Just imagine a computer that could take in any kind of information and spit out anything at all. A computer that would never run out of material to process or data to store. What you’ve got here is an entire universe on your desktop, and the only limitation is how much time you have.

You may be wondering how AI comes into the story creating process. Well, as it turns out, an AI in a limited setting can actually come up with quality work entirely on its own. That’s right. We’re working on electronic composers and authors now. They don’t research their topic extensively just like you or I would, of course, but instead have absorbed everything they need from the internet to put together their work item by item until the topics are exhausted and the story is finished.

Yet, for best results the process is currently improved by human intervention. It’s part seeding the AI with a direction, part cherry-picking from the AI generated results, and part editing. And if you want diverse or realistic characters it certainly helps to have a human there. The results are impressive. Pairing artificial intelligence with human storytelling can make for a better writing experience overall. But are we playing with fire?

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Examples of fantasy writing involving AI and the author

• The Emperor and the General