A few weeks ago, a friend gave me a sack full of ink pens and pencils she got from a store getting rid of them because they no longer carried that brand.
You cannot imagine how excited I was to receive this gift. I love writing instruments — love them! This affliction, which leads to hoarding, is common among myself and many former counselors and teachers. We go into stores at the beginning of each semester just to smell and see the school supplies. We usually buy a few things even though we have plenty at home. It is an undeniable compulsion.
I told my friend that I would donate some of my bounty to schools, and I did give away a few of the pens. I also intended to send some to a high school via a retired teacher friend whose son is an administrator there. She said her son might end up with a few, as she herself loves pens, too.
This all led me to writing an article about the love of writing instruments. I had lots of ideas, but it just so happened that someone asked if I knew about and used the website for artificial intelligence. I had not used it, and in fact, knew very little about AI until recently when it was in the news so much (I am happily retired in my own little world).
To keep up with the world, I downloaded ChatGPT.com and put in my story idea. The story that came out shocked, frightened and amazed me. It was as good as that which I could have written and had more ideas than I had formulated.
After reading the AI story, I have been in such a state of disbelief and shock that I haven’t written for weeks. It stymied my creativity for fear of plagiarism, although AI is plagiarism. As I understand it, the website scans writers’ work without compensation and uses it on the website. Whose ideas would I be stealing?
The Authors Guild has a class-action lawsuit against Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT, stating it is not against AI but that the suit is “really about wholesale theft of our work.”
So, back to my ideas about my love of pens that include loving how they glide across the paper, the happy colors you can use, the pure joy of seeing your ideas on the paper, etc. The AI story included sharing your writing and drawing on the internet and making friends that way. I don’t really need any more friends. I am happy with my present friends who love pens.
The AI story also says, “She drew intricate designs and patterns, using the pens to add depth and character to her artwork.”
That is a good sentence, but it is not mine.
I won’t be giving ChatGPT any more of my story ideas. It is too scary.
