When AI Fails
I’ve been working on this essay about Ida B. Wells’ great-grandson coming for the induction of his great-grandmother into the Mississippi Press Association Hall of Fame. I mean, I’ve been working on it for days. Only in the final stages—what? the 72nd hour?—did I realize the true significance of the MPA action. It wasn’t just that it had taken the MPA so long to honor this most famous of hometown journalists. The white Southern press of Mrs. Wells’ time hated her. Now the MPA was gathering in her name.
Here’s another one: I’ve been working for years on this memoir about “surprises” I’m discovering in my family history. In the process, I’ve wandered around worse than a drunken sailor. Like clockwork, I believe I’ve (finally) understood the deeper meaning of the journey. I tell my husband I’ve got the new perfect opening. Then I realize, ah, that’s an element of the story, but it’s not the story. I do believe I’m spiraling toward the heart of the matter, but I’ve been wrong too many times to declare it so.
At the same time, I’m reading more and more articles where the author notes she’s used AI to “help.” AI didn’t help. The articles are incredibly, unmercifully repetitious. I realize the writer doesn’t have confidence in his writing, and trusts AI to produce a more professional product. But it doesn’t. If the author already knows how to write, AI can, in fact, help organize thoughts because—this is crucial—the writer is in charge. Writers with experience know what they’re after. But those who need help the most, AI betrays them.
Worse, asking AI to rearrange the sentences in these articles is like asking the deckhand on the Titanic to rearrange the chairs. The content is shallow and boring. The author is saying nothing interesting. Quantity of AI words substitutes for quality of human thought. This truth is camouflaged by ALL THE TALKING. When a unique thought does blossom, the proliferation of weedy sentences chokes it out.
Such is the betrayal of AI. All the novice writer asks is for a good product so they don’t look stupid in public. And AI fails.
I know writing is time-consuming (see above). I also know writing is a magical tool of discovery (also see above). If I had turned over my memoir, or even my essay, to AI, I would have bobbed like a cork on the surface of my life experiences. I wouldn’t have understood my journey better. I wouldn’t have understood me better. Without that, I can’t not be boring. It is only the mysterious depths of us humans that make us interesting. Trying to understand that, AI fails completely.
Luanne
Did I miss if you said you saw Suffs yet or not?
Ellen Morris Prewitt
No, I’ve not seen it, but I’ve asked my husband to put it on our list. TY!
Pearl Shaw
OMG I so agree. Writing is actually a process that takes time. Rearranging sentences is work, but we do it because the order has significance. You are so right about word salads produced by AI. The o many leave me asking the why – what are you trying to say??!?
Julie Liddell Whitehead
Hear, hear!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
❤️
Emma
I am leaning toward agreeing with you, Ellen. However, AI does have its uses I’m sure. What I have found is that AI-written narrative is easy to recognize because the sentences ARE boring. And the descriptive sentences all sound the same. While I do not use AI in my creative writing, I sell many things on eBay. When the company gave sellers the option of using AI-generated item descriptions, I tried it and was pleased. For a time. Then as I read over descriptions of other sellers ‘ items, I could tell they all were using AI-generated content and it all sounded the same. Flowery. Boring. Fake. Too many words to say something very simple. I immediately stopped using AI now just write the facts of the item I am selling.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I guess we’re all living and learning with AI. My best use of it so far is using it to read old handwritten deeds. It gets every 5th word wrong, but it’s enough for me to decide if I want to put in the effort to read that old, impossible to read handwriting. The true danger is that its summaries of what the document says are often the EXACT opposite of what the doc says, which I know from being a lawyer. Anyone without that experience might think, cool–look what it did for me.
Marie A Bailey
While there may be a role for AI in some fields, I do resent that some people are using it to avoid doing the hard work of writing and creating art … and oftentimes expecting other people to pay for it! For a while I used Grammerly but stopped when it became too intrusive. It was one thing if I was writing a one- or two-sentence email. But when I was writing a long email to a friend or transcribing some handwritten journal entries, Grammerly’s “suggestions” weren’t just intrusive, they were often erasing my voice.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I hate that a “service” is being performed that’s erasing the writer’s voice! I’ve had so many experiences where someone says “I used ChatGPT to write this!” And I’m like, yeah, no kidding. But I always go back to an early piece of advice I got: only use AI in an area where you already know how to perform; that way, you are competent to judge the results.