Two Different AI "Brains"
And Neither of Them Mine
AI: An Intro Class Exercise
I was playing around with a lesson in my intro AI class the other week. The name of the class is “A Journey into Creative Collaboration with AI,” and Lisa Norman teaches it. I’ve posted more information about the class below. But back to the lesson.
The suggested prompt was to ask the AI for three ideas to end a story in which the main character finds what he or she is looking for, and then engage with the AI to further develop the ideas. Since I don’t follow instructions very well, I twisted the assignment a bit. Curious how two different AIs would respond to the same prompt, I fed the instructions into both Grok and ChatGPT, sat back and waited to see what would happen.
The results I received were not what I expected. Here is an excerpt from each AI response. Perhaps you’ll notice the same thing I did:
MY PROMPT (human created):
Hi, Grok, (ChatGPT) I’m a writer and I want your help on a story. This will be a little vague but I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me punch up the concept. And how’s this for something different? I want to start the brainstorming process with the end. I want the story to end with the main character finding what they’ve been looking for. That’s all I have for you; nothing more. Help me think up three different story ideas that involve that ending. And thanks.
THE RESPONSES:
First, from Grok:
Story Idea 1: The Echo of Forgotten Stars (Sci-Fi Adventure)In a distant future where humanity has colonized the stars, the main character, a disillusioned astrophysicist named Elara, has spent years chasing elusive signals from an ancient alien civilization believed to hold the key to unlimited energy.
Story Idea 2: Whispers in the Willow (Historical Mystery with Supernatural Elements)Set in Victorian England, the protagonist, a young archivist named Theodore, inherits a crumbling estate haunted by the ghost of his great-aunt, who vanished under mysterious circumstances decades ago.
Story Idea 3: The Last Bloom (Contemporary Drama with Environmental Themes)In a world ravaged by climate change, the main character, a botanist named Maya, embarks on a cross-continental expedition to locate a legendary flower rumored to possess seeds capable of restoring barren ecosystems.
Now, from ChatGPT:
1. The Thing Was Never Missing (Internal / Quiet Ending)
What they think they’re looking for:
Closure about a past event—a vanished person, a childhood trauma, a mistake that ruined their life.
2. The Object Exists—and It Changes Everything (Plot-Driven / Revelatory)
What they’re looking for:
A literal object: a manuscript, an invention, a map, a missing artifact, a hidden archive.
3. They Find It—but It’s Too Late (Bittersweet / Inevitable)
What they’re looking for:
A person: a lost lover, a child, a sibling, a version of someone who used to exist.
CONCLUSION: GOBSMACKED
I don’t know about you guys but those two very distinct “thought” processes rattled my brain. Did they surprise you, too?
A note about the “brains”: each accepted and tackled the prompt with enthusiasm. Each delivered in mere seconds something I would scarcely be able to match unless I worked on it for a month; well, a week, maybe. Yeah, I’m slow. So, credit to its process.
Grok sent back title, genre, world, time period, setting, characters with names, as well as the stakes involved. Reading the responses felt like I’d stepped into a world of sensory overload. A roller coaster, a fun house, a hall of mirrors – me, bombarded with possibilities, as I careened, breathless, through the responses. When it stopped, completed story concepts were planted into my own brain, waiting to be written.
From ChatGPT, the story ideas were nuanced—theme-oriented, suggestive rather than prescriptive, seeming to guide the author to construct his or her narrative from a place of discovery. It felt like I was going for a walk on a forested path, stopping along the way to discover pebbles, twigs, bits of moss. I could put them in my pocket then scatter them across the table at home to consider at will; to be arranged and then assembled into a story. At the very least, it was a fill-in-the-blanks, create your own adventure type of exercise. Not as concrete as Grok, allowing the author a much more flexible approach to creating his or her stories.
From the above responses, a storyteller might select a slice or be sparked with a unique story tangent.
Are you a writer interested in finding out more about how ai works? Look no further. The answer is below.
CLASS WILL NOW BEGIN
Lisa Norman’s online class for writers is called “A Journey into Creative Collaboration with AI.” Lisa is one of the best computer tech instructors on the internet. She specializes in working with authors, although they are by no means her exclusive domain. In her own words, Lisa excels at helping folks and computers play nice together, proven by her lengthy and diverse client list. For instance, her first lesson is called “What is AI, Really: A Plain Speak Introduction to the Mirror.”
If you are a writer, or anyone at all, and want a self-guided approach to working with AI, Lisa’s class can be found here:
https://classes.nostresswriting.com/creative-collaboration-with-ai/
Look up Lisa and her classes at the No Stress Writing Academy.
Good luck and happy AI discovery!
I love the responses you got on these prompts. It can be fun to watch how the AI adapts to working with a specific author over time. Thanks for the shout out to the class. So much fun there!