Listening to the radio while getting ready for the day, I heard a man asking a radio talk show host if using A I (artificial intelligence) was a form of plagiarism. This piqued my interest. As a writer, I don’t want anyone to attempt to pass off my writing as their own or have anyone to think my work is generated by AI.

I could understand why the caller asked this question since I know that AI content is generated by patterns in existing data and established thoughts by original authors. AI’s electronic brain can quickly and easily imitate any writing, artwork or video faster than any human.

Is using AI a form of plagiarism? AI in my computer said that if A I content is used in anything, to avoid any suspicion of plagiarism it needs to be edited, cited, or clearly labeled as a standing book point for original work.

Can AI be as clever and inventive as people? For some souls, it might be a neck-to-neck race. But if we put AI up against a writer like William Shakespeare, there is no doubt that AI electronic synapsis will come up with work that sounds like Shakespeare, but without Shakespeare’s skill at feeding the English language new words.

Many articles that I’ve read about William Shakespeare point out that he used more than 20,000 words in his plays and poems. As many as 1,700 of those words were never used in the English language up to that time. The English people in the 1600’s mentally chewed on the new words Shakespeare used in his plays and poems, working out whether to continue using them…or not.

Like a mad scientist, Shakespeare threw together words, many already existing but never before paired up, like bed and room, or eye and ball. The word pictures he produced with the combinations increased audience enjoyment.

To some words, Shakespeare attached prefixes or suffixes. Fashion became fashionable, changing a generalized description of apparel to describe clothing that is attractive and popular. He added the word ‘in’ to ‘audible’ and the world learned what to call voices we hear but can’t make out.