In my last essay I referenced an introduction to Artificial Intelligence and the powerful ways it’ll affect our society.

The presenter asked about my interests, and I mentioned that I write some articles for a car industry magazine, not specifically about the car business but with a totally roving commission; a suggestion of the owner back in 2010 and more than three hundred and thirty articles have since made it into the pages of Used Car News.

“How do you come up with ideas to write about?” he begged. So I told him that I write about anything that comes into my head, avoiding subjects that are too strident these days. “You could download a simple AI app and it could write them for you!” he postured but I didn’t take him too seriously.

Then curiosity got the better of me! I downloaded ChatGPT and I suggested it write a 550-word essay in the style of Tony Moorby’s Used Car News articles (which, I gather, it can reach as part of its data capabilities) on the subject of EV growth in the used car market. 33 seconds later I had a 550-word article on the subject of EVs as used cars. The language was a bit stilted and driven by structured descriptions of facts and figures garnered from various sources but, nonetheless accurate and relatively interesting.

It was, however, missing a little something in the ‘style’ department; recognizing that my use of English can be somewhat whimsical – one of Used Car News’ editors described it as ‘winsome’- but I do like to use descriptive language that may not quite extend to Dickensian, but English has such a luxurious way of exquisite circularity. A colleague once accused me of being ‘sesquipedalian’ which is a long word to describe the use of long words or one who uses long words. AI is not sesquipedalian – it tends to be to the point but I’m sure one could ask it to become elaborate.

I remember, some years ago, I wrote an essay in time for Valentine’s Day, comparing opening a box of chocolates to the gentle art of seduction (there may be less tolerance for that sort of thing these days, so apologies implied). I asked the AI app to do the same thing. The language was stiff (sorry!) not languorous; it was factual without being fancy or frivolous; things which the subject matter invited. It made no connection to the subtleties of the differing centers and flavors of the delectations offered so it all ended up as a bit mechanical. It made comparisons, as asked but they were devoid of implications made by a rambling mind. I suppose rambling must invite whimsy. Whimsy also takes a while – AI took 30 seconds.

If I were to have my computer write my articles, what happens to copyright? UCN owns the copyright on my jottings but what if I didn’t actually write them? I’m sure some clever lawyers have already sorted that out – just curious.

Maybe I should turn some of my attention to life stories that I can leave the kids. A memoir seems such a daunting task. A series of stories seems more doable. It’s certainly something that AI could never do on my behalf. So that’s where the value lies.