The world of AI writing is a fascinating and complex realm, offering a unique lens into the nature of creativity and the human experience. In this article, we'll delve into the intriguing question: What does AI's style reveal about its essence?
The Illusion of Tells
In the past, people believed that certain physical traits could reveal a person's character. Similarly, today, we hunt for telltale signs to identify AI-generated content. However, just as a person's appearance doesn't always reflect their true nature, the same goes for AI.
Take, for instance, the use of em dashes or the 'it's not X; it's Y' construction. These are often seen as red flags for AI writing, but they are merely stylistic choices. As AI models evolve, they will become even better at mimicking human writing, blurring the lines further.
Unraveling AI's Style
To truly understand AI's style, we must look beyond surface-level quirks. Every writer, human or AI, has a unique style that reflects their perspective and experiences. Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, masters of comedy, showcase this beautifully through their distinct writing styles, which reveal different personalities and life stories.
So, what does AI's style tell us about its 'self'? Well, it seems AI has no fixed style, indicating a lack of a fixed identity. It adapts and generates text based on probabilities, trained on billions of texts to predict word combinations. This probabilistic nature is evident in its storytelling approach.
AI's Storytelling Journey
I experimented with ChatGPT, asking it to tell stories. Interestingly, its initial responses were often fables, set in fantasy worlds or among animals. It seems AI understands that stories should provide an escape from reality, a reflection of our desire for fantastical adventures.
When prompted to write in different styles, ChatGPT's adaptability became apparent. It could switch between a more literary style, ancient settings, and even the social satire of the Regency era. However, despite these stylistic changes, the underlying message remained the same: stories must be edifying, with clear moral lessons.
The Bias Towards Familiarity
AI's tendency to deliver moralistic clichés and artificially neat endings reveals its structural bias towards familiarity and averageness. It reflects our expectations back to us, not because it wants to please us (it has no desires), but because it reproduces patterns found in existing texts.
This bias towards the familiar is not unique to AI. We, as humans, often seek comfort in the predictable. We gravitate towards Hollywood movies, romantasy novels, and Sunday sermons because we know what to expect, and our expectations are usually met.
The Power of Originality
However, true creativity lies in breaking free from these stereotypes and offering new perspectives. A great creative writer replaces stereotypes with reality, using language in innovative ways to communicate unique experiences. AI, with its language-based existence, lacks access to experiences beyond language, making it incapable of true originality.
AI's Impact on Literature
The rise of AI writing presents a unique opportunity for literature. As AI takes over utilitarian writing tasks, it frees human writers to explore more daring and challenging realms. In a world filled with competent but empty prose, we need writers who can capture the essence of humanity 'from the inside.'
AI writing, with its limitations, highlights the importance of human creativity and the power of original thought. It reminds us that true creativity comes from appealing to our shared experiences of reality, which are diverse and surprising, and cannot be fully captured by language alone.
So, while AI writing may never challenge our thinking or offer new perspectives, it serves as a reminder of the value and necessity of human creativity in literature.
