Where's AI for Storytelling Going?

Thinking aloud

Where's AI for storytelling going? I think the model isn't going to be "LLMs take over everything"; I think it's going to be "this small group of creators uses LLMs as a tool for shared creation."

The instrument is not greater than the artist. We should look at LLMs as a particularly powerful instrument that will enable an entirely new class of storytelling.

I'm not quite sure what that will look like, but it will likely incorporate elements of serial fiction, animation, and persistent AI entities, all orchestrated by an author-entertainer (or band of author-entertainers) behind the scenes. Something similar to, but not quite like, "The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" from The Diamond Age.

It's going to be the 50s all over again, man. Everybody wants to be in an LLM band...

I suspect we'll see AI used the same way as any other instrument. Literally. It will be something that a single person can use to help create stories, music, images, or video. Either on the fly, or with very tight cycles. Think: a few people spending 3-4 days to produce a 30-minute show with realistic CGI (script, soundtrack, characters, etc.) Or maybe getting together for an all-day jam session to see where it takes them.

That's going to work because the tool has an actual creative mind behind it. Someone who understands story and humor and visuals and music at a deep level. LLMs alone might produce something derivative, perhaps even moderately creative. They can't produce something innovative, though - because innovation requires imagining what doesn't exist. Predictive algorithms can't take you down a road that's never existed before.

Consider the number of guitar players out there. All ranges of skills and capabilities. You can find any number of outstanding guitarists who can take what someone else has created, and play it well - maybe even add their own twists to it, make it their own. But they've never written a hit.

I think AI for storytelling is going to be that electric guitar, that synthesizer, that drum kit. Some people are going to learn to make it sing, and come together with others to create something new. Other people are going to be really capable studio musicians. A lot of others are... going to noodle around on it a little and be happy they can do that.

Meanwhile, all the rest of us will enjoy what they create.