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Anne Rudig's avatar

Writing depends on lived experience. Lived. Not data-entry.

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Valerie Collins's avatar

Amen.

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William Knight-Hughes's avatar

Yes. Scary indeed. A thought-provoking article on a subject that is exercising me greatly, at the moment. I will read it again and perhaps comment again.

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William Knight-Hughes's avatar

I’ve read this article six… seven times now. Still can’t reach any conclusion alone. There’s so many issues raised there I could write a 30 page essay on the subject. Better not try….

I see an article in the latest Economist addressing these issues with so may classical references, that I wondered if the writer was perhaps one of your subscribers… Whatever.. I have yet see a single product or service that is either better or cheaper because of AI. ‼️

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maryh10000's avatar

I'm not going to comment on AI itself, but Alcidamas is clearly proven wrong in saying that anyone who can speak is doing something more difficult than writing, and that writing is something anyone can do, while anyone can be a speaker.

There are good speakers who cannot write well. There are good writers who cannot speak well. His assumption that it would be trivial for a good speaker to write well is obviously wrong.

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Armand D'Angour's avatar

Not just wrong but deliberately overstated for his purposes.

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Alexandra Sarafidou's avatar

It's absolutely fascinating!

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Michael Krantz's avatar

Just on your first sentence, no. AI writing is not better. Maybe it will be one day, but it is definitely not now. It makes constant errors.

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Giordano Bruno's avatar

Is AI still in its "infancy"? Then God help us! It already produces texts and translations and art and music in - let's face it - decent quality while creative people desperately try to fight against that semblance of automated creativity and economic pressure alike.

Our ancient author says that the writing of the individual accesses the results of the work of all those who did the same before. AI does likewise but is incredibly faster. If we think it through, human activity covers just command (provided we still care) and listen (too tired to read...) or (for the adventurous) to perform live on stage to get true music or sit in a shop window typing one's new novel on a mechanical typewriter. I think George Simenon did that, but don't quote me on that.

But we could also read and translate Alcidamas by ourselves with dictionary and grammar at our side - and intellectual pleasure, too.

Dystopia here we come.

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