Today I'm having a series of existential thoughts around ChatGPT and creative writing. Specifically, creative writing courses potentially made by Blank Page.

First off, ChatGPT is so incredibly good that it makes me question if writing courses even make sense now. If you can get a reasonably well written text about anything in seconds, what's the point of writing at all?

I've long thought there is a truly satisfactory feeling when you articulate your thoughts through words. That is, translating them thought into language. It's the "joy of writing" that so many authors have written about.

I'm sure mathematicians can argue there is a "joy of math" and calculators completely took it away from us in favor of speed. I’m beginning to suspect that AI will surpass human intelligence sooner than we think. But perhaps not because it’s becoming truly smarter, but because we —humans— are increasingly dumber with the omnipresent assistance of calculators, guided navigation and now, generated writing.

This is an existential threat to all (except OpenAI shareholders). But specifically for Blank Page, as I have long thought about monetising it through paid writing courses.

However, as I write this, we're experimenting with OpenAI API in an attempt to create writing courses that interact with AI in some meaningful way.

Most of my first ideas have been quickly discarded as AI is more capable in most tasks:

• Edit this text to make it shorter (AI can do it better than you)
• Edit this text to sound like Hemingway wrote it (AI can do it better than you)
• Write an email, blog post, press release, or any other commercial communication piece about anything (AI can do it, at least, faster than you).

The list goes on. I do see, however, a small window where it makes sense to collaborate with AI to write creatively.

From our early experiments, AI is absolutely horrendous at creating any sort of "creative writing" pieces. It's predictable, bland, full of cliches, and overly correct. It sounds like the most insecure student in a writing workshop that is trying to please everyone, and worst, to sound like a "writer" should sound (he or she completely ignores any traits of personal style and experience they could possibly have).

To my relief, I still believe that, for the foreseeable future (a few months, maybe...), creative writing is safe from AI threats. It’s not yet able to extract the content of your thoughts. However, it can help you with editing, summarising, extending, shortening, changing style, rephrasing, and many other tasks. It is still essential to get the initial input from you (through writing).

This takes me back to my original point: Does it make sense to create a writing course that interacts with AI in some way?

Yes... maybe. I don't know.

Here are a few possible concepts:

• Learn to edit AI. In a world where everyone will use AI generated texts in some capacity, how can you make a difference? Editing. Good editors will be the new writers. They probably have always been already.
• Break the blank page. Use AI to put some initial content in place, then take it as a starting point to write something unique.
• Simulate situations and interact with them. You can have AI pretend to be a Hiring Manager and you write your way through an email exchange to get a job offer. Or you could be in the middle of a dialogue, and have AI act out as the other character.

It's clear that there is huge potential (if not already a huge offer) of courses around "how to use ChatGPT" (the so-called "prompt engineering"). While this is interesting and useful in its own way, it's outside the scope of Blank Page. I remain firm in my belief that writing (actual writing) is not only a useful skill, but a satisfying pursuit in life. I still believe in the joy of writing; I'm experiencing it right now. But somehow I feel this will become like vinyl records are to Spotify. Yes, they sound and feel better if you pay attention, but who really gives a fuck?