AI May Be an Economic Threat to Writers but an Ally for Spreading Ideas
If you have something important to say, the best time to write is now. This may be a surprising sentiment — after all, for both professional and aspiring writers, times appear dire. Ever since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, fear has spread among writers that AI may soon replace them. Writers are not alone — visual artists around the world are rallying against generative AI, which is on track to permeate all aspects of our lives. And even AI researchers like myself are wondering where the automation of cognitive work will leave us, a few model iterations down the line. It may be relieving to some that Sam Altman himself does not see the jobs of writers going away, but it seems almost certain that the cake will get a lot smaller for all of us.
In this article, I want to provide a glimmer of hope: one facet of the rise of AI that may in fact be an opportunity for all of us. In some ways, even though large language models are on course to drown out many forms of writing, they can be our greatest allies in spreading ideas.
A common belief is that many non-fiction writers — journalists, bloggers, science…
