Some people fear that if writing no longer takes reality as its point of departure but instead draws from other texts, then AI-generated writing could be seen as equally valid as human writing, perhaps even superior, with no grounds left to claim authenticity as a distinguishing value.

Why would anyone think this in the first place? In literary studies, it is common to speak of intertextuality, and some theoreticians, including T. S. Eliot and Harold Bloom, even suggest that writing is nothing but an interaction with tradition and a recombination of bits and pieces of text.

Unless we’re operating within an ontology that sees “reality” as thoroughly constructed, as one big text, as it were, humans still have the possibility of writing authentically, with their own experience as a point of departure. This constructivist ontology is popular in literary studies, but outside of this niche, it has little traction. For example, philosophers often endorse more realist ontologies, and scientists typically operate with at least a pragmatic realism (that is, they must assume their theories describe something real).

The difference between AI and humans in this light is one of competence and performance. Humans can write authentically, but they might not, and perhaps, following Eliot and Bloom, frequently, if not always, don’t. AI simply can’t write authentically. Why? For the same reason that Searle, in his famous thought experiment, is just manipulating symbols without any understanding of their meaning: to go from syntax to semantics, as the robot reply to his Chinese Room thought experiment has it, AI needs to have sensors and motors. Once they do, they might be able to write authentically, because with these, they are able to take in reality just like humans.

Here is where fear or worry is warranted. If humans continue to write as inauthentically as they do now, and AI becomes equipped with the paraphernalia that opens it up to the world, so that it can experience reality, will it then become the sole, or main, source of authenticity?

Perhaps the advent of AI is merely a wake-up call?