Imagine you decide to write a short story about a protagonist who creates an artificial human and then falls in love with it. What gender is your protagonist? What about the artificial human? Would you write a moving love story? A cautionary dystopian tale?
Would your story be more compelling than one written by ChatGPT?
Likely yes, says Nina Beguš, a researcher and lecturer in UC Berkeley’s School of Information and Department of History. Leveraging her background in comparative literature and knowledge of generative AI, Beguš tested this scenario on hundreds of humans and AI-generated responses. Her findings, published today (Oct. 28) in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, offer a window into the inner workings and ongoing limitations of generative AI tools like ChatGPT.
Generative AI is getting much more sophisticated. But for now, it seems, quality creative writing remains the realm of (human) storytellers and scribes.
“The humanities can reveal a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of these new AI tools,” Beguš said. “Fiction, in particular, offers a window into the collective cultural imaginary — the shared set of narratives, ideas and symbols — that machines have inherited from us.”