ChatGPT is,
of course, not
creating anything at all of its own
accord. It is responding to prompts. The tone of the
prompt informs the
AI of the tone of what it is instructed to write. The prompt is the art. The AI is simply the tool.
For example:
Prompt:
Write a story about a pair of socks that are pleased to be purchased by a man in a department store, only to discover when they are put in the sock drawer with his other socks that the man's feet eat socks. Later, however, the socks discover that when his socks become too worn out to wear, instead of throwing them away, he washes them and uses them as material to make teddy bears for needy children.
Result:
Once upon a time, in a bustling department store, there were two socks, a pair, lying on the shelf. They were a bright, cheerful shade of blue and they had been waiting for someone to take them home for quite some time. As the day went on, many people passed by, but no one seemed to take notice of the socks. They were starting to worry that they would never find a home.
Finally, a man walked into the store and made his way over to the sock section. He picked up the blue socks and examined them closely. The socks were thrilled, and they knew that they had found their new home. The man paid for them and took them home, carefully placing them in his sock drawer with his other socks.
However, the joy of finding a new home didn't last long. The blue socks soon realized that they were living with a strange and unusual family of socks. The man's feet had a habit of eating socks! The other socks in the drawer were full of holes and had lost their color and vitality.
The blue socks were worried that they would meet the same fate, but they were determined to stay strong and keep their color as long as they could.
One day, the man took all of his old, worn-out socks and put them in a laundry basket. The blue socks were shocked when they saw him throw them into the washing machine. They thought that this was the end for their fellow socks. But to their surprise, the man took the washed socks and started cutting them up into small pieces.
The blue socks were puzzled as to why he was doing this until they saw him start to sew the pieces together into tiny teddy bears. The man had a big heart and a passion for helping those in need, and he used the old socks to make stuffed animals for children who didn't have much.
The blue socks were overjoyed to see that their fellow socks had been given a new life and purpose. They learned that there was more to the man's actions than they originally thought, and they felt proud to be part of such a kind-hearted home.
From that day on, the blue socks realized that they didn't have to fear being eaten by the man's feet. Instead, they felt grateful for the life they had and the opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves. They knew that they had found a home with a loving owner who valued every piece of fabric, no matter how worn out it was.
Is this the
story I would have written had I written the story completely? Probably not. I find that it reads like a children's story, which is fine, people write children's stories, have been doing so for generations. But what it
is is something new, a story capturing the requested elements with the correct tone which does indeed have the
capacity to stir the reader to relate to a degree with its
fabric protagonists. And yes, that makes it
art. Note by the way that I'd previously asked ChatGPT to respond to just the prompt, "Write a story about a pair of socks that are pleased to be purchased by a man in a department store, only to discover when they are put in the sock drawer with his other socks that the man's feet eat socks." Which came out with a result much more like a
horror story.