Some Ethical Uses of AI in Writing
By Evan Braun
Since ChatGPT first started to take the world by storm about a year and a half ago, the writing community has been buzzing over how to grapple with the technology. The advent of AI in people’s workflow is by turn both liberating and deeply threatening, depending on who you ask.
Now that the genie is out of the bottle, it’s a good idea for writers of all stripes to figure out how to make AI work for them. There are ways to use it ethically.
In late 2022 when ChatGPT was breaking out into the mainstream, I started using it to better gauge its abilities. What did it do well? What didn’t it do well? The key to using any new tool is to make sure you’re using it in the right ways.
My first realization was that it was better than I had expected at producing human-sounding prose. Which scared me, naturally, since I’m in the business of producing (and helping others to produce) human-written prose! The prospect of being able to enter a prompt and instantly receive a perfectly edited block of text on demand? It sent shivers up my spine.
But this first impression was tempered by further realizations: the output is factually unreliable, stylistically distinctive, and notoriously bland. My initial fears were misplaced. You can’t just tell generative AI—of which ChatGPT is one example; there are others now in the marketplace—to write a book and sit back as it churns out a flow of perfect words. Or rather, you can, and some have, but it’s going to be a really bad book.
Fortunately, we’re in the business of developing really great books.
I could write a long series of posts about the drawbacks of AI, but many people have done that and it’s not the topic I have in mind today. Instead, I want to talk about how I make use of it. Let’s talk about how to use it guilt-free.
Wait. I have one quick rabbit trail to cover.
Why should the use of AI in writing produce any guilt? Because it’s based on stolen works. Generative AI models require huge, truly mind-boggling amounts of input. The designers of these models have trained them with trillions of words written by humans, but without those humans’ permission. Essentially what’s happened is that AI has been fed endless books, short stories, academic papers, articles, emails, and even text messages to learn how humans communicate. That’s the basis of AI. So if you’ve previously published books that are available online in any form, then… yeah, those carefully crafted words probably got sucked up into the AI model like so many errant cat hairs up a vacuum tube.
Nothing can be done about it now, although certainly people are talking about how to enact some safeguards in the future.
Back to the subject at hand. As an author, how do I use AI currently? I don’t use it (much) to churn out actual writing that then ends up in a book of mine. Because it’s not necessarily very good at this, and the whole thing makes me feel sort of squeamish.
However, I’ve found that generative AI—and ChatGPT in particular—is extremely good at defeating writer’s block. To me personally, this is its most frequent use.
Perhaps you can relate. The hardest part about writing is often starting to write. Staring at that blank page, frankly, really sucks. In the past, I’ve tried to defeat this by never stopping at the end of a scene. The logic is simple—starting from scratch is hard, and it’s easier to start a new writing session if in the previous session you gave yourself a prompt, something to work with. I can continue a scene a lot more easily than starting one totally fresh.
So here’s what I often do. I open the AI chat window, feed in the previous scene I wrote, and then ask the chatbot to generate the start of a new scene in the same tone and style, according to a few general parameters. For example: “In the next chapter, Bill and Angela meet in secret at the office in the middle of the night and wait for Tom’s phone call. Tell me what happens next.”
Quick as lightning, the AI gives me the starting point I need. It will be riddled with errors and irrelevancies. The details will be wrong and the style won’t be quite what I’m looking for. That’s okay! I don’t need or want AI to write the book for me. But inevitably these little prompts get me kick-started. They give me something to work with.
That’s not the only useful way to get AI working for you as a writer. It’s also an effective brainstorming tool. Need a name for a new character? Or some character backstory? No problem. Get the AI model to give you some suggestions.
Maybe you’re building your story outline and are looking for some ways to add obstacles and generate more tension.
I’ve even had luck with identifying a plot hole in a piece of writing and asking the AI for potential workarounds.
Need solutions on how to structure the sequel to a previous book? I’ve found that AI is quite good at this sort of thing. It will recognize patterns in your storytelling you may not have consciously noticed before.
AI can get you started. Be ready to discard most of the feedback as complete and utter bunk. However, there will be some good ideas sprinkled in, ideas you can polish into gems.
No, AI isn’t the silver bullet. It’s not going to write entire books for you. And why would you want that? You’re an artist. The whole purpose is to create the art yourself. But AI can make for a pretty fantastic assistant.
About this Contributor:
Evan Braun is a full-time author and editor. He has authored three novels, the first of which, The Book of Creation, was shortlisted in two categories at the 2012 Word Awards. He has released two sequels, The City of Darkness (2013) and The Law of Radiance (2015), completing the series. Braun is an experienced professional editor, and has worked with Word Alive Press authors since 2006. He is also a regular contributor at The Fictorians, a popular writing blog.