A machine in the loop: the peculiar intervention of artificial intelligence in writer’s block

ABSTRACT

Generative artificial intelligence is changing how we can choose to resolve writing challenges. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are readily accessible to generate text effortlessly. This paper explores the human-AI relationship when generative AI is used to assist a writer suffering from writer’s block. Research shows that talking to others is an effective strategy for blocked writers. This other no longer needs to be a human. I examine what happens when generative AI is brought into the writing loop: the nonlinear process of writing and rewriting a creative piece. The film Adaptation (2002. Directed by Spike Jonze, Performance by Nicolas Cage. Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper. Columbia), written by Charlie Kaufman, is used as a case study of writer’s block to illustrate several complexities of the disorder and to theorise potential openings and limitations for the use of AI. Through the film, writer’s block is also explored as having a twin pathology of hypergraphia. Writing with AI is seen to mimic peculiarities of creative writing that include projecting one’s inner voice and seeking a false self. In the example of Adaptation, one ultimately comes to appreciate too that suffering through a block unaided can propel a writer to make bold decisions and test the limits of human creativity.

KEYWORDS:

• Artificial intelligence
• generative AI
• writer’s block
• hypergraphia
• Adaptation
• Charlie Kaufman

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) of the University of the Western Cape for the fellowship award that facilitated the writing of the present article. All credit for DHET purposes for this article is attributed to the CHR at UWC.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ChatGPT is fine-tuned from GPT-3.5. OpenAI finished training the model in 2022. ChatGPT can be accessed at: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/.

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on research supported by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) of South Africa.

Notes on contributors

Iona Gilburt

Iona Gilburt From 2018–2020, Iona Gilburt was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the DSI-NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory at the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape. Her research adopts interdisciplinary approaches to the study of written texts, considering how these intersect with visual cultures and visual theories. In 2020, she was a guest editor with Professor Patricia Hayes for the Kronos special issue Other Lives of the Image. Gilburt was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) in 2022. Her current research project examines the relationship between the human and technology, focusing on generative artificial intelligence.