A machine in the loop: the peculiar intervention of artificial intelligence in writer’s block

Generative artificial intelligence is changing how we can choose to resolve writing challenges. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are readily accessible to generate text effortlessly. This paper explores the human-AI relationship when generative AI is used to assist a writer suffering from writer’s block. Research shows that talking to others is an effective strategy for blocked writers. This other no longer needs to be a human. I examine what happens when generative AI is brought into the writing loop: the nonlinear process of writing and rewriting a creative piece. The film Adaptation (2002. Directed by Spike Jonze, Performance by Nicolas Cage. Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper. Columbia), written by Charlie Kaufman, is used as a case study of writer’s block to illustrate several complexities of the disorder and to theorise potential openings and limitations for the use of AI. Through the film, writer’s block is also explored as having a twin pathology of hypergraphia. Writing with AI is seen to mimic peculiarities of creative writing that include projecting one’s inner voice and seeking a false self. In the example of Adaptation, one ultimately comes to appreciate too that suffering through a block unaided can propel a writer to make bold decisions and test the limits of human creativity.