the same way that AI scares people today. This idea of global information at our fingertips scared people and governments. And while some of those fears might have been realized, overall, the internet in and of itself is innocuous.

I work for an amazing entrepreneur who is embracing AI, Web3, and the Metaverse. All tools of the future that are not the future – they’re already here. I also follow an author and podcaster who is making use of Generative AI for various projects.

One of the less innocuous aspects of the internet is that right beside the “information superhighway” there’s a “misinformation turnpike” with ever-increasing tolls. Distinguishing one from the other can be challenging, and as such many people absorb more harmful misinformation about things than helpful information.

The reality is that, while generative AI can produce new content on its own – it still needs human input and editing.

And sometimes, like the information and misinformation roads, you need to get second opinions and take much of what is expected with a grain of salt, too.

AI can and will change everything

There’s no denying that AI and Generative AI can and will change everything. But guess what? The only constant in the whole universe happens to be change.

Today, the internet is readily accessible from your smartphone or tablet. Wirelessly, without a physical connection. Do you remember when a cell phone was just a phone? Remember dial-up? Do you remember when both mobile phones and the internet were mostly notions of sci-fi? I do. I also remember panic over many of these once-new technologies, and how they might change everything.

There is always hype and fear with new tech. Always. But now, because virtually everything is instantaneous, overreaction is as fast as excitement.

AI can and will change lots of industries. It already has. But what about creatives?

Creatives have been necessary throughout history. Hell, much of the historical record is found in creations. Take the Pyramids in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, Michelangelo’s David and Sistine Chapel, Julia Childs’ cooking show, and numerous other examples of how art created historical records and changed the world.

Little that has changed the world previously has been utterly destructive or drastic. When it comes to creatives, you often gain new tools for creation you didn’t have before. For example, the first book I wrote at age 9 was handwritten. I got my first computer at age 13 and have been typing my work ever since.

Without new and once-scary tech, you’d not be reading this.

AI and Generative AI are a little scary, to be certain. But they are also representative of new tools that creatives can use now as part of creating the future. When you look at it that way – is it really that scary?

How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?

Postscript

For some helpful explorations of AI and its impact on creatives, check out the podcast AI For Creatives.

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