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You Know AI Can’t Get Inspired By Reading A Great Book, Right?
How people write stories and how AI generates text are apples and oranges, they’re not remotely comparable
Here’s what someone asked me. If they read all the books by Tolkien and then wrote a book about elves and hobbits, is that theft? I laughed.
No, of course not.
You know where that question comes from, right?
It’s a product of the times we are living in. Because of AI.
It’s the kind of question people ask when they don’t understand how AI and large language models work. When they hear famous writers are suing OpenAI for using their work but they don’t really understand why.
Because humans do it too, right? For all of time, humans have read books, been inspired, and written stories based on work that inspired them.
C.S. Lewis was deeply inspired by fantasy writer George MacDonald, by the work of Tolkien, by G.K. Chesterton, and William Wordsworth. He read all those books and came up with Narnia. Nothing wrong with that.
So, why is it any different than AI?
That’s what people don’t understand.
