Will we stop writing when we have AI?

This question occurred to me just like that. AI is taking shape. Every day it is getting better and better. And it is filling us with skepticism about our future: our jobs, the work we do, replacement, mass transition to new jobs, what kind of job that new job will be, etc.

You will find people out there who are advocating that AI is good; it is not here to replace us; it will only enhance our capability to do more.

Of course, it will enhance our capability. And, in fact, it is enhancing our capabilities. An email that I would take an hour to write, ChatGPT does it in a fraction of seconds. But, it is also here to be a replacement for lots of things for which we get paid. An automated email using AI will certainly replace those personal assistants people hire to write their mails. What will those people do? Unless they upgrade to something else, they will be out of the race and will be ill-fated to struggle. And it is purely evident; in fact, history has taught us, those who are capable and willing to upgrade, change their course with changing times are able to survive. The two biggest examples we have are: (a) the change from handcrafted clothes to machine-built and (b) the replacement of horse-pulled wagons with diesel and petrol engines. People who did not learn the skill to run or repair those vehicles and machines went back home, cursing fate. Those who learned the new skills opened mechanic shops, became factory workers, and drove vehicles.

I don't know, but things will change for sure. Those who can change it, will change it. AI builders are in the driver's seat right now, just like back then when car and cloth manufacturers were. Some will lose, some will win. Winners are always in the driver's seat. Losers will struggle. They always have.

But one field that is not going to see setbacks is the creative field. Be it writing, drawing, or creating physical objects requiring creativity. Where we win from AI is creativity. What I believe is that this is where we will always win. Name the best novel or poetry you've read. Has anyone written like that again? Never. AI will have access to all the knowledge we have created. It will be there on the servers around the world. And as more creative artifacts we build, AI will have access to more data to get stronger as it learns more. But will it be able to create a unique piece of content from it? When I ask this question from myself, my belief shakes. Looking at the current results from AIs that are creating images is astonishing. Tools like DALL-E create images that I never saw before. I want to say that these results are not unique and creative because I know that the tool is trained on millions of images. It can't create something new; it just picks something from here and something from there and builds what we ask it. But don't we also do the same thing when we create something? We build something based on all the knowledge and experiences we gather throughout our life and give shape to our creative artifact. And GenAIs seem to be doing the same thing. They are generating output based on all the training they receive. Today, GenAI seems like a kid who is improving with passing time. People are working at it. It will improve more and more. So, will the day come when it will really compete with us? It is doing now with most people on this planet. It is able to generate results that most of us can't create. So, it has already beaten the majority of us on what a particular AI tool is supposed to do. And now, whom they need to beat are a handful of experts who have mastered a particular art or profession. How long will it take?

My argument can be flawed as I do not have the true knowledge of what is going behind the scenes in AI training and development. What I am trying to say is through the eyes of an end-user who is watching how things are unfolding.

Now, let me reiterate the question again, will we stop writing when we have AI? I don't think so. Writing, like painting, has two purposes. One is business. You write. You communicate. You earn your livelihood. Another is an outlet to express yourself. Writing and painting have been used for hundreds of years as channels to express one's emotions. We will not stop expressing ourselves. So, we will not stop writing or painting. In fact, we may end up doing it more. When big changes take place, people look for outlets to express themselves. They have in the past. And they have resorted to either talking about it with their loved ones or writing or painting about it in solitude.