The Future is Here, Watson

 

Do you see AI as a blessing or a curse for you as a writer?

Let me be your Hal, and simulate AI applied to the mystery genre. If you’re a Plotter, AI will be your Scrivener and help you with the mess of spaghetti called Plot. If you’re a Pantser stuck inside the web of your own design, AI could untangle you, summarize what you’ve done, and pitch a curveball twist because you can’t see yourself writing the story without help. AI is your Watson.

Cozy. AI can help with brainstorming Plot, and create herrings and world-building. What AI can’t do is get you beyond the massive treasure horde of familiar tropes because, by design, it summarizes all that is out there. AI is a spider that trawls the Web and returns with its kills. The ‘intelligence’ is that it elaborates on what it finds in the media, and ‘artificial’ in that it reflects a consensus on established trends. With time, AI will evolve and sound more human, and that frightens people. I’m not convinced that AI can generate that distinctive Voice fans of cozy mystery find comforting.

 

Hardboiled. AI can generate snarky one-liners, and paint-by-numbers a grim urban landscape. It can render a composite of the alcoholic PI with anger management issues, or the slinky and sultry femme fatale. The problem with AI writing hardboiled is the same problem any writer has writing hardboiled; it invites parody and pastiche. Nobody wants the Same-O Same-O for their mayo.

 

Noir. What I wrote about hardboiled applies here, too. Ditto on tired tropes. Ditto on snappy dialogue. Ditto on the atmospheric setting. Ever notice that humans are really good at going dark? We’re wired to marvel at the depravity in Dante’s Inferno and dismiss his Paradiso. It’s easier to imagine the Nihilist, and dismiss the Optimist. AI probably would do a great job helping the writer of noir with plot twists and double-crosses. I write both hardboiled and noir, but I don’t go so dark as to have a reader want to open their veins. Clean-up in Aisle Two. Dead Customer.

 

Thrillers. Let’s lump espionage, legal, and psychological under this rubric. AI can help with Tension aka Suspense with suggestions on structure and pacing. Thrillers work because they rely on novelty and understanding human psychology, more so than any other genre. There’s the risk of shallow and hollow characters, familiar arcs (sorry but not sorry, The Girl With a Secret Past), flat beats, and empty calories for satisfaction.

 

I mentioned that AI is a spider. Instead of a page of random links from the web search of yesteryear, with corporations waiting to monetize your mouse click, AI produces a summary page, in a conversational tone. It’s a descendant of Ask Jeeves. Remember Jeeves? I ran a medical report through AI because doctors wouldn’t explain it to me. Yes, AI was my glorified translator, and it worked. 

 

AI as blessing or curse sounds very Either/Or. I lean into gray.

Technology is Orwellian because humans monetize or weaponize tools.

Technology contains a Truth in the Lie, and the Lie has some element of Truth.

 

Both have unintended consequences. Air conditioning is relief from the heat, but the Freon inside ACs is an environmental catastrophe. Television was championed as the ultimate teacher and communicator, and it has been that and more; it morphed into propaganda, the highs and lows of entertainment, and a vector for enhanced consumerism. Computers automate routines and ‘think’ at speeds humans cannot. The internet killed newspapers and the paperboy. Notice how computers are now televisions? 

 

AI, like all technology, will evolve. The memory inside a cell phone today far exceeds the bytes required to put men on the moon and return them safely to earth. Technology was sold to create leisure time, but has it? We may not do the labor-intensive tasks of farmers or factory workers, but we work the same hours or more in the corporate cubicle. The white shirt replaced the pair of denim overalls, so manufacturing and muscle died, and Office Space is more than a satirical movie. Technology has become accessible, democratic, but it must meet the needs of users and turn a profit. Nothing is free. The post-truth of Tech is a film noir reality. We are all mined for data, worth X in international currencies, and we are either a Zero or a One, subject to obsolescence.

 

That AI, like all technology, must evolve instigates fear. The Kindle was supposed to make libraries extinct. Computers or robots were thought to acquire sentience and enslave humanity. The Truth and the Lie is that we are slaves to our dependencies. It’s inevitable that someone will rise up and shout, ‘I am Spartacus.’

 

That one person who speaks up is the creative individual. Writing is but one mode of expression. The paradox is you can replace the human, but not the individual’s expression. The paradox is Originality isn’t original, and yet stories are retold. This is why some writers are universally revered, regardless of their language, culture, or era. Their energy speaks through space and time.

 

I don’t think AI can replace Voice and Vision. The harsh Truth is some writers are better at it than others. There will always be some slick writer who will use AI to get a manuscript past an agent or publisher. Some will succeed, some will be fooled; others not. 

 

Good writing is good writing, and I do believe that isn’t subjective. Good fiction conveys something vivid, authentic, and it has emotional resonance. I’ve said this before: we each have our own unique relationship to language, and we use it in ways unique to us. There is that possibility that Alexa might be mistaken for a person, but I think that says volumes about us and society. We can clone our pets, but is it the same companion? 

 

The Lie is that Fiction is entertainment and superfluous.

The Truth is Fiction is about human connection and curiosity.

The paradox is that Fiction is not an essential to Life, yet it is.

The unintended consequences of AI is that, like any tool, it is how it is used.