Ink Over Algorithms is a nuanced and incisive book on artificial intelligence exploring the intersection of AI with narratology and creative writing, journalism, feminism and law - keeping the significance of storytelling at its centre. The book offers a balanced lens on the capacities and limitations of AI emphasizing its potential both as an assistive tool as well as the need for human oversight as we navigate the modalities of ethical collaboration with AI. The probing analysis is accompanied with various experiments using AI tools wherein Manjima Misra shows how such tools can be used to generate character names in stories based on prompts of genre and personality types, as well as re-writings of conventional tropes in fairy tales to articulate stories for children which are more representative of socio-cultural diversities. In sections on journalism, law and feminism, the book argues the need for human intervention with urgency : In the world of AI, fact-checking inaccuracies, misinformation and algorithmic bias are best tackled by the human storyteller.
While urging readers to approach AI with both ‘curiosity and caution’, the central thesis of the book encapsulates the irreplaceability of the human writer with precision and rigour.