I have to admit that I’ve been fascinated with AI text generation since it was known as Deep Learning. About six years ago, I realized that as a text translator from Spanish to English my job had suddenly changed from being a content creator to being an editor as the website Deepl.com came into being and lapped the competition. By using “deep learning” Deepl was able to crunch what seemed like the entirety of the internet in both English and Spanish and find equivalent phrases, leading to nearly perfect translations. This worked very well with dry and technical texts, but came up rather short when it tried translating poetry or other literature, due to the fact that the concept of literary esthetic is one of the most human of all creations.
Recently, with Chat GPT, I’ve been experimenting with attempts at writing silly short stories to varying degrees of success. Chat GPT is essentially a trope generator, and with certain genres such as Mysteries, there are so many examples that it can access in the public domain, that one can simply enter a premise and names of characters and it will generate a first cohesive and coherent first draft.
My friend and I used to watch baseball games and invent back stories for players based on their names. Whit Merrifield was a wealthy land owner who longed for the antebellum south during the offseason. Mike Trout was, as you might have guessed, an angler who had a favorite spot in a New Jersey swamp, where he fished out Hudson River Rejects and the occasional murder weapon. Jake Cave, then a utility player for the Minnesota Twins, was a Spelunking Detective. Here is the Chat GPT created story created with the title “Jake Cave: Spelunking Detective and the Case of the Shaky Shack”
Jake Cave, the Spelunking Detective, had faced many mysteries in his career, but the case of the shifting shack was one for the books. On a chilly autumn morning, he received a call from a distressed homeowner named Sarah, who lived on the outskirts of a quiet coastal town. Her quaint little shack, nestled near the cliffs, had been acting rather peculiarly. It seemed to have a mind of its own.
Sarah was frantic as she explained to Jake, "Mr. Cave, my shack keeps moving overnight. It starts in one place and ends up somewhere else entirely by morning. I've even tried marking its position with sticks, but it's as if the ground itself is playing tricks on me."
Jake had always been intrigued by the unusual, and this case was no exception. He wasted no time and drove to Sarah's property. The shack stood in a picturesque location, overlooking the serene coastline. Jake examined the surroundings and couldn't spot anything unusual at first.
Over the next few nights, Jake stayed in the shack, setting up cameras and monitoring its movements. The first night was uneventful, but on the second, he awoke to a shuddering sensation. The shack was slowly inching toward the cliff's edge. Jake rushed outside and used all his strength to stop it from moving any further.
Intrigued by this strange phenomenon, Jake delved into the history of the area. He learned that the land had once belonged to Captain Samuel "Seaworthy" Blackbeard, a notorious pirate who had hidden his treasure somewhere in the vicinity. Legends spoke of caves and tunnels that were rumored to lead to the fabled hoard, but nobody had ever found it.
The pirate treasure piqued Jake's interest, and he decided to dig deeper. He began researching local maps and geological records and discovered an old, forgotten cave system that ran beneath the entire area. It seemed that the shack had been unknowingly built directly above one of the cave entrances.
Armed with this newfound knowledge, Jake explored the cave system, guided by maps and clues from the past. He encountered pitfalls, underground streams, and even had a close encounter with a colony of bats. As he ventured deeper into the cave, he realized that the shifting shack was no accident but a result of the cave's unstable, shifting terrain. The ground itself was causing the shack to move.
After days of exploration, Jake stumbled upon the treasure trove of Captain Blackbeard, hidden within the cave's depths. It was an astonishing discovery, and Jake couldn't help but marvel at the cunning of the pirate in choosing such an elusive hiding place.
With the treasure recovered and returned to the rightful authorities, Sarah's shack was finally at peace, no longer subjected to the whims of the shifting ground. Jake Cave, the Spelunking Detective, had unraveled a mystery that combined the elements of history, adventure, and the allure of buried treasure—all in a small, seaside town.
I honestly think that we’ve got nothing to worry about, unless write Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown mysteries. If that’s the case, you might want to contact your union rep.