Message from the President
IT'S A LOVE STORY, BABY. JUST SAY YES
 I am apparently on a Taylor Swift kick because she's all over my Spotify. If you're not familiar, Spotify is the world's leading digital music service. One of the things that has contributed to its wildfire growth since 2020 is the platform's ability to suggest music to listeners. Once Spotify learns what you like, it dials up more of it. Spotify sometimes knows before I do that I need to go Back to December.
Technology learns us. Google's search algorithm prioritizes answers and links that match ones we've clicked before. From stored passwords to cookie preferences, our digital lives are living, changing things.
Now, ChatGPT is offering to write our stories for us. If you haven't heard of the free artificial intelligence (AI) application disrupting the publishing industry, check out Amazon's latest author.
Every story generated teaches the program how to do it better. Technology is learning to mimic us. To be us. And AI poses a legitimate threat to writers because it can make out of the existing internet of words, a combination that passes for composition: it can write.
Before long, writers focused on words will find themselves replaced by technology that uses the very same bricks for building stories.
I am challenged by ChatGPT to write the parts of the story that AI couldn't possibly know. What does it feel like to press your lips to the dry, papery flesh of Nana's cheek? To breathe in that baby scent during a midnight feeding cuddle? To catch the pitch deep in the glove with the satisfying thwump and the whoosh of a strikeout?
Writers sharing authentic experiences, and excavating core wounds, cannot be replaced. We can defeat the artificial with the authentic.
The influence of AI on publishing is one of the many topics we're bringing to SCWA's fall conference in Columbia. More details to come. Just know you'll be able to attend for less than the price of Taylor Swift tickets.
In the meantime, send me your workshop wants and needs (kasie@clemsonroad.com) and we'll try to line up a menu of relevant, useful sessions for our biggest weekend of the year.
Kasie Whitener
President, SCWA Board of Directors |
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