What's Missing From AI-generated Texts?

I published a post on LinkedIn about AI not understanding intent in writing. I asked people to share AI-generated texts with me, so I could prove my point - or be proven wrong.

Not only did the post cause more discussion than anything else I’ve posted here, two people actually took me up on it. 

I received one mildly poetic text and another educational guide. 

Before I talk about what I found, I want to clarify one point: I’m a marketer and refer to marketing texts. Copywriters write to convince. The intention behind marketing texts can be to raise curiosity, to instill desire or fear, to elicit some reaction, be that passive (an emotion) or active (a click, a purchase, a sign-up).

Neither of the two texts fit that description. 

But, let’s look at them anyway.

We’ll start with the first, a scene description that you might read in a novel. 

Can an AI-generated Text Create The Perfect Scene?

Evening settled slowly over Nazareth, not as a sudden dimming, but as a gentle drawing in of the day, as though the light itself were reluctant to depart. The last warmth of the sun clung to the limestone walls, turning them the color of honey, while long shadows stretched across the narrow paths between homes. A faint breeze moved through the village, stirring loose dust and carrying with it the mingled scents of olive wood smoke, baked grain, and the cooling earth.

At first read you don't immediately recognize it’s AI. It uses descriptive adjectives and even uses analogies. Nice. (ummm, only that Claude couldn't resist its beloved sentence structure 'it’s not A, but it’s B').

What could be the intent of a novelist placing the description of the dawning over Nazareth in their text? To create a mood. It is not the physical reality that matters, but the feeling that arises in the reader. 

This is where the AI-generated text is inconsistent. The first part of the sentence gentle drawing of the day carries a certain warmth that turns to a melancholic sentiment with reluctant to depart. This is continued in the first part of the second sentence clung to the limestone.   

The color of honey, on the other hand, makes the reader think of something sweet and feel homely or hungry (?). The rest of the sentence raises the question whether we are moving back to being sentimental, whether something sinister maybe lurking (long shadows and narrow paths), or are actually on our way home (between homes).

The image of a stirring loose dust hints at some danger, a bit like the quiet before the storm. You can hear the slight hissing and see the dust swirling above the desert ground like in an old western movie, or obscuring your vision in a dark street corner in a crime thriller. 

Where does the text want to take you? The melancholy of the dawn? The sweetness of home? The chill of the upcoming night? 

How to Create A Mood With Words

This may sound far-fetched to you. But what makes a novel great is the writer’s ability to draw the reader into the story. When you feel you are in it, that’s when you enjoy reading it. Writers describe scenes with the intent to create a feeling.  

We can place it at the beginning of a chapter or as a transition from one act to the next to get the reader into the right mood. An evening scene, like this one, could also close a chapter, signaling the end of something. 

With minimal changes, it could be something like this:

Evening settled slowly over Nazareth, as a gentle drawing in of the day. The sun’s warmth lingered on the limestone walls, while the daylight gradually retired, turning them the color of honey. A faint breeze carried the scents of olive oil, baked grain, and flickering wood through the narrow paths between homes as the dust from the day's hustle snuggled up in streetcorners to await the coming of the night.

Or this:

Evening settled over Nazareth. Something in the gentle drawing in of the day was different. It seemed as though the light itself was reluctant to depart. As the limestone walls turned a rusty color, the sun’s warmth was chased away by long shadows that quickly conquered the narrow paths between buildings. The hiss of the wind cut around corners, stirring loose dust carrying the mingled scents of dirt, smoke and the urgency to take shelter before the earth cools down.   

You get the difference.

The images used in the first text are calm and warm. The vocabulary is associated with the same. The second example describes the exact same scene with slightly different vocabulary and imagery. It creates the opposite feeling, a slightly unsettling and maybe even threatening chill.

The scene could also be a stand-alone story. 

Evening settled over Nazareth so slowly, it seemed to Miriam the sunlight itself was as reluctant to depart as she was. Its warmth clung to the limestone walls, reminding her of the heat she had hoped would never cool down. But long shadows already spread their chill over the stony paths between houses. A faint breeze whispered secrets that would soon disappear into the night. Would hers be safe? Or would it be stirred up by carelessness, like the loose dust in the street corner?

“It’s All a Matter of a Better Prompt”

…is what I’m told. 

O.k., so let’s tell Claude to add some sentiment, “Please rewrite the text describing the scene in three ways:

1. In a sentimental tone of voice

2. In a tone of voice that gives a homely/cosy feeling

3. In a way that creates tension / suspense.”

   
   

The first texts I received was twice as long as the original. Claude filled the text with imagery that reflected the requested atmosphere and added plenty of comparisons …as if…, … like…, … the way that….. and the whole thing was overblown.

Another prompt was needed to ensure the machine wouldn’t stretch the scene out, but only alter it to give it the right mood. To me, it still sounded over-the-top with the requested sentiment, in-the-face, rather than subtle and refined. But I'm not a novelist. I'm a copywriter. We write concisely.

With enough training, I suppose I could teach it to write the way I want it to. Is it worth it if I know how to do it right myself? Some of what Claude presented sounded nice and was structured well, but simply didn’t make sense. 

One thing is for sure, the quality-level of the AI-generated text depends on the professional level of the person prompting it. And no matter how much effort I put into the prompt, the outcome would always require human editing.

LLMs can write, but are not writers. 

Note *1: I'll discuss the second text in my next post.

Note *2: I do find the quality of Nano Banana's images quite impressive (the two inside this post). Chat GPT captured the moods a bit better in the images (cover image, I think you can tell which text version this is based on).