Opinion | I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students.
Opinion | I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students.
This article by Meghan O’Rourke explores the profound impact of artificial intelligence, particularly ChatGPT, on creative writing education and human expression. The author, a creative writing teacher, details her initial positive experiences using AI for productivity, but raises concerns about the technology's long-term effects on original thought, cognitive debt, and the fundamental human act of writing. O'Rourke argues that widespread AI adoption risks a "flatlining of thought" and the erosion of genuine human creativity, attention, and the pleasure of invention, especially for students growing up with AI as an intrinsic part of their learning environment.
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not a surprising outcome. maybe another summary is that you can refine, hone and improve what you practice (and the opposite for what you avoid).
the author does detail some interesting uses of LLMs and walks us through the emotional (or lack of emotional) impact it has on you.
this is a healthy reminder to constantly reflect on where and how our energy is being spent as it can lead to reasons to change, evolve or double down.
maybe there is this underlying point that as a society we might not be as good at writing, or deep thinking or being creative. i'm hard pressed to believe that is our trajectory because of the tools we have today.
these LLMs do make generating art, opinions, essays and music more accessible. there will definitely be an increase in creators. the question is, will an increase in creators lead to less human driven creation?
it's a funny question given LLMs couldn't create what it does without the entirety of its human created dataset.
time will tell, but i'm willing to bet on human connection to constantly spur the creation of various arts, new arts and old arts.
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