Are Fiction Writers in Danger of Becoming an Endangered Species??

AI is a hot topic at the moment and seems to dominate a lot of discussions among writers, artists, songwriters, and other creatives. As AI becomes more and more advanced and sophisticated, do creators need to worry? How likely is AI to threaten our livelihood? Are we about to become an endangered species?

I don’t know about other art forms, since I cannot hold a tune and I still draw stickmen, but I know about writing. I believe I can tell good writing from bad. Or AI writing from a real person’s work.

With that in mind, I decided to put AI to the test. I wanted to see how well it would handle rewriting a well-known story in different genres.

The first prompt I gave ChatGPT was to write a science fiction version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Here is how the story, Jack and the Celestial Spire began.

In the distant future, on a technologically advanced Earth, young Jack lived in the sprawling metropolis of New Arcadia. The planet’s resources were scarce, and a powerful corporation, Goliath Galactic Enterprises, held a tight grip on them. Jack’s family struggled to make ends meet in this corporate-dominated world.

Not what I would call a captivating beginning. As a teacher, I always used to tell my students that you need to capture your…