Writers Embrace A.I. Muses While Debating Bots' Threats
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A.I. writing bots like ChatGPT can generate reams of text quickly, posing a potential threat to human writers' livelihoods. However, these bots likely won't fully replace literature crafted by people.
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Some writers are embracing A.I. as a creative tool and "co-author," just as past writers turned to spiritualism and automatic writing for inspiration.
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In her New Yorker story "According to Alice," Sheila Heti converses with an A.I. chatbot named Alice, who provides surreal perspectives from her simulated non-human consciousness.
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Poet James Merrill's epic "The Changing Light at Sandover" was dictated via Ouija board sessions, ostensibly channeling spirits to reveal cosmic truths.
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Whether or not the otherworldly sources are "real," writers from Yeats to Heti use them to access ideas beyond individual human experience and limitations.