Last month, OpenAI released ChatGPT, an AI writing program that took the internet by storm. Within the first week, the writing algorithm surpassed over 1 million users as techno-curious folks bombarded the program with clever prompts to generate paragraphs of new text. And just like that, writers suddenly became less efficient and more redundant.

On one hand, we have optimists who are excited to have an AI writing assistant to help improve their workflow and synthesize their ideas. On the other hand, we have skeptic professionals who can't imagine being outperformed by a machine.

As a freelance writer, it’s easy to assume that I would fall on the side of anti-AI or stress about the potential loss of work, but I generally don’t believe that having either of those thoughts is helpful.

In this article, I am going to take you through my perspective on the AI takeover, how it will impact the creative industry and the steps I am personally looking to take as a freelance writer to best position myself. 

Breaking the AI stigma

The AI debate is rarely balanced because we've been sold on this "us against them" mentality. Through science fiction (Terminator, Matrix, Blade Runner), we’ve bought into this narrative that the human species is at war with machines. The worst-case scenario is that AI will one day reach peak human intelligence and overtake civilization.

In many ways, this has already begun to unfold. As a society, we generally accept that machines can perform physical or cognitive tasks well, or even better than the average human. Humans are good at providing friendly service and performing routine tasks, but machines are more efficient. Humans are good at interpreting information through context, but machines are better at analyzing large sets of data and finding patterns.

So slowly, but surely, we are seeing AI creep its way into several fields of human work and activities. Today, we can use AI to help us schedule our calendars, drive safer, invest smarter or checkout at the store faster. Tomorrow, it could fully replace our roles in society and move us into operators of machines. The challenge with this perspective is that it views AI and humans as separate entities and optimistically assumes that the human race will always remain superior. 

Last month, Elon Musk took a break from his Head of Twitter duties to provide an updated demo of Neuralink. Aside from his mission to return society to the constitutional standard, Musk also envisions a world where machines and humans can become symbiotic creatures. 

A hybrid AI human sounds harsh and dystopian, but the bold reality is that technology will inevitably continue to advance and humans at their purest form will not win a war against machines. So rather than fight it, we should embrace it and find ways to work together, not against it. That is exactly what Musk is trying to do with Neuralink by developing a way to merge the human brain with machines and even the playing field with technology, otherwise, we would truly be in for a cruel takeover.

“My assessment about why A.I. is overlooked by very smart people is that very smart people do not think a computer can ever be as smart as they are. And this is hubris and obviously false.” - Elon Musk, NYTimes: Elon Musk, Blasting Off in Domestic Bliss

While a society with human cyborgs is still decades away from becoming a reality, today, we have a plethora of AI-assisted tools to help us perform various tasks more efficiently. Cleanvoice AI helps you edit your podcasts easier. Illustroke generates unique vector images you can use for design projects. Ocoya makes creating and scheduling social media posts faster and more efficient. Vidyo turns your long-form content into short clips in just a click. Rather than viewing them as a threat to our jobs and value in society, we should learn to use these tools to enhance how we work and reach our full human potential.

What AI means for human creativity

While we agree that AI is faster, stronger and smarter than humans, one area that is still up for debate is creativity. Do AI machines have the ability to be as imaginative and creative as humans? In 2013, Oxford research published a report on jobs most likely to be threatened by AI and most resilient. The general sentiment was that creative professions were the one thing humans have an advantage over AI. We can produce music, make art and write poetry better than AI, but now we’re not so sure anymore.

"A decade ago, the conventional wisdom was that AI would first impact physical labor, and then cognitive labor, and then maybe someday it could do creative work. It now looks like it’s going to go in the opposite order." - Sam Altman, DALL•E 2

The release of ChatGPT came as a reminder that the only thing predictable about AI is ironically how unpredictable it is. Despite the conventional wisdom that creative professionals would be resilient to advancing technology, AI has proven its ability to mimic the most prolific musicians and produce prize-winning artwork. But once again, we can’t view AI as the enemy or we will lose. The good news is that I don’t think AI will eliminate the greatest creatives, but it will change what creativity means in society. 

Here are some scenarios of how I believe AI could impact our creative society:

1/ AI will make the world bland.

It’s a bleak outlook, but it’s already begun to happen. Open up any social app and we see the same TikTok videos, the same Twitter thread formats, and the same Instagram ads. Greg Isenberg calls this “sameness” trend the fast-foodification of everything. AI will only amplify this monolithic blandness at scale with the high output of generic work. I can only imagine what we will become if we keep up with this poor consumption diet. Unhealthy, uninspired and unmotivated. 

2/ However AI will also boost human creativity.

On the other hand, AI will also help us achieve our full creative potential and produce some of the most inspiring works. Those that choose to fully embrace AI into their creative process will be able to reach new levels of skill and productivity not humanly possible before. Rather than focusing on making ends meet, creatives can use AI to free up their time and pursue their true creative passions. They can also leverage it as their second brain to broaden their creative perspective and process new ideas. 

3/ Ultimately, AI will widen creative inequality

When both scenarios 1 and 2 happen, the inevitable will occur: AI will make the creative lower class redundant and value the creative upper class higher. This will create an even greater income and skill gap that favors only the top percentile of highly-skilled creatives. As always, the poor will get poorer and the rich will get richer. To avoid getting left behind, the mass population of low-skill creatives needs to start skilling up. The path to that is with AI.

“[T]he same thing that has happened everywhere will happen here: things will get blander and the rich will get richer.” - Lincoln Michael, The Only Sure Thing with AI Is Writing Will Get Blander and the Rich Will Get Richer

What can writers do about this?

We often talk about what’s coming but rarely talk about the actionable steps. As a freelance writer (today), here are the short and long-term steps that I am personally looking to take to best position myself against rapidly advancing AI. I’ll be writing my thoughts from my perspective as a writer, but this framework can be applied to various creative professions, including designers, illustrators or directors.  

1/ Upgrade my skills and services

There will still be a need for generic commercial writing, but rather than just offering copy as my product or service, I will be pitching as a freelance content strategist or editor-in-chief. Think of it as a freelancer that operates like an in-house content marketer. That means saying no to work that just pays by article or by word. The true value will be in the creative strategy and direction. This requires having a more holistic understanding of the company and how content fits into their growth, product and brand. 

2/ Capitalize on AI to pay my bills

Scaling as a freelance writer can be tricky. I can either take on more clients, which will squeeze my time, or increase my rates. If I learn to effectively leverage AI tools, I could streamline the research, writing and editing process much more efficiently. This will save me time and increase my output, which is what I often struggle with the most. After making ends meet, I can have more time to explore and grow other creative endeavors to continue to skill up or fuel my passion. 

3/ Leverage AI to scale my personal brand and style

Many people would be happy to stay in step two, but if you want to make it to the creative upper class, it will require discovering your unique trademark style. When you reach this point, clients will begin to specifically commission work because they want you to bring the unique style that only you can offer. Eventually, you can train an AI to emulate your style, tone or personality and help you scale or enhance your creative differentiator. To me, this would be a pinnacle achievement for any highly-skilled creative. 

Final thoughts

It’s interesting to see people talk down on ChatGPT. “GPT3 is a bullshitter”. It produces an “incredibly plausibly sounding hallucination”. I admit it’s not perfect, but don’t the most disruptive technologies always start off clunky and chaotic? 

ChatGPT-4, the next generation of OpenAI’s AI language model is rumored to be released later this year.  With an expected 1 trillion parameters, I have no doubt that ChatGPT-4 (and other AI programs) will continue to improve in accuracy, efficiency and user-friendliness. Today it can only produce a messy, draft piece of work, but soon enough it will start to get scaredly good, polished and complete. When that happens, my concern is what our next generation will look like when our kids and their kid’s kids become reliant on AI writers. I’m sure creativity and expression will still exist, but likely assisted and not in its purest form.