New technologies are by nature disruptive, and their arrival is always met with skepticism. The invention of the chainsaw for example had people worried lumberjacks would soon be out of work. However, people of the 19^th century soon realized we could just cut down forests ten times faster because who needs forests anyway: after all, they’re dark and scary and just provide child killers with an easy place to dispose of the bodies of their victims.

AI, or artificial intelligence as it’s known to experts, is certainly a disruptive technology, especially for writers. In researching this video, I decided to ask an AI to write a novel about a detective who plays by his own rules to take down an army of Antifa terrorists. This AI was able to accomplish in mere seconds what it took me almost 2 whole weeks to do: write a 250-page novel that mostly made sense. Not just that, the AI didn’t need to be powered by food or water or money or loads of amphetamines.

What’s a writer to do?

First of all, don’t panic.

Look, AI is just a tool, like a hammer or pliers or duct tape or a zip tie or hydrofluoric acid or an enigma machine you can use to send cryptic messages to the police. It’s not something you should worry too much about because AI isn’t replacing humans anytime soon. What you should worry about, however, is getting left behind by human authors who are using AI to their benefit,  to augment their writing to put things out faster, and to create PR campaigns smearing you on social media.

Lots of writers have a visceral reaction when they hear about AI writing fiction. After all, we say to ourselves, an AI doesn’t have feelings, it doesn’t understand the human condition, it’s not a unique individual who’s worked long and hard to cultivate their own voice. But just ask yourself: are you really that unique and individual and special? Aren’t we really just inefficient machines powered inefficiently by fast food and energy drinks? Most of you probably work boring office jobs and drive a Honda CR-V and got into writing because a former teacher said you had talent simply because it was the least stressful way to get through the day at her underpaid job that led to her depression and alcoholism. What I’m saying is, the students in my writing workshops at the learning annex were just as interchangeable as the Chromebooks.

But instead of embracing the fear, try to approach the age of AI with excitement. Think of yourself as an intrepid pioneer trekking across an unexplored frontier. I mean, when I thought about AI-generated porn, I was initially insulted, but as I got to thinking about it, I realized there were a whole host of laws I wouldn’t have to worry about anymore.

Similarly, when using AI in your writing, there are lots of problems you could potentially avoid. For example, instead of joining support groups under false pretenses to get story ideas, you can simply ask an AI to scour the internet for stories of addiction and recovery and synthesize them into a digestible format.

Let’s look at a few ways we can utilize AI without giving ourselves completely up to the machine

Step 1: Use AI to brainstorm new story ideas

Staring at a blank page or screen for hours is one of the most excruciating experiences in life, at least one that doesn’t involve a divorce attorney or loan shark. But it’s something most writers have to deal with when starting a new project and it’s also a cause for ending almost forty percent of all writer’s marriages.

You probably have a general idea of what you want. After all, something must have inspired you to write a book. Maybe you were inspired by your own trauma, but you just can’t find a way to make it a digestible, well-paced narrative. To save time and anguish, consider asking Chat GPT to give you ten story ideas about a kid coming to terms with his gayness. Here’s what I got when I did that:

Step 2: Use AI to come up with minor details like character names

On the other side of things, you can use AI to go small and do some of the dirty work writers hate. Names are one thing I hate in particular, not so much because it’s difficult, but rather I have a nasty habit of naming my villains after people in my own life or people who are rude to me on social media that I hired a private investigator to follow.

Character names should also be embedded with meaning and history. Unfortunately, the average English names of the people in our lives, like John and Henry and Mohammed, don’t mean anything. So instead of going through the exhausting process of Googling what different names mean, just ask AI . Here’s what I got when I asked Chat GPT to come up with a female character in a fantasy story whose name indicated she was sex positive and had large breasts.

Step 3: Use it to research subjects you know little about

Back when I started writing in the late 90s, readers were much less discerning and you could get away with not doing any research ever. With internet speeds the way they were, only people with a large set of encyclopedias could disprove you.

But despite our best efforts, fact checking is still a large part of our society today. AI, however, can give you lots of quick and easy facts about cuisine, sports or medicine.