5 Comments

Hughbert, great to hear from you and you are still turning a phrase! I think writers of the future will do their best to hide the presence of the ghost in the machine.

Expand full comment

"Sludge" is for the now not for the next. The output from AI is going to get better and better and more writerly and "personal," perish the thought.

Expand full comment

I'll admit it. I like rereading something *I've* written. It gives me no end of pleasure, especially when it comes out in one go, with only minor, if any, edits required. These neo-writers of the future, the one's who consent to 'assisted writing' might turn in copy, but they'll have to share the byline by adding the prefix 'co-written by _____. And if they don't, when someone says, "Hey, I read your piece in _____, they'll know that in the "forest," they can only lay claim to a few of the trees. How's that going to feel?

Expand full comment

Great piece. Methinks that AI is not going to make anyone a better writer. Yes, it can help you with a first draft. But it produces sludge, and nothing memorable.

Expand full comment

Michael, well-written and thoughtful, as usual. “Headless Horseman heedless of humankind” will stay in my mind for some time.

“Nothing less than the end of the blank page” seems overly dramatic. There’s you and me and a few million others who won’t genuflect before the mindless machine in order to say what we have to say.

Others taking credit for something they did not do is between them and their Creator.

You are on record as not being part of that ilk, and we are all better off for it.

Thanks for another insightful ConGames perspective.

Cliff

Expand full comment