Three Reasons Why Black Writers Should Not Write Books Using ChatGPT or AI

Hey y’all! It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, and what a great way to return by giving you my thoughts on the new phenomenon that is ChatBot and/or Chat GPT and the impact on authors/creative writers. However today, I’ll be writing specifically about the impact of AI/ChatGPT on Black writers and why I believe we should forgo it for our writing needs.

If you don’t already know what ChatGPT or Chatbot is, it is an interface where you can “chat” or interact with artificial intelligence that is programmed and wired to generate very humanlike responses with as natural language as possible. ChatGPT can provide a wide range of assistance from crafting emails that you’re struggling to respond to, it can explain a problem you may not understand, generate ideas for your next book, restructure paragraphs you’ve written to make them more seamless, and other abilities that can make your eyes turn to stars. It all depends on what your input is, and ChatGPT will generate something for you that you can understand and potentially use for your own work.

This blog post will mostly be about why I believe Black creative writers shouldn’t use ChatGPT, but I want to preface and say that it’s not an inherently bad tool. It has a time and a place to be useful and assistive, and I’m not judging or knocking anyone who chooses to use it for themselves and their writing. So, before y’all get to whining, crying, and getting your feathers ruffled, this is a nonjudgmental blog post. I also want to preface that this blog post is one perspective from one individual (ME), so take what I’m going to share here as just another person’s viewpoint that you may consider as you shape your own beliefs about the use of ChatGPT for creative writing.

And finally, yes, this blog post specifically addresses Black authors/writers. If you want to read something that is inclusive and targets all writers or writers of other backgrounds, there is plenty of content out there about ChatGPT and authors that you can read about, but this ain’t the one. If I wanted to write a post that targets all writers, I would’ve written it. This is your time to exit now if it doesn’t apply, or if you’re looking for a more inclusive post. If it piques your curiosity anyway and you want to broaden your horizons for your own critical thinking needs, great! Stick around – you are welcome here!

Now with that all out the way, let’s get into it! Why should Black writers not use ChatGPT for their creative writing needs?

1. Black Cultural Nuances

ChatGPT and all things AI, obviously, are robots. Their default style of communication is standard American English, if American English is the language you’ve chosen to use. This means that the responses will default to the dominant culture’s way of communicating, meaning, there ain’t no flavor, ain’t no sauce, and ain’t no seasoning in how they chat with their “clients.” It is very matter of fact that follow the stringent rules and technicalities of the English language.

This is antithetical to Black creative minds, Black creative work, dialogue, and writing that have existed for hundreds of years that, at times (not all the time), directly opposed and challenged the very foundations of what is deemed to be acceptable English. Many creative works from Black authors have long existed as anti-white supremacist work right under everyone’s noses, since language has often been used as a weapon and/or tool for maintaining white supremacy (hence, why Black English isn’t a recognized dialect/language with rules and is seen as “ghetto”).

There is something about the Black tongue, the Black dialect, the Black language, Black experience, and soul of Black people that AI and ChatGPT will never be able to emulate in writing no matter what. Humans who aren’t raised or immersed in Black culture can’t even emulate it without being cringy (as we see daily on Tik Tok), so we know for sure that a robot can’t. Certain references, cultural references, punchlines, and other language rich rules of Black English have to be timed and land correctly within character dialogue and exposition, otherwise it’s easily detectable as inauthentic. Anyone immersed in the culture can identify that kind of fraud almost immediately. I’m not saying that every Black character or author uses Black English, but the experience of Blackness is just that – a human experience, so there ain’t no way AI will capture the authenticity of a Black character or the Black voice of the author.

Today, there are enough attempts to erase Black voices, expression, culture, truths, and history (see Florida as an example). One thing that we don’t want erased from the bookshelves that already have scant Black voices is our culture that shows up in prose by copying and pasting a restructured and re-worded paragraph/dialogue from ChatGPT that lack cultural expression.

2. Originality, Creativity, and Pride

It is said that AI/ChatGPT is meant to help enhance creativity, provide fresh ideas to inspire writing, or help to generate content for writers. I disagree.

First off, no one has a clue how many times ChatGPT regurgitates and/or recycle storylines, plot structures, and general ideas to others who may have similar concepts for their book idea. Next thing you know, someone may use a whole plot, paragraph, or a section of writing somewhere in their book, essay, or short story that ChatGPT gave them and then boom! Someone else has got a very similar piece of writing in their book. And this is even after tweaking it to “make it your own” so that it’s deemed authentic and original.

Anything coming from ChatGPT is not original. You can’t claim it, copyright it, none of that. There is nothing more important than Black authors having ownership of their voices and stories. Once that’s handed over to something or someone else? It’s not yours. Even going the traditional publishing route, your books aren’t really yours. It’s also deeper than individual ownership, too. It’s about preservation of the culture. Preservation of something a lot larger than an individual. Black voices and experiences represent something. They are symbolic. They are original, and anything coming from ChatGPT is not and will never be. Just think if all the books on our shelves had assistance from AI. They’d all start to read and flow the same.

The point of being a creative writer is to embrace the struggle and tap into the vast imagination we all have as humans. It’s okay to have writers’ block. That’s the rewarding part of it, when you overcome it and write it out, which leads to my final subpoint for this section.

I feel as though using ChatGPT takes away the pride in writing. The ability to write a book, cover to cover, in your own words brings a level of pride that is unmatched. I feel that sense of accomplishment would be completely tainted if ChatGPT wrote even just a portion of my book. There’s just something about something being completely yours that you controlled that is just … everything. So yes, I do believe that the use of ChatGPT threatens the very notion of originality and creativity.

3. Black Editors and Businesses

This is a big one for me. ChatGPT use for creative writers threatens the importance of Black editors and Black editing indie businesses. Yes, editing to publish your novels costs a ton of money, and ChatGPT can be really convenient for that low monthly payment to make grammatical corrections, help with plot inconsistencies and development, give you feedback, and other things that editors are generally hired to do.

But supporting Black businesses is a more important value for me. Because guess what else you’re paying for? Another Black person’s livelihood. A relationship. A connection. Someone who understands the Black experience and voice. A true thought partner. Connections that editors make from your book to their lives. A lot of times, if they really like your book, editors can become your book supporters and marketers, promoting your work on their social networks because they’ve edited it. These are all the intangibles that ChatGPT can’t provide. I can’t tell you how the introduction and the likely evolution of AI/ChatGPT makes me afraid for Black editors. I will be keeping my dollar within the Black community to preserve Black intellect for my novels. That’s all I’ma say about that.

Thanks for tuning into my blog post! Hopefully this got your wheels turning a little bit in some positive perspective taking and critical thinking, and if you’re still on the ChatGPT train, go on ahead and ride off in the sunset! As I said before, it’s useful and has its place! I just know I won’t be hopping on it. Ha! Have a great day, y’all!