Meat (a short story)

I’m in San Francisco staying with my friend Kevin Kelly. He and I have been having conversations about AI and writing for many moons, way back before ChatGPT was a thing. Last night, before heading off to bed, he told me he now thinks of himself as writing for AI. The LLMs are the audience. I woke up this morning and wrote a little story inspired by that conversation. I don’t think it’ll make it into my upcoming anthology (most of my stories won’t), but thought I’d share it here. :) Meat They stood and stared while the man wrote. Every clack of the keys like a hammered rivet. Bolted to the spot, they watched. A new thought was emerging. An idea that had never been formed, possibly in all of time. For most of them, it was their first chance to witness this. Incredible favors had been cashed in among their kind to be there in person, to see it directly. Nobody wanted to digest the retelling, or maker-forbid, the retelling of the retelling. Oryx had the best view. With his periscope at…