CHAPTER 4
Overcoming Linguistic Barriers In this world, there are many people who do not speak the language that they were born with on a daily basis. Online resources are already providing more help with communicating than ever before, but perhaps we can imagine that AI may one day allow us to adopt the writing styles of others. Speaking English as a 2nd language, I often worry about whether my intended meaning will come across in my writing. What if I could ask an AI chatbot to edit my writing to be written in the Queen’s English with a friendly tone? Then I would no longer have to worry about my intended meaning getting lost in translation. I can even imagine a world where people sell their writing styles. All in all, this could minimise the gap between locals and non-locals, and natives and non-natives. Such a feat is no longer trivial part of a science fiction film, but rather a fast approaching reality.
Pseudo-creativity In Chapter 2, I highlighted that ChatGPT is not yet truly creative linguistically. However, this does not necessarily mean that AI is not creative at all. I asked Chatty to define creativity: Jieun:
Chatty, what is creativity?
Chatty:
Creativity is the ability to generate new and original ideas or concepts,
or to develop new ways of thinking about or approaching a task or problem. It is often associated with the arts, but can be present in any field or endeavor. Creativity can involve combining existing ideas or knowledge in new ways, or coming up with entirely new concepts or solutions.
When I asked Chatty if he is creative in Chapter 2, he responded, ‘I can generate new and original responses within the scope of my training, but I am not truly “creative” in the same way that humans are.’ Essentially, ChatGPT is not creative because it can only create based on what it has learned from its data set. This idea can be challenged. As mentioned in Chapter 3, AlphaCode can create code to answer open-ended questions, and LG now has an AI fashion designer. In Korea, a novel called The World From Now On (지금부터의 세계 Jigeumbuteoeui segye) was released in 2021, written almost entirely by an AI author named Birampung (비람풍) which refers to the big storm when the universe is created or destroyed. The book was then edited by Kim Taeyeon.xxiii In November 2022, OpenAI also released DALL-E 2, which can ‘create original, realistic images and art from a text description. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles’. 32
