5 ms·

GPT-4 writes an entire 115 page fiction novel

26 points by Jevon23 4y ago

brucethemoose2 4y ago
This going to be a revolution among fanfic writers and indie authors, where "bulk writing assistance" is exactly what they need to avoid burnout. Now we just need finetuning/embeddings... Something where we can, say, feed it canon and the top 200 AO3 stories in a certain category/style, so it can get a good grasp of a fictional world without having to prod it so much.
- jamilton 4y ago
  I feel like most hobbyist authors enjoy writing-as-writing enough that they wouldn't use AI to write something for them. But there's definitely a minority who mostly just want a story to exist who probably would use a better version of this process.
  - brucethemoose2 4y ago
    I dunno, many of the best authors burn out writing long stories and will even mention time/personal issues. An LLM doesn't have to write it for them, it can just speed things up.
    - barking_biscuit 4y ago
      >I dunno, many of the best authors burn out writing long stories and will even mention time/personal issues. An LLM doesn't have to write it for them, it can just speed things up I think this is probably the correct interpretation. I used it last week to outline a blog post that I then edited and iterated on. In the end it came out like I wanted it, but it took half the time and was quite a bit less frustrating being able to cut out that initial feeling of staring a blank page and having to make so many decisions. I think what it will do is adjust the effort-to-reward ratio of a large number of tasks that people want to have the satisfaction of having completed, but don't want the pain of grinding all the way through.
DavidKarlas 4y ago
I was thinking few days ago, In 20 years we will probably be able to say something like “Make a TV show that is mix of Game of thrones and Lord of the rings, has 4 seasons with 10 episodes each and main character is played by Tom Hanks and co-star Sandra Bullock” and you just start watching, probably tweak it as you go, saying more fighting, explore more story in desert about dragons…
- belter 4y ago
  Or next year...If the Porn industry hears about these LLM models...
- rchaud 4y ago
  Out of interest, do you watch and enjoy TV? Because what you are describing sounds like a hyper-accelerated version of today's horrific landscape of derivative quantity-over-quality TV shows with little originality or suspense. Good writers can create those, but most viewers cannot attain those results via mere prompts.
  - thunky 4y ago
    They said In 20 years, suggesting it's not possible today. Seems reasonable to me that AI will be able to produce better quality content (books, video, music) than humans at some point. I'm looking forward to having my own personal music stream that nobody else will ever hear.
    - rchaud 4y ago
      The premise is the same as saying people can 3D-print their own widgets, nuts and bolts. The average person cannot do that to any reasonable level without a template that includes the right parameters. Templated entertainment fails because the viewer can see the ending coming a mile away. It is the same with anything where AI is expected to fill the gaps. With a 3D print template you get something generic that just works. The last thing that people want in entertainment is something whose ending they can predict. Writing screenplays is a skill, and AI provided by large corporations can only fine tune their output on the basis of whatever is out there, and the generic massively outweighs the original. Which side will AI go with?
wtt604 4y ago
If you fed all of the Sherlock Holmes stories from archive.org into this, how many new stories at a comparable level would be spat out from it?
- Jevon23 4y ago
  I’d be shocked if those stories weren’t already in GPT-4’s training data.
ThorsBane 4y ago
Don't be afraid - your story is still your story. This story happens to be GPT-4's story.
ekam 4y ago
A large GPT-4 generated text like this showcases its repetitiveness well. If you actually read the novel, you’ll see the same recurring features: 4-5 line paragraphs, paragraphs starting with either “as” or the name of a character” etc.
- thunky 4y ago
  I noticed the same kind of repetition watching Nothing, Forever.
sdwr 4y ago
Read the intro and first page. The introduction + acknowledgements are pitch perfect. There's nothing technically wrong with the writing, but the pacing is crap. No setting the scene, no ambiguity. It reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Everything is loosely sketched + moves quickly. Theres no descriptions of appearances. Zero subtlety. But everything else is perfect! Pretty strange. This is what I imagine fills the shelves in a lazily simulated world. Text as background noise, books purchased by the yard.
leobg 4y ago
What we now need is an AI that actually reads all that AI generated stuff. It’s like we solved one problem (creation), and created another (consumption).
haaryball 4y ago
I'd be curious to see what comes out if you ask to "write volume three of The Kingkiller Chronicle"

26 points by Jevon23 4y ago

This going to be a revolution among fanfic writers and indie authors, where "bulk writing assistance" is exactly what they need to avoid burnout. Now we just need finetuning/embeddings... Something where we can, say, feed it canon and the top 200 AO3 stories in a certain category/style, so it can get a good grasp of a fictional world without having to prod it so much.

jamilton 4y ago
I feel like most hobbyist authors enjoy writing-as-writing enough that they wouldn't use AI to write something for them. But there's definitely a minority who mostly just want a story to exist who probably would use a better version of this process.
- brucethemoose2 4y ago
  I dunno, many of the best authors burn out writing long stories and will even mention time/personal issues. An LLM doesn't have to write it for them, it can just speed things up.
  - barking_biscuit 4y ago
    >I dunno, many of the best authors burn out writing long stories and will even mention time/personal issues. An LLM doesn't have to write it for them, it can just speed things up I think this is probably the correct interpretation. I used it last week to outline a blog post that I then edited and iterated on. In the end it came out like I wanted it, but it took half the time and was quite a bit less frustrating being able to cut out that initial feeling of staring a blank page and having to make so many decisions. I think what it will do is adjust the effort-to-reward ratio of a large number of tasks that people want to have the satisfaction of having completed, but don't want the pain of grinding all the way through.

DavidKarlas 4y ago

I was thinking few days ago, In 20 years we will probably be able to say something like “Make a TV show that is mix of Game of thrones and Lord of the rings, has 4 seasons with 10 episodes each and main character is played by Tom Hanks and co-star Sandra Bullock” and you just start watching, probably tweak it as you go, saying more fighting, explore more story in desert about dragons…

belter 4y ago
Or next year...If the Porn industry hears about these LLM models...
rchaud 4y ago
Out of interest, do you watch and enjoy TV? Because what you are describing sounds like a hyper-accelerated version of today's horrific landscape of derivative quantity-over-quality TV shows with little originality or suspense. Good writers can create those, but most viewers cannot attain those results via mere prompts.
- thunky 4y ago
  They said In 20 years, suggesting it's not possible today. Seems reasonable to me that AI will be able to produce better quality content (books, video, music) than humans at some point. I'm looking forward to having my own personal music stream that nobody else will ever hear.
  - rchaud 4y ago
    The premise is the same as saying people can 3D-print their own widgets, nuts and bolts. The average person cannot do that to any reasonable level without a template that includes the right parameters. Templated entertainment fails because the viewer can see the ending coming a mile away. It is the same with anything where AI is expected to fill the gaps. With a 3D print template you get something generic that just works. The last thing that people want in entertainment is something whose ending they can predict. Writing screenplays is a skill, and AI provided by large corporations can only fine tune their output on the basis of whatever is out there, and the generic massively outweighs the original. Which side will AI go with?

wtt604 4y ago

If you fed all of the Sherlock Holmes stories from archive.org into this, how many new stories at a comparable level would be spat out from it?

Jevon23 4y ago
I’d be shocked if those stories weren’t already in GPT-4’s training data.

ThorsBane 4y ago

Don't be afraid - your story is still your story. This story happens to be GPT-4's story.

ekam 4y ago

A large GPT-4 generated text like this showcases its repetitiveness well. If you actually read the novel, you’ll see the same recurring features: 4-5 line paragraphs, paragraphs starting with either “as” or the name of a character” etc.

thunky 4y ago
I noticed the same kind of repetition watching Nothing, Forever.

sdwr 4y ago

Read the intro and first page. The introduction + acknowledgements are pitch perfect. There's nothing technically wrong with the writing, but the pacing is crap. No setting the scene, no ambiguity. It reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Everything is loosely sketched + moves quickly. Theres no descriptions of appearances. Zero subtlety. But everything else is perfect! Pretty strange. This is what I imagine fills the shelves in a lazily simulated world. Text as background noise, books purchased by the yard.

leobg 4y ago

What we now need is an AI that actually reads all that AI generated stuff. It’s like we solved one problem (creation), and created another (consumption).

haaryball 4y ago

I'd be curious to see what comes out if you ask to "write volume three of The Kingkiller Chronicle"