Artificial intelligence is sweeping the world, and it has led to a great deal of uncertainty about the future. If programs like ChatGPT can write full essays and code games, how long before it develops literary masterpieces that are better than any human could come up with?
Still a Massive Market For Books
With all this advanced technology cropping up, you’d be excused to think that outdated entertainment options like books and print media would head towards obsoletion. That’s not the case, though; in fact, reading is more popular than ever.
According to research from the PIA blog, there are plenty of interesting stats that show reading is here to stay. In 2020 alone, eBook sales exceeded $1 billion. On top of that, 25 percent more Americans have started reading in the last few years. Thanks to social media book influencers and celebrities, young people feel encouraged to read and develop skills that will help throughout their life.
Authors see this as good news, but they are faced with trepidation. With all these new readers, there must be a greater market for books, and more chances to receive wide recognition.
It’s no secret that AI models are becoming exponentially more advanced, and some writers wonder how long it will be before technology pens better novels than they could come up with.
AI Can do Some Wonderful Things
There’s no doubt that AI can do some impressive things already. According to an article in Today Online, ChatGPT could already be more skilled than human college students when it comes to constructing original essays. Indeed, some professors are now starting to think that the traditional essay as a form of assessment could be on the way out, due to fears of plagiarism.
In addition to writing prose in the style of a human author, AI can produce code. Expert computer programmers are turning to AI to assist them when they can’t think of a solution to a problem. You can even upload photos into some engines and AI will describe them, adapt them, or produce new images inspired by them.
With things moving so fast, it’s only a matter of time before AI can churn out full-length novels. BookFox believes that AI could be writing passable novels within five to ten years. Other researchers believe that it could be ready to write a bestselling novel by 2049.
People Still Need Human Authors
It’s hard to question the capabilities of AI. The projections of its development to this point and where it could go in the future suggest that it will be able to write amazing novels one day. The question is, will people still want to read them?
AI is powerful and more human than ever, but there are some things that they cannot replicate. Artforms like literature are unlikely to be outsourced to AI, for two reasons: empathy and emotional intelligence.
The joy of reading is how we get in touch with the innermost feelings of the author, and by extension, ourselves. We experience the thoughts and workings of another human’s mind and have the chance to see the world from another’s perspective. Without this human touch, reading is an empty experience.
AI learns from materials produced by humans, and from bodies of work already published. AI lacks the emotional depth or intelligence to create a compelling piece of work from scratch, especially one that rivals works which already exist. As technology evolves and becomes more complicated, it’s important to think about why we read novels, and why it’s important that we know other humans are writing them.
