Here's the Thing AI Just Can't Do

A few months ago, I was called in at the last minute to participate in an onstage fireside chat at an Authors' Guild event. Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger and I spent much of the session exploring the implications of a future where AI robots could create viable literary works. As we discussed the prospect of a marketplace flooded by books authored by prompting neural nets, I had a revelation that seemed to mitigate some of the anxiety. It may not have been an original thought, and I may have even come up with it myself earlier and forgotten about it. I put it to the audience something like this: Let's say you read a novel that you really loved, something that inspired you.