AF versus AI

A new artificial intelligence tool has been in the news rather a lot recently. ChatGPT, created by OpenAI which is part-owned by Microsoft, has been wowing punters with what it can do since it was launched in November last year. And as I watched it write a short article about Enzo Ferrari in seconds, I was wowed, awed and really quite terrified. 

If a robot is able to produce a factually accurate and finely crafted piece of work in the time it would take me to open my laptop and enter my password, what hope is there for those of us who earn living by writing? I knew AI was coming and that it would make many old professions redundant, but I had no idea it was any kind of threat to my own way of life. 

Or is it? I can see that countless websites and less scrupulous publishers might think free and factual articles produced in no time at all would be a wonderful thing. But I suspect the average enthusiast reader, across subjects like music, film, food, sport and cars, probably still want to know the words they are reading were put down on the page by the old sort of writer, the kind with fingers, eyes, a fleshy brain and a soul. The only kind of writer who will fill the pixelated pages of The Intercooler, in other words.