Writing Human in the Age of AI

Puts forward the importance and validity of the ‘writing self’, a uniquely human phenomenon, as generative AI threatens and seeks to replace creative endeavor

An investigation at the intersection of the writer and artificial intelligence, this book makes a case for the centrality and validity of the uniquely human ‘writing self’ against a backdrop of ubiquitous AI-generated material. With Pandora’s Box irreversibly open, Writing Human in the Age of AI decodes how creative writers encounter AI, comparing AI and human-generated texts, digging into the theories and philosophies underpinning this paradigm shift towards the posthuman, and ultimately putting forward a radical manifesto for navigating creative endeavor in the future.

Looking at how AI performs complex creative writing tasks, how creative writing has become commodified, and how through posthumanist, transhumanist and new materialist theories humans have become ‘hackable’, Paul Williams and Shelley Davidow reassert the humanness of creative endeavor by rejecting a disembodied ‘subject’. Instead, they posit the need for a creative, performative, author-centered/process-writing 'self' that is changed by its own journey. Blending memoir with essay and poetry to perform the writing self they outline, the authors highlight what is unique about human creativity: serendipity, failure, synchronicity, experiential phenomenology. They also explore what they term ‘supra consciousness’, a transcendent, non-hackable, innately human connected community with a shared story.

Hopeful, engaging and addressing important concerns in the field, Writing Human in the Age of AI illuminates the value of writing for the writer, as a process of thinking, feeling and self-discovery.