08-12-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

Why AI can’t replace the creative struggle.

My experiment with AI-generated fiction reveals why the hardest, most human parts of creativity can’t be automated away.

[Photo: Getty Images]

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This spring, I sat at my desk to start my second novel. Instead, I got writer’s block. It’s a quaint affliction nowadays. Large-language models (LLMs) will generate five viable paths for a character in 10 seconds, making this torment feel almost elective. A few days later, a friend, who’s also a fiction writer, recommended a subscription-based LLM designed for hacks like me, who are fumbling around in the fog.

I paid my dime, uploaded my first novel, and, to test the waters, tried an audacious prompt: “Write the first chapter of the sequel.”

Dear reader, it’s been almost four years since OpenAI released ChatGPT, yet the LLM’s output still felt equal parts magic and mind crime. The 15-page passage was true to my voice, pacing, and dialogue. Yet once I traversed that uncanny valley, I realized the most consequential decisions remained: What did I want my characters to do? How should they feel? What did I want readers to take away? For all the words on the page, these questions were mine alone to grapple with.

My experience ties to a question that many people, but particularly designers, are asking right now:........

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