Modern life, Writing

Can AI replace writers?

40 Comments

I’m happy to see that more publishers won’t accept works created by AI. For the life of me, I can’t understand why someone would stick their name in the byline of something created by a computer program, but after all, plagiarism is nothing new. If people will take credit for something somebody else wrote, why not claim an AI product?

This issue isn’t going away. In Ray Kurzweil’s latest book, The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI, he claims AI will match and even surpass the writing of the best authors. These programs, he argues, will be “familiar with virtually every kind of human writing. Users could prompt it to answer questions about any given subject in a huge variety of styles — from scientific writing to children’s books, poetry, or sitcom scripts. It could even imitate specific writers, living or dead.”

Can it? I don’t think so. Ray Kurzweil is a transhumanist who advocates merging humans with AI as well as enhancing human ability with genetic engineering. Kurzweil believes we can upload our minds to a computer and live forever. Transhumanism despises the body, traditional culture, and humanity in general. Worse, it doesn’t understand any of the things it wants to replace.

First of all, human beings are not ghosts in a machine. The notion that our minds ride around in a meat robot that can be ditched without changing who we are is hopelessly simplistic. What we call the mind is the sum of the functions of the brain, which is a physical organ. And the brain interacts with the rest of the body. In fact, the field of Embodied Cognition tells us the body is central to our thought processes.

There’s solid research to back this view. Mirror neurons fire when we perform an action or when we observe someone else performing that action. Embodied Cognition also tells us that language is metaphor, and the building blocks of metaphor are physical sensations. Magnetic resonance imaging scanners reveal that when we read about a physical action, we activate the same areas of our brains as when we actually perform those actions. That’s the mirror neurons at work.

The bottom line is that disembodied machines cannot think, feel, or write the way humans do.  And never will.

40 thoughts on “Can AI replace writers?”

  3. I completely agree with you. Maybe it’s a dream by transhumanists, but AI will only be a tool in a big toolbox of possibilities. It uses given information to creating similar new of it. It can’t really invent new stories, photos or similar creativity based information. There will always be a hint showing the creator, a human or AI. Best wishes, Michael

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  4. Hi Mike, I agree with you. I don’t believe AI will ever replicate human thoughts and emotions. My son is studying AI and is is largely based on probability theory at this point in time so we are still very far away from an AI that can move ahead and learn by itself.

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    1. When I was in Organizational Development, I programmed an AI program that prescreened insurance applications. Technology isn’t inherently bad, but it can be misused. Our ability to make things exceeds our wisdom.

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      1. I agree that technology isn’t bad. In fact, it is a great thing, but I can’t see why we need it to write or paint for us. Those creative undertakings are inherently human by their nature and I don’t like the AI versions. What will we need people for if AI takes over everything that makes us human?

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  6. They can in somethings outdo us as their memories are rather perfect. However, what is a book without a heart that beats and feels. What is music without feelings?

    we do of course use AI every day . 😊

    Miriam

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    1. You know, years ago I saw an article about how computer scientists trained one of their algorithms on all of Bach’s music and asked it then to produce another “Bach”-like work. It did. The scientists took this new piece of music to the top Bach experts in the world, and all of them, without exception, recognized this “new” piece of music as one Bach must have written and they just couldn’t believe they are hearing it now for the first time.

      But the question that the scientists brought up was not how to create “more of the same” but how to create the next music genius who will create a new genre that will stand the test of time.

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      1. Endless Weekend,

        It’s a severe yet wondrous world we inhabit, one where we are driven to survive as much as we want to find meaning and beauty. Our awareness of death makes that search all the more urgent.

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  7. I agree with you completely.

    In the meantime, I would just be happy if the search engines were using AI were able to distinguish between fact and fiction – one asks a question and gets conflicting answers with no basis to judge the product.

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    2. Endless Weekend,

      No I don’t. We are the survivors of billions of years of harsh survival and pruning. The tough and intricate patterns of our bodies, which includes our extended selves in our families and culture, cannot be duplicated. So even androids cannot duplicate who and what we are.

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  10. I like how you brought in that the “brain interacts with the rest of the body.” Reminds me of hearing an interview in which a psychologist talked about how people usually make decisions. Initially, we choose something based on feelings. Later, we think of reasoning to justify that choice. Also, I’ve heard our gut affects us more than just being hungry. Johns Hopkins has the interesting article “The Brain-Gut Connection” : https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-brain-gut-connection

    I think AI is very good at imitating what it’s sucked up from people’s creations. But it doesn’t have a heart or gut that contribute to the emotions that we bring into our creativity.

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    1. Dear Mike and Dave,

      Hello! I have perused this fascinating post and the comments with great interest, and thus decide to join the conversations here. Being concerned about how AI can both aid and disrupt writers, I investigated the topic broadly in my post metaphorically entitled “📈🌆 Growing Humanity with Artificial Intelligence: A Sociotechnological Petri Dish with Latent Threats, Existential Risks and Challenging Prospects 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦🤖🧫☣️“, which has been much expanded in scope and length.

      In the said post, I have also discussed in great detail how social media, and increasingly, advanced artificial intelligence, have become the accelerant and magnifier of some of the most problematic aspects of human transactions and behaviours. As a concerned citizen, farseeing thinker, former educator and (largely) retired multidisciplinary academic, I tried my best to analyse the various issues and offer some solutions, as well as posing ten critical questions about the future of humanity and artificial intelligence. After all, artificial intelligence is so ubiquitous nowadays that whether we like it or not, and regardless of the degree of our avoidance, disdain and/or apathy, our lives will be affected even in the absence of our knowledge in one way or the other.

      Given that we all love poetry, I would like to celebrate and resonate with your creative spirits by inviting you to participate in the 📜 Collaborative Poetry Challenge ✍🏻 in my said post. As you can see in the post, eleven persons have completed the challenge so far, and two of them even took up the challenge twice. The detail on how to participate in the challenge can be found in the said post published at

      📈🌆 Growing Humanity with Artificial Intelligence: A Sociotechnological Petri Dish with Latent Threats, Existential Risks and Challenging Prospects 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦🤖🧫☣️

      Overall, this post provides much more than just an avenue for some people to take up the challenge of exercising their minds and poetic flairs. It also presents a great opportunity for readers to learn something in an analytical and critical way. Please enjoy!

      Yours sincerely,
      SoundEagle🦅

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  13. I also believe that AI will never replace writers. Sure, they can pump out a 50,000-word book, no problem. But AI and technology can only run for so long. If the internet shuts down – I hope it doesn’t – will AI still work? No, it won’t.

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  16. This was a great read, and it does bring out the question of not “can” AI replace writers but honestly “when” . In the next decade I predict that AI can overtake mostly everything as technology advances each year with progressive growth. Ai has already taken over many aspects within jobs, that some companies try to rely on in for their success. Who knows, Ai probably can write these blog posts in a matter of seconds by gathering all the information it needs and come up with something as easy as the blink of an eye. I believe it’s inevitable for it to occur, but I would not be too worried for it to happen within the next 5 years. The next decade or even before 2040, I can see AI take over the entire technological society as a whole.

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  18. I’m just now reading this, but your words feel even more salient now than ever, Mike. I’m reminded of Richard Dreyfuss’s “What Computer’s Can’t Do.” And he wrote that in 1972. I worry we will continue this human obsolescence because of the techno-utopianism that has taken hold.

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