Artificial Intelligence vs. characters coming to life

As most experienced authors will tell you, their characters become old friends and much of the book is nothing more than recording their conversations. Yes, this sounds a little like I should be put on a 72-hour psych hold, but it's true. I have a vision for the book, often in outline form, which provides a sequence of events in the plot. Sometimes that's formal, like a door covered with Post-it notes. making me a "plotter". Other times it's more informal and little more than ideas bouncing around inside my head, making me a "pantser". Whether plotting or flying by the seat of my pants, the character's conversations lead me in unexpected directions. When my son-in-law asked why I didn't use an artifical intelligence program to write my books, the answer was simple: artificial intelligence doesn't know how to bring the characters to life, nor does it know a plot twist to be revealed by a conversation. Nope. AI uses what it's seen. My son-in-law said it can mimic my style, if it scans a few of my books. However, AI doesn't know what it hasn't seen. For instance, in "A Bourbon To Die For" my lead character perceives that a lot of the towns secrets are revealed to a lowly cemetery caretaker who everyone ignores because they think he's a stupid drunk. By treating the caretaker like an accepted member of the community, my protagonist is invited to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He meets a few of the other colorful town characters, but learns little from their meeting chatter. HOWEVER, they go out for coffee and within the kidding and laughter, they key to solving the murder of a local businessman is revealed. It's not an "AHA!" moment. There's a passing comment from a bus driver about seeing the victim's car turning into the site of the murder, as it does most afternoons when the schoolbus driver is passing that location. To be honest, the bus driver doesn't realize he's just revealed a key bit of information. Nor did I understand the value of that tidbit until later in the book. I sincerely doubt the Aritifical Intelligence program would walk through the series of events, and create the group interaction among the AA members which led to that one nugget. I told my son-in-law that story and he mulled it, then explained how I would have to teach the AI program that series of events, provide the backstories of the AA members, and the outcome of their discussion. He nodded emphatically. I said, "If I'm going to do that, why don't I just write the book?" I have a weekly lunch date with a group of friends who became the AA group. I can't imagine how ChatGPT could accumulate the background I've experienced over five or six years of lunch banter, then distill it down into a few pages buried among 320 other pages. Maybe their people can put a microphone in every corner of every North American cafe, then build a hundred data centers to filter, sort, and arrange the conversations to fit a plot. Or, maybe I'll just tap into my experience and use modified versions of what I've heard and learned over several decades. My buddy Gene (a retired bus driver) thought the AA scenes were darned good. He told me he's interviewing people to play him when the book is made into a movie. Check out "A Bourbon to Die For" on the BWL website, or at your local bookstore or on Amazon.Trust me, there's no AI involved, it's all original. https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/p/a-bourbon-to-die-for?rq=dean%20hovey https://www.amazon.com/Bourbon-Die-Doug-Fletcher/dp/0228635764