Artificial intelligence presents growing opportunity for creative writing

How do we recognise and value art in the era of AI?

Artificial intelligence is changing the way we are writing. Picture: Supplied

Fake news. Rampant misinformation. Machine-generated stories. The written word appears to be under siege yet Dr Sean Williams, creative writing lecturer at Flinders University, views this as a new era of opportunity for writers.

“It’s an interesting time – and not just because technology is bringing change and artificial

intelligence apps such as ChatGPT are stirring the pot,” Dr Williams says. “This all underlines the necessity to pull focus on the art of critical thinking – and the combination of clear thinking, writing and communication is the key to that.”

As the author of more than 60 books and 120 short stories, several which have topped the New York Times bestseller list, Dr Williams understands the need for writers to be diverse – which includes exploring new research possibilities.

“Creativity is more often seen as a practice than a research area, but this is changing,” he says, noting that writing is a cornerstone of new collaborations being forged across academic disciplines within the Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts at Flinders. “Writers have to change to survive so they adapt and learn new skills, and that includes using new technological tools.”

Dr Williams is exploring AI as a tool that can be grasped and manipulated by a writer. “AI can remove a fear of the blank page, introducing an initial building block that can then be modified and personalised,” he explains. “AI is not good at writing; it’s got no soul, no character, no personality – and humans can’t help but introduce their personality into their writing.

“Any story written by AI is just bland, so it’s not a robot to do your homework – more a tool like spellcheck or a calculator that can be useful but dangerous to rely on.”

Dr Williams believes the emergence of AI triggers a deeper question – of how we recognise and value art, and how this sits aside from how we make art. “With technology constantly introducing new tools for writing, composition and editing, it means a suitable tool is within easy reach for everyone – and such democracy means there is more possibility, not less. It’s a very powerful, very liberating environment to be working in.”

Dr Williams is learning and adapting as his creative writing students also embrace new possibilities. While they are partnering with electronic game developers to build narrative design, or working on screenplays with filmmakers, Dr Williams created a movie-length audio-visual work with poet Ian Gibbins to promote the launch of his novel Impossible Music.

As a musical composer, Dr Williams also collaborated with choreographer Lina Limosani and visual artist Thom Buchanan to create BÁRBAROS, an evocative stage production at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre that combined contemporary dance, visual art and sound.

“I was working with music, yet there was still lots of narrative design in a huge collaborative process. It shows how you can tell a story without words,” Dr Williams says.

“Storytelling is intrinsic to all of these artforms – and, at Flinders, these areas are taught side-by-side so the students overlap. It’s a new way of creative thinking – and we are seeing a new generation who want to do all these things rather than focus on a single area. There is so much more possibility for our students to explore.”

Dr Sean Williams, creative writing lecturer at Flinders University. Picture: Supplied

Podcasts are also being used to communicate discussions on literature in fresh ways – including Word docs created by Dr Williams with his creative writing colleagues at Flinders, Dr Amy Matthews and Dr Alex Vickery-Howe. They examine writing craft and critical analysis that stretches far beyond the classroom or writers’ festivals.

“The Word docs’ fundamental purpose is to discuss things about the writing craft that don’t fit inside the classroom or at a writers’ festival. It also explores the critical examination of writing – and this is a very dynamic area, because the explosion of critical commentary on social media has made critical assessment of art a very blurred area, opening up discussions to all sorts of people who have critical perspectives but never had a voice before.”

Dr Williams acknowledges it adds up to a complicated transition, “but it’s certainly diversifying the way we think about what we read and write,” he adds. “It’s also true that industry and employers understand the value of anyone who can communicate well and think creatively. Writers aren’t a dying breed. If anything, I see a new horizon presenting enormous possibility in ways that haven’t existed before.”

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