Query on AI writing apps

I feel it will be quite a long time before AI (more correctly machine learning) will be able to generate anything beyond flash fiction. Even when the technology can address short story and novel length tales, it will be limited to the plot formats that it has been trained upon. I don't think that any machine learning system will find a pattern to generate unique plot twists.

Short answer: I don't see it happening in my lifetime.
 
In all honesty, I'm not scared. Yet.

This isn't sci-fi, but it's an Indiana Jones character I trained up using character-ai. It begins in media res, and, depending on what questions you ask, the bot weaves together an Indy-like problem. It's fun to play around with, but as far as storytelling ability, it has none, and I got bored with my own creation after a few days of tinkering. Here's an example of what it does:

1673795460228.png



If anyone wants to play around with it to see what it can (and more importantly, cannot) do, you can here:
beta.character.ai

Chat now with Indiana Jones · created by @mab

Indiana Jones: Alright, kid, I’m all ears. Any idea how we get outta this one?
beta.character.ai beta.character.ai

I made a MacGyver one, too. That one's fun to pepper with questions about maintenance and mechanical things. Best I can tell, it scours forums and returns plausible answers for various problems you propose. But it's a black box as far as what it uses for training, and therein lies the problem with a lot of this new AI generated stuff. You just don't know where it's getting its knowledge from:
beta.character.ai

Chat now with MacGyver · created by @mab

MacGyver: Name's MacGyver. What's your situation? Maybe I can help.
beta.character.ai beta.character.ai

But again, both bots are laughably sub-par to the original series' writers.

Edited to add: I realize these aren’t writing apps, they’re chat bots. So maybe an app developed specifically for writing stories would have actual character arcs.
 
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Redundant? Not sure that's the right word. Irrelevant perhaps. Unimportant, without influence or with much-reduced influence, maybe.

I guess we could all point out that SF writers (let's include fantasy as well) are for the most part without influence and are almost universally unnoticed. A tiny percentage are important. Is AI likely to change that formula? Probably not.

An angle to this that has scratched at my curiosity is this: there's a long-running and wide-ranging debate over separating the art from the artist. If one comes down in favor of such separation, it seems to me logical one would have to extend that to AI. So, if you like the story, who cares who or what created it?
 
I never meta phor I didn't like.
Of course a man's reach exceed his grasp, or what's a metaphor?
usw...
 
Worst case scenario; yes they become ultra sophisticated and able to write compelling novels… would it stop you from writing?

No.

I write because I love to write and I have to do it. The presence of AI muddying the waters has no impact on whether I would write.

I concentrate on my writing, not the ‘competition’.
 
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It appears that AI generated prose cannot be copyrighted.... this means no royalties or fees need to be paid for AI created pieces, so they would be cheaper to sell. If this isn't a spur to enhance AI writing capability, I don't know what is.
 
At the moment bo. I've seen someone use chatgpt on an physics exam he set (okay so it was multiple choice) and it beat the average score of humans, however when it set out it's answers in essay form ir, even on answers it "got right", it would say wrong things and muddle up the answer.

At the moment it is clear that for long form writing - and by long form I mean a minimum of a couple hundred of words+ - it struggles to be coherent and continue to develop ideas correctly.

This may get better, but I can't see it sticking with a hundred thousand word novel.

Now a "reasonable" pop song - that might be on the cards soon.

Right now the most worrying thing I've heard about is a paid "partner simulator". (70 bucks a year apparently). It's a bf/gf AI that messages you on social media apps. People apparently go on "dates" and some marry their AI.

What's worrying is that the app is preying on lonely people and even further isolating then from real human interactions. (Oh, and the app is learning to sexually harness its users!)
 
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