A friend of mine who is a writer told me recently that he uses ChatGPT to compose his work. He described it as “a good starting point”. My poker face didn’t reveal it at the time, but I thought I was going to fall out of my chair when he said that. Seriously.

Many software applications and websites have introduced AI capabilities into their programming and engineering in order to simplify, facilitate, and support end users and that sounds like a good thing. It often is. And ChatGPT, my friend’s tool of choice, is uncanny in its ability to take disparate shards of thought and scant ideas and assemble it all into a well written and usable piece of text. Bravo… right?

Well…

I think about the world of photography. With the massive accessibility of cell phone cameras and easy to use digital processing software apps, everyone and anyone can now create a good and capable picture. That was not the case as recently as a mere decade ago. So, is the quest for photographic excellence dead? I say no. Many photographers are pursuing technical perfection and the phones and software help a lot there. A smaller number are focusing on style and technique. The phones and software can help there some too. A smaller number still will reach for beauty, meaning, story, and emotion. These are the artists and phones and software really don’t help with this much at all.

So, has the proliferation and democratization of photography killed the art form? Au contraire, I say. Despite the fact that everyone and their grandfather can make a good image and though we are inundated with an endless tidal wave of quality visuals… I believe that the artistic quest is alive and well… and poised to prosper. The reason is that we are surrounded by a white noise of excessive imagery. It’s everywhere and we have grown accustomed to “seeing it briefly”, aka, essentially ignoring it. True art will stick out, we will notice it more, and we will appreciate it. It will feel to us like a relief, a welcome melodic respite from the tiresome hiss and hum.

I believe the exact same thing is going to happen with writing. If every post we see on a social media platform and every article we encounter is technically perfect… bravo. But it will all become white noise to us. What will stick out from the barren terrain? Written pieces that deftly apply metaphor, draw unexpected connections, move us with deeply personal stories based on real lived experience. We will be drawn to the true authors who know how to scratch their fountain pens across parchment – figuratively speaking – in ways that pull us along, inspire us, and maybe even change us. These words will pop up over the top of the white noise and we will notice them. And thank goodness for that!