Yea, makes me think we might shift from being writers and editors to mostly being editors. I remember years back a friend of mine (I think an English major in undergrad) said he was more of an editor than a writer because he often struggled to come up with new or original ideas.
So I wonder what it means if/when we let the AIs come up with the ideas and we just correct them. I have no idea what the implications might be.
Socrates was worried that writing, the then new invention, will cause forgetfulness.
> The people who invent something new, create a new tool or technology, are not necessarily the people who are going to understand what the social impact of those inventions will be.
>> And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.
>> What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only the semblance of wisdom, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much while for the most part they know nothing. And as men filled not with wisdom but with the conceit of wisdom they will be a burden to their fellows.
It almost certainly did, but for what we lost in working memory, we gained a broadness of outlooks that would have been unfathomable at the time. We are connecting ideas from further afar in a sense.
The opposite is also possible (and what I'm hoping for): Humans come up with the ideas, write out some boiler plate code etc. and let AI fill in the blanks.
As a writer, I'm much happier in the revision/editing stage than in the first draft stage. I have a half-finished novel that's been half-finished for the best part of 8 years now. I'm now thinking that maybe if I feed the draft into <ML-shiny-of-the-day> with suggestions for how I want the next section/chapter to develop, it could generate some draft copy for me. Possibly several different versions. After which I'm in my Happy Editing Place, shaping existing copy to something I like. Repeat and rinse!
The end result would be 100% my work as the ML algorithm/brains/whatever would be generating new copy based on my existing copy and my vision and direction for the novel. And I get the final say on the results. Win-Win!
So I wonder what it means if/when we let the AIs come up with the ideas and we just correct them. I have no idea what the implications might be.