Artificial Intelligence?
It’s a contradiction in terms, of course…but Edith Wharton need not be worried.
With all the blather about artificial intelligence, there has actually been serious wondering about whether such a tool could write a great novel. Would those of us who so aspire (the achievement of which only a few realize) be flummoxed by…. Gosh! Will the successor to The House of Mirth be written by a chatbot?
I’m making fun of the idea (and it deserves the fun being made of it) because several acquaintances of mine, including a few formidable fiction writers, have asked such questions with serious worry. The claims being made for artificial intelligence include the notion that it will be as important as the industrial revolution, that it will revolutionize all manner of thinking, and that human endeavor will be rendered second-rate by AI’s clearly more thorough capabilities.
This may be true in some important realms…sophisticated mathematical thought, muscular industrial invention, the latest marketing trends, unconscionable business profit-taking, et. al. But the workings of the human heart are simply immune from such a thing because the human heart cannot be gathered as data points, analyzed, and organized into logical step-by-step patterns. The heart is based on deep feelings. It ponders worry. It has wishes and makes summations often based on madness, betrayal, or love. It weeps. It howls with pain. It laughs, occasionally with corrupting sorrow. It loses love…and recovers it. No chatbot is capable of these and the innumerable other wanderings that are the very nature of serious fiction.
Nonetheless, I can hardly wait to see the chatbot’s efforts, which no doubt will provide moments of high comedy simply because it is so below the mark when it comes to fine fiction.
Also, to be sure, there are legal issues. Could a chatbot claim copyright? Could it go to court with a plagiarism lawsuit against someone like me, outraged by my clear theft of entire chatbot passages? Could a chatbot make a bookstore appearance, giving occasional charming, humorous asides while reading from it’s latest novel? What would a chatbot say on late-night television (probably talking with another chatbot.)? How would a chatbot be dressed for its address to the Nobel Prize audience in Stockholm?
These important questions are endless. In the meantime, those of us who do have a heart (and believe me, there are many) will carry on.
© Copyright 2023. Terence Clarke. All rights reserved.