Creative Writing in the Time of AI: Experiments with AI as your Intern (A Workshop)

A Workshop by Rucha Bhide

Date: 23rd April, 2023 (Sunday)

Time: 5pm IST to 8pm IST

(For payment from outside India:

www.paypal.com/paypalme/thebombayreview

Fee: $15)

About the Workshop:

Creativity will remain uniquely human, but as AI moves further into the creative realms, how will it change the way we write? This workshop is aimed to think of AI as your personal intern in the Creative Writing field.

Until the emergence of democratized generative AI tools like ChatGPT, creative writing was exclusive to human creators. The notion that AI will never be able to produce human-like prose is rendered moot with emerging tools for realistic art, cinema, and music in the creative landscape. With AI advancements happening all at once in the past year, it is imperative to discuss the real impact of AI on creative writing, address the fear around it, and leverage its prowess for creative processes.  

Yes, AI can help. No, AI will not replace you as writer or a poet.

With this workshop, we propose a radical discussion on all things AI and its elusive association with creativity. Creative writing is closely linked with voice and identity, and the current generation of AI tools might pose a threat to it. Imagine a fine-tuned AI model trained on all the novels ever written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, it will most likely be able to produce Dostoevsky's next novel following the same existential and psychological thoughts. But, the only reason AI cannot do this is that Fyodor Dostoevsky as an artist can decide to let go of the existential theme and write a novel about the lost winter of Southern France. 

AI is here to stay, and as creative writers, now is the time to evaluate our processes, and adapt to the times. The workshop aims to address exactly what part of a writing process could be delegated to AI and what should be an independent endeavor. It is curated to bring transparency to the topic of finding your authenticity and leveraging everything the AI world has to offer.

WHY THIS DISCUSSION TODAY?

1. AI is an intern that takes care of your creative grunt work, so you can focus on what matters.
2. AI is just smarter technology. It will not replace human creativity, it will add value to authentic human content.
3. AI will have a greater near-term impact on creators than anticipated.
4. Embracing this technology will help writers navigate through the changing landscape better.
5. AI is an advanced partner for different aspects of your creative writing process.

TOPICS WE WILL COVER:

1. A non-technical introduction to Generative AI.
2. AI as an assistant: for visualization, efficiency, research, perspective building, and character interaction.
3. Comparative case study: AI & Human The current tools for creative writers.
4. Delegation with AI: what AI can and cannot do How to build a unique voice in the age of AI (with practicable tips)?
5. How to use AI for creative writing ( tasks and techniques)?
6. The risks and limitations of AI for creative writing.
7. Introduction to prompting aka how to talk to AI (with resources and prompt templates)

TAKEAWAYS:

1. A thorough understanding of how AI is shaping the future of writing.
2. Resources on building a unique writing voice in the age of AI.
3. A list of the latest AI tools to integrate AI into creative processes.
4. Hands-on experience with applied prompting skills to get the most out of AI.
5. Customizable templates for prompting, tailored to writing-related tasks.
6. Using AI tools to streamline creative tasks.
7. Delegating secondary writing tasks such as plotting, character development, and visualization to AI.
8. Learning responsible use of AI to maintain authenticity.

About RUCHA BHIDE, Instructor

Rucha Bhide, is head of content and editor at Towards AI (for the last two years), a community newsletter dedicated to making AI accessible to all. She has actively worked as a web content writer across various niches for over 6 years. Creative writing has been a lifelong pursuit for her, with a major focus on prose and poetry. She has published one multi-sensory poetry book and is currently working on a novel (during which the AI experimentation began).