ChatGPT and the creative process
Among other projects, I’ve been working on an album of original songs.
This is a prolific creative period for me. These days I can’t seem to stop writing, whether it’s songs, stories or essays. A phrase will get stuck in my head and it will eventually emerge as a story or a song without much work on my part.
But why should I even bother trying to write original material when AIs can do the job for pennies on the dollar?
I was discussing this question with my brother recently, who thinks that the time won’t be long before AIs can churn out readable original novels. His position is that even if the quality isn’t as good as human authors, it won’t really matter because of economics. AI writers are cheaper and they won’t miss deadlines.
I’m skeptical. And I’m skeptical of my skepticism — betting against the power of AI seems like a losing bet in the long term.
And it’s easy to be blown away by the generative power of ChatGPT-4. Ask it to “write a poem on white boy reggae in the style of Anne Sexton” and bam! done. And it will be surprisingly good. And of course, churned out in seconds.
So that’s real, and yet, I feel a blandness in much of its output. I do not believe it could create interesting and compelling characters and situations, and am open to the possibility that AIs may never really get there.
Regardless, I’m not trying to write a novel to sell to a wide audience, I’m writing for myself. My writing is a large part of my personal growth process, expressing what is true for me in essay and in song.
So even if AIs could do what I’m doing, it would be largely irrelevant to me.
Still, I am interested in the abilities and limitations of AI, as a writer, a software engineer and also as a human being interested in our eventual successors.
I’ll get back to AI-assisted writing, but I’m going to first write about my own very human process of songwriting.
Recently my relationship coach told me “you are a gem”, and that phrase (along with a feeling I’ve had of being perceived as defective) led me to write this chorus:
Yes, I’m a diamond in the rough
Don’t try to cut me to size
I’m a diamond in the rough
And how my rough edges shine
I’m a fucking gem
I’m a fucking gem
That’s what I am
OK, I like this as a defiant statement of self-love. The theme is that I don’t need to change, to get smaller, to be honed down to some kernel of perfection. And turns a familiar phrase on its head which I think is always interesting.
That’s just the chorus though, I need stanzas. So who am I singing to? On the surface, I’m singing to a person who hasn’t always been happy with me and who has wanted to change me. Here was the first cut (pun intended):
Don’t try
to search for my perfection
To try to get a glimpse
Of your own reflection
I have no polished facets
And my rough edges are my assets
Can you see the value that I bring
I like this okay. It establishes the theme — I am perfectly imperfect and I demand to be accepted and appreciated for who I authentically am.
And it makes the song a bit of a conversation. First I’m saying something to someone else, then I’m asserting something about myself.
But this verse had some issues.
I didn’t like the implied accusation of narcissism here, that the person I’m singing to wanted to make me into a reflective surface in order to see themselves in. That wasn’t my intent — what I was really trying to convey was this: I didn’t want to be turned into a reflection of someone else’s desires (by way of eliminating my rougher edges). Not that I was judging them or calling them shallow, that they simply wanted sparkly to see themselves in.
But perfection/reflection, such a good rhyme!
I also didn’t like “And my rough edges are my assets” for a few reasons. It’s too long and it doesn’t flow off the tongue. And while “facets” seemed like an obvious image to play with and “assets” seems like the obvious rhyme, they both sound too on the nose to me. And too much like financial instruments. The whole point here is that I am not my “assets”, not in a traditional way.
I didn’t originally enlist ChatGPT to help with this verse, but here’s what it came up with when I later asked it to “change this verse to be less of an accusation of narcissism, and less explicit about my value being my rough edges.”
ChatGPT:
Don’t seek
my flawless sides to view
As if to mirror you
I’m not a gem that’s finely cut
But my uniqueness is my strut
Do you see the worth in what I do?
Well… that’s not completely terrible, but it’s definitely not an improvement. It didn’t make this less an accusation of narcissism (“as if to mirror you”), the line “my uniqueness is my strut” is just weird and clunky, and the last line is entirely counter to the central theme of demanding unconditional positive regard.
But a solid B- effort, like most of what ChatGPT produces. It’s amazing it can do it at all.
What I really wanted was to take a step back, ask what the essential truth of this verse was, and try to express it differently. It seems that ChatGPT is not capable of that. But here’s what I came to (without ChatGPT’s help):
Don’t try
to see past my imperfection
the shine that you’re seeing
is just my heart’s reflection
no jeweler carving facets
no banker counting assets
could estimate the value that I am
I like this better than the original. For one, it establishes distance between myself and the jeweler and banker counting facets and assets, which fits the theme much better. And I still get the rhyme and those choice words.
Also, I think it’s less of a direct accusation of narcissism by putting the focus on “my imperfection”. Not 100% happy with this, but it’s good I think.
Where I originally turned to ChatGPT was to help me with a different stanza, which is meant to be a mea culpa acknowledging the ways in which didn’t accept my partner’s authentic self or know how to show up for them.
I know
I didn’t fully see you
Alright, what rhymes with “see you”? I drew a blank. In the past I would have turned to a rhyming dictionary. But it’s 2023, so of course…
ChatGPT:
The phrase “see you” has a few words and phrases that rhyme with it or sound similar. Here are some examples:
Me too
Be true
Who knew?
Tea brew
Ewe (as in the female sheep)
Adieu
Deja vu
Glee crew
Ski through
We do
Honestly, this isn’t a bad use of ChatGPT. Some of these seemed promising, in particularly “be true” and “we do”. But there was I couldn’t make them work.
I hadn’t given ChatGPT enough context though, and so I wasn’t taking advantage of it’s true generative power. So I asked it this: what’s a rhyme that rhymes with “I didn’t always see you” that conveys regret over not appreciating another person enough?
ChatGPT:
Certainly, here are some additional lines that rhyme with “I didn’t always see you” and convey a sense of regret:
“I took for granted what was true.”
“I wish I knew then what I knew.”
“In my heart, I should’ve made room for two.”
“Now I regret what I didn’t pursue.”
“My love for you, I never did construe.”
“I ignored the signs, I had no clue.”
“I was blind to love, and now I rue.”
I’d give all of these efforts a C grade. None of them worked. Not in this song.
But rather than look at ChatGPT’s inability to give me a perfect rhyme as a failure, perhaps it was a success in directing me away from a perfect rhyme. I started thinking about near rhymes instead, and that lead me to rhyming “see you” with “treat you”.
So that lead me to this version:
I know
I didn’t always see you
I was blinded by confusion
I didn’t know how I should treat you
Good, but could it be better? I asked ChatGPT for suggestions on alternatives. It gave me four. The last one was pretty good:
ChatGPT:
I know
I didn’t fully see you
Clouded by my own confusion
Never learned the way to treat you
Really not bad at all. I especially like the alliteration of “clouded” and “confusion”. So incorporating its suggestions, here’s my latest version of that verse:
I know
I didn’t fully see you.
Clouded by illusions,
I never learned the way to treat you
like two moths drawn to a fire
confused by anger and desire
we flew into the flame and how we’ve burned
Hopefully not too trite. Think it’s not quite there. Do moths feel anger? Yeah, not quite there.
EDIT: I realized that the above verse is crap. The moths drawn into a fire thing is too trite, and more importantly, it departs from the central theme. And there’s some truth there, but it looks backwards and not forwards. So I came up with this, which I like a lot better:
I know
I didn’t fully see you.
Distracted by by my demons,
I never found the way to treat you.
The future isn’t set in stone
and maybe when all’s said and done
we’ll learn to find a way to shine again
And this feels much more true to the spirit of what is happening in my relationship right now.
What are my conclusions from all this?
I can’t deny that ChatGPT was useful here, again even when it wasn’t directly all that helpful. When I gave it a narrow focus, it did very well. Or conversely, if I asked it to write all the lyrics for a song it does well too, although its output is a bit trite, generic and doesn’t hit on any essential truths. But like an elephant dancing ballet, it’s still amazing.
As far as using ChatGPT as a writing aid, I’m reminded a bit of when I got my first Macintosh computer and I tried to write with it. My writing output cratered because I was spending all my time trying out the different fonts. All of the power was a distraction from what I was trying to do.
At least for this piece, I’m glad I waited until I was stuck. I think it would have sapped my creative juices entirely if I’d jumped in too early, and the AI’s suggestions might have lead me down its paths rather than my own.
That’s my honest assessment in Sept 2023. I think it’s a useful creative tool to be used sparingly, and it does not replace human creative efforts.
Let me know your thoughts!