John Lucas

First, a quick career update, for anyone who might be curious: I’m still unemployed.

That should explain how I found the time to dash off an op-ed on the topic of artificial intelligence and writing. The idea for the piece came to me while I was cleaning the bathroom one day. Who knew scrubbing a toilet could be so intellectually stimulating?

I suppose writing this article might be part of an attempt to establish myself as a “thought leader”. Hey, I’ve been a professional writer for almost 30 years now. That should count for something, shouldn’t it?

You can read the full piece on LinkedIn. Expect to be treated to pithy musings such as the following:

If we collectively accept that an artificial intelligence can have thoughts and feelings of its own, we have effectively assigned a form of humanity to a non-organic entity. The concept of “corporate personhood” notwithstanding, this is not a threshold that even our technologically advanced society is prepared to cross. Yet.

The fact that ChatGPT is not capable of forming an original idea or expressing an opinion is good news for writers. Mostly. Will it prevent companies from looking at the bottom line and reasoning that there’s no reason to keep a writer on staff when AI can produce copy faster and cheaper? Nope.