One Day Writers Would Lose Their Job To AI

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On the one hand, the model above written by OpenAI's GPT-3 challenges the intellectual security of the layman or low-skilled writers by the efficacy with which it easily applies the elements of writing to initiate and organize ideas into the structure of an essay. AI like Grammarly and Open AI have succeeded in writing news articles, generating content based on algorithms, and performing certain traditional writing such as drafting, blogging, proofreading, fact-checking, and formulaic/repetitive writing, begging the question, what becomes of the fate of proofreaders, blog writers and content writers who would be displaced from their offices?

On the other hand, the same model could serve as a template or advantage to professional writers who are tasked to go beyond the time-consuming and crude aspect of writing, applying creativity and the best use of language to generate nuance and express original ideas in literature (novels, journals) designed to compel or convince a given audience. Indeed, AI has not advanced enough to take up the complex, analytical, creative and emotional writing by professional writers like journalists and novelists whose work, unlike the low-skilled writers’, would appreciate and utilize the role of AI as a writing tool. Nevertheless, there is an inevitable future where AI will dominate a great portion in the writing industry, fundamentally serving as instrument in man's workshop designed to assist rather than unseat writers, buying enough time for the creation of a masterpiece.

In the grand scheme of things, there are two sides to the debate about the potential dominance of AI over writers emanating from the uneven distribution of wealth in society (1). Developed countries imbued with state-of-the-art scientific and technological facilities and advanced intellectual resources are favourably entitled to modern innovations in these parameters. Global economic interactions and competition between these countries to maintain or upscale in ranking generate intense pressure for productivity in the job market, which further raises the bar for performance, ingenuity, skill, and creativity in the pool of workers(1). While it is at the core of this competition that milestone breakthrough in science and technology like spacecraft, nuclear power, and AI are birthed, it is also because of this competition that developing/underdeveloped countries and primitive societies in the low end of wealth-ranking and intellect are completely left out on the trajectory of modernization and become victims of the advancements in science and technology (1). The analogy of the layman and professional writer used above is the grass root representation of this deep rooted division in society that contributes largely to the opposing and negative perception and acceptance of AI in the writing industry.

Conclusion

There is hardly any competition between man and AI and this can be seen in the stark difference between this essay and the Open AI’s response above. The seeming competition between writers and AI is the culmination of the actual competition between writers themselves in an industry that is increasingly demanding maximum performance and quality; it is a call for the layman and low-skilled writers to evolve in expertise in the face of a rapidly changing job market and a digital 21st century. To mask AI a threat to its creator and mastermind (man) defeats the very purpose for which it was created because in the grand scheme of things, man will always be steps ahead of AI in the pursuit for originality and ingenuity and AI will forever be limited by the "Artificial" in its very meaning.

Reference

1.    Koski JE, Xie H, Olson IR. Understanding social hierarchies: The neural and psychological foundations of status perception. Soc Neurosci. 2015;10(5):527-50. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2015.1013223. Epub 2015 Feb 20. PMID: 25697184; PMCID: PMC5494206.

Chukwuemeka Victor Mokwe

400 level, Medicine and Surgery

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

chukwuemeka.mokwe.242308@unn.edu.ng