The Only Sure Thing with AI

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT writing program has produced yet another round of AI art debates, with almost everyone either fearfully predicting or hopefully heralding the impending revolution of every field. (“ChatGPT Will End High-School English” says The Atlantic. “Will ChatGPT make lawyers obsolete? (Hint: be afraid)” warns Reuters. Etc.) But the greatest focus has been on art and writing. Are novelists about to be replaced with cheap AI? Or, as techno-optimists say, are we about to experience a new era in which AI assists humans to create new, better, and more interesting works of art?