Flash Fiction: Creepy

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 PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox for Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers. Other stories featuring the prompt can be found here.

The old abandoned house at the edge of town was said to be haunted. The locals whispered stories of strange noises, flickering lights, and ghostly apparitions. But a group of curious teenagers dared to enter, and found more than just a spooky tale. The floorboards creaked beneath their feet as they explored the dimly lit rooms. A bloodcurdling scream and the sound of chains rattling echoed. Terrified, they ran for the exit, but the door slammed shut, trapping them inside. The teens were never seen again, and the haunted house remained a place of fear and mystery for generations to come.

~*~

Note:
I’m late to this party this week and thought I would give the weekly flash fiction a miss (you know that pesky thing called life), but I finally got on to ChatGPT to understand the fuss, and ChatGPT spat this gem up in 5 seconds. So many emotions at once: amazed, horrified, creeped out, redundant… The story above is AI generated and reads so much like my own writing. Admittedly, I trimmed a few words filler words but it read fine on its own. I honestly thought the fears expressed in creative communities were misguided, and stories would be substandard. I won’t go into the ethical issues. I’m just going to sit with holy sh** for a while. I hope you enjoyed this story by Tannille and The Muse… Tannille and The Machine…

19 comments

    1. I had a play. I think for info retrieval the app is a bit dodgy. 100 word stories are horrifyingly great. 500 words… I think they are great as tools to generate fiction ideas. I’ll keep playing.

      Thanks, N.

      Liked by 1 person

  1. i am not sure about ChatGPT. Yes it reproduced a story, but I think it is more like a newspaper report rather than creative with emotional content. I wonder if GPT will develop to replace life as we know it?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Strange part is, I have a few stories on this blog written exactly like this. 100-word limit means a summary at times. I had ChatGPT formulate several 100-word stories, and a 500-word one, none have dialogue and all are written in this style. I can see how with an edit they could be emotional and engaging. A great story generator, maybe.

      Thanks, J.

      Like

  2. I’m wary of AI-based art. What’s the point? If we give it our creativity, what do we have left? What input did you give it? If we can give it problems to solve problems or have it cure diseases, great, but why do we want it to do our creating for us?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Totally agree. I was pretty stunned. No art what’s the point? Now that the dust has settled, I have noted that AI only seems to write story summaries. Passive writing. Useful to generate ideas.

      Thanks, N.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Unable to dislike – AI is fine to recreate business text or information booklets, even news summaries, but for anything creative – writing, painting, music – if there isn’t a person, or a soul, behind it, I’m just not interested. For what it’s worth, while what it has produced here is readable, and is a story, it’s also not that good – and not as good as your own stories.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. To be honest, I think AI for blog posts is the same. I wondered why so many information type blogs sound the same. The tone is flawless and generic. Writing may turn onto the same path mainstream music and Hollywood industry. I have played around more with AI since I posted. The machine can write a passable 100 word stories, but a 500 word story reads like a treatment/summary. No characterisation or dialogue.

      Thanks, I.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I think AI might beat writer’s block and become a wonderful tool for generating ideas, but after playing around the technology can only write passable micro fiction. No dialogue… yet…

      Thanks, R

      Like

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