Remember when Google showed off its artificial intelligence prowess by demoing a paper airplane and a conversation with a dwarf planet? That was powered by the LaMDA model. Wordcraft is a prototype writing tool that can be used by writers.
Writing tools that are powered by artificial intelligence aren't new. Chances are you have heard of a writing tool. Wordcraft is a way to help create fictional work. It's built into a web-based word processor and is described as a kind of text editor with purpose. Wordcraft can be used to make a sentence funnier. If asked, it can give a description of objects. It is similar to putting an editor and writing partner into a single tool.
The Wordcraft prototype was tested with 13 professional writers. The writers all agreed that Wordcraft wasn't going to replace authors any time soon. The tool was not good at producing average or cliched writing. It stuck to the tried and true, but also steered clear of the mean characters.
Using LaMDA to write full stories is not a good idea. When it's used to add spice, it's a much better tool.
The prototype has some issues that need to be worked out. It is difficult to understand what using an artificial intelligence-powered creative writing tool is like. I was interested in seeing a demo of it at the event.
The prompt was "penguins swimming." I took a mother penguin with me because I love baby animals. Wordcraft could either continue the story, add another prompt, or talk to a robot for more ideas. I chose to highlight the eggs and have Wordcraft give more information.
One person described the eggs as having a leathery texture, but I chose the option where they were the size of grapefruits and covered in feathers. The fact that eggs are covered in feathers isn't a big deal. I will not go into every prompt I tried out, but I did at one point have Wordcraft shorten a lengthy continuation into a single sentence, as well as had the chatbot create some conflict.
The writing is basic as you can see. The baby eggs are eaten, but then a baby is rescued from the ocean. Even though they never hatched? It's definitely true! I had to copy and paste the suggestions from the bot into the main window. Clicking on every other prompt will add it to the list.
It is as he said. It was a neat way to generate ideas after the demo, but I couldn't imagine writing a full story like that. The final product wouldn't work on its own, so I wouldn't put it on AO3. I could take the idea of a mama penguin fighting off a seal to save her eggs and make it more enjoyable.
Wordcraft is in the early stages. Even if I was only trying to see how absurd I could get with a single prompt, the prototype was still enjoyable. Nine stories from the Wordcraft Writers' Workshop can be found here. They're crazy.
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