The ChatGPT Alarm
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Atlas quickly stood up and looked to see where the alarm was coming from. He saw the blinking red light and growled. “What is the cause of all of this?” He hated anything which interrupted his writing.
“Another threat has been identified.” Harlowe, the editor, shook his head from side to side. “We need to mobilise our forces — once again!”
Casey’s shoulders sagged and tears welled up in the back of her eyes. Harlowe moved closer to put his arm around her. “There, there.” It was all the comfort he could afford right then.
Always the drama queen! Atlas kept this thought to himself. He was never one to get emotional, particularly if everyone else was. “Can we please take a closer look at this supposed threat?”
“Yes, Let’s sit down.” Harlowe moved towards the round meeting table in his office. “The threat is called ChatGPT. Its creator is OpenAI and this tool has been trained to interact in a conversational way. According to their website, “The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”[1]
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Atlas raised his eyebrows and upper lip. “So, what’s the problem?”
Casey finally recovered from her first bout of tears. “It’s because it can actually write.” Her voice reduced to a squawk.
Harlowe took a deep breath. “It apparently has the ability to create content, like fairy tales, poetry and song lyrics.”[2]
Atlas leaned in. “Where does ChatGPT get its information?”
“From online sources. Then others can use that content and pawn it off as their own.” Casey’s face turned red, and she was clearly on the verge of more tears. “As if we need more competition!”
“Don’t we already have to deal with plagiarism?” Atlas pulled at his ear. “This isn’t really a new threat.”
Harlowe couldn’t help but smile. “Good thing we already have our plagiarism checker.”
Harlowe looked over to see a fresh set of tears running down Casey’s cheeks. “Don’t fret, my little author. We’ll be okay.”
“Is this a bad time to bring up the fact artists steal stuff all time?” Atlas lifted his shoulders and tilted his head.
“Ha! Ha!” Harlowe stood up and walked over to a bookshelf which lined the office. He pulled out a book called Steal Like An Artist. “You’ve been reading Austin Kleon too, huh?”
Atlas laughed. “What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.”[3] My favourite quote from Austin.”
“So working with OpenAI might not be so bad?” Casey leaned in while gently biting her lip.
Editor furrowed his brows. “Well, let me answer your question with another quote — this one is by T. S. Eliot: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn.”[4]
“Hmmm. We need to be more mature than others then.” Atlas chuckled. “Seriously though, if we use AI to create content, then we just need to reference that in our manuscripts like any other source.”
“Good point.” Harlowe sat back down and sighed audibly. “The only thing we can control as creatives are our own actions. For my work, I will also use our plagiarism checker as a matter of course moving forward.”
“Sounds like a good plan.” Casey was feeling more like herself. “Can we turn off the alarm now?”
Harlowe glanced over at Atlas to see if he agreed. Atlas nodded silently in return.
“I will turn off the alarm now. Thank you both for engaging with me on ChatGPT and what it means for authors and editors. If we act in good faith, let’s hope we don’t need to sound the alarm again.”
“Here! Here!” Atlas and Casey were finally in chorus.
[1] https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT
[3] Kleon Austin. 2012. Steal Like An Artist. New York, NY: Workman Publishing. p.7.
[4] Kleon Austin. 2012. Steal Like An Artist. New York, NY: Workman Publishing.
Marion Grace, thank you for proofreading my draft. I know you made it better.
Tammy Brimner is a writer, professional photographer and leadership consultant with a passion for leadership development and improved organisational culture stemming from over 25 years working in a large, complex and multifaceted organisation. She is also a Certified Organisational Coach, an aspiring author, singer/songwriter, a fair weather golfer, and a cyclist.
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