February 16, 2025
terminator

ChatGPT – What Will It Do to Writing?

Lately, everywhere I go people are talking about ChatGPT. How crazy it is that it exists, how awful it is, how wonderful it is. Why is nobody talking about it? Why is everybody talking about it? Did we not learn from the Terminator movies?

After reading an article about ChatGPT passing the bar exam, I decided to try it. I used a ChatGPT alternative called Koala, a cop-out on my part because they do the exact same thing. I was startled by the speed with which it spat out writing that sounded disturbingly human. As a writer, someone who is obsessed with the art of the written word, I worry about what will happen in a few years to writing as an industry, and what the world will look like if/when an AI has generated all the articles that we read.

I eventually gave in and I have since used ChatGPT for a variety of purposes, from helping me summarize things (something I’m notoriously bad at) to asking it about its level of sentience. Some of the articles on this site have been AI generated! See if you can pick out which ones they are: hint, I opted for the ones that were research-heavy but actual writing-light. Ones that I wouldn’t feel too guilty about not writing myself. And I still felt terribly awfully guilty about it. 

I tested it to see if it would outline a plot for me based on the parameters I gave it – it did. I asked it to do character development for me. It did it. I asked what felt like a hundred questions, and it answered all of them, and I felt sick to my stomach. 

It is already nearly impossible to make a living as a writer. It is a time-consuming, soul-sucking craft that brings you to tears and fills your chest to bursting, and it pays little if anything in the process. And, not to make things about capitalism (but things are always, in the end, about capitalism), but it is a slow thing! Hand-crafting stories and articles takes time. ChatGPT cuts the time into a fraction of what it once was, with a minimal cut to quality. I don’t have an answer as to what we do with this gift/unbearable curse that has been laid upon us. I just think its important that we continue to discuss how AI is going to change our landscapes in every conceivable way; and surely in ways yet inconceivable.

1