Can chatgpt make an actually good story?

[Papsoe]

?

 

[pmmg]

Perhaps, but I dont need it. ChatGPT can go jump in a lake.

 

[Finchbearer]

I’ve played around with chat GTP’s capabilities on this front, and I would sum it up by saying that every single story it throws up, is pretty much the same format, with stereotypical names and overarching plot themes, lacking any originality or detail, or characterisation, or anything good really. It might be a tool that could be used as a sounding board, but I would proceed with caution. If you read something it comes up with, it might sound okay to the unread eye, but I’ve read a lot of books, and I just do not think chat GPT can write fiction.

It also works on an algorithm based on genre, so as you soon as you use the key words ‘fantasy’ or ‘thriller’ or ‘sci-fi’ - it has been programmed to write within that typical style. Again, you would only know this if you already read those genres.

If you were to get chat GPT to ‘write’ you a story, and you send it into a magazine or an agent, they’d probably sniff it out very quickly.

So to answer the title of the thread - no.

 

[Penpilot]

I've played with it, and from my experience, no it can't. At best it gives an outline, at worse it sounds like a robot trying to emulate what a writer sounds like.

Hello my fellow eye-pleasing bipeds. Let us partake of the dulcett tones of the internal monologue produced by the luxuriously created volumes of text written by a highly creative individual by the name of Moe Lester.

 

[Ban]

This website is for aspiring and accomplished science fiction and fantasy writers. I find it a little peculiar to ask this particular group of people whether or not a machine could perform their creative pursuit. As for the question. I have not been impressed by these programs' literary output, which suits me fine. I hope they remain formulaic forevermore. Creativity is an expression of humanity, not a thing to be imitated and mass plagiarised by machine learning.

 

[The Dark One]

There are one or two newer members I've suspected of being AI bots.

 

[Finchbearer]

There are one or two newer members I've suspected of being AI bots.

How do we know you are not in fact, a bot?

 

[Ban]

How do we know you are not in fact, a bot?

The twelve years of activity should suffice for evidence.

 

[Finchbearer]

The twelve years of activity should suffice for evidence.

In fact, how do we know any of us are not bots?

 

[Finchbearer]

In fact, how do we know any of us are not bots?

In fact, how do we, ourselves, know if we are not just computerised flesh, floating in a matrix of digital data?

 

[Ban]

I suppose we don't. Half of the internet already consists of AI (bot) activity, and I recently read that Europol warns it could be 90% by 2026. The days of Luddite Ban may draw near. The labour of Silicon Valley ghouls is rendering the web a wasteland filled with sound.

 

[Finchbearer]

Don’t worry ban, I am sure there are ways to be a Luddite who occasionally uses the internet.

 

[Orc Knight]

From experience, no. It can barely do outlines without eventually confusing itself and going off course. It is, as mentioned, very formulaic and can't remember anything. I've probably tried it way too much and I feel dumber having used it. I am trying to step away from it even if I enjoy messing around with them.

But at this point yeah, I kind of feel like it's stunting my thinking whenever I do use it.

 

[skip.knox]

Can ChatGPT make a story?
Yes.
Can it make a good story?
Depends on how you define good.
Can it make an actually good story?
Any good story will be an actual story, so that part of the question is redundant.

 

[pmmg]

In fact, how do we, ourselves, know if we are not just computerised flesh, floating in a matrix of digital data?

I'm a bot and so's my sister.

 

[Devor]

If you want ChatGPT to publish even a blog post it takes prompts that are almost as long as the post you're making. That prompt details the format and writing style step by step through the post, as well as the specific content you're looking for. Much of that prompt becomes a template that you can use across posts, while huge portions of it specify the content you're looking for. You'd still want to edit it yourself

I know you're not asking about a blog post. But I want you to understand, ChatGPT is a highly complicated tool, an algorithm with trillions of parameters. If you learn how to use it well it can do amazing things. But it takes a degree of competence just to have it make a blog post, let alone a story. If you're hoping to type in a sentence and hit the easy button to publishing, it doesn't work that way.

Similar to the blog post, it might be possible to use ChatGPT to write a story a few hundred words at a time, providing it with clear input of what you're looking for - if the current ChatGPT isn't there yet, a future version will be able to, and likely soon.

With that said, it isn't a substitute for a person's creative judgement. It has severe limitations, and when given a choice, at best it defaults to something little worse than mediocre. It also wouldn't surprise me if writing trends in the near future focus on techniques that the AI struggles with.

 

[Karlin]

What chatGPT writes is good for fertilizing your roses. But it will get the structure right.

 

[The Dark One]

How do we know you are not in fact, a bot?

<generic response>

 

[The Dark One]

In fact, how do we know any of us are not bots?

You're definitely not FB.

Or if you are, bring on more AI bots!

 

[Jackarandajam]

Try "if you weren't chat GBT but instead a successful, awarded author, how would you write a book about..."

That tricks it, see, into not being AI.
Gotta be smarter than the machine, fam.