https://vibewriter.nearfuturelaboratory.com
AIAI+DF RESEARCH STUDIOARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEDESIGN FICTIONPROTOTYPEPROTOTYPINGRESEARCHSOFTWAREWRITING TOOLS
The Outcomes
I made a thing. This was a successful exploration of human-AI collaboration in creative writing, demonstrating the potential for AI to act as a muse and creative partner.
Vibewriter: A Speculative Design Fiction and Collaborative Writing Interface
Abstract
Vibewriter is a speculative functional design fiction artifact developed within the AI and Designed Fictions Research Studio. It explores new paradigms of human-AI collaboration in creative writing by foregrounding interaction as a dynamic, improvisational dialogue rather than AI-driven content automation. Drawing inspiration from jazz improvisation’s “trading fours” tradition, Vibewriter fosters an interactive call-and-response writing practice that positions AI as a muse and creative partner, supporting writers in developing voice, flow, and creative presence through playful, timed writing exercises. This project rethinks AI writing tools as instruments of creative practice, rather than mere generators of finished prose, offering an alternative interface paradigm that balances generative potential with human agency.
Motivation
The rise of large language models (LLMs) has transformed the landscape of creative writing tools. However, most AI-assisted writing platforms focus on generating complete texts autonomously or through chat-based interactions that often supplant rather than augment the writer’s agency. This shift can paradoxically deprive writers of the joy and challenge inherent in the craft of writing.
Vibewriter emerged from a design fiction exercise involving AI-assisted writing, initially as an experimental mode within a more complex AI writing system (Ghostwriter). User testing revealed that a simpler, game-like writing exercise mode was not only compelling but deeply resonant with writers’ creative workflows. This insight inspired a dedicated project that reframes the human-AI relationship from a command-and-control interaction to a fluid, improvisational dialogue.
Thinking of AI as Collaborative Muse
The core conceptual innovation of Vibewriter is its interface metaphor, inspired by the jazz tradition of “trading fours,” where musicians engage in a short call-and-response improvisational exchange. In Vibewriter, AI and human writers take turns “riffing” on a shared creative theme, typically framed by genre-based prompts. The AI provides partial, suggestive prose completions—akin to the first bars of a melodic phrase—that serve as invitations for human continuation rather than finished products.
This interaction model transforms the AI from a solo author into a creative partner or muse. It honors the writer’s voice, effort, and intention, fostering an environment where the unexpected and exploratory emerge naturally. By privileging short, timed bursts of writing, Vibewriter encourages a “writer’s gym” approach—a disciplined yet playful exercise to build creative muscle and cultivate flow states.
A Curious Interface Design and Interaction Paradigm
Vibewriter’s interface is deliberately minimalistic and evocative. Eschewing complex toolbars and commands, it functions as a responsive blank page that “listens” and “nudges” through subtle, context-aware emanations. Visual and haptic cues support an ambient atmosphere that rewards curiosity and intuitive mastery.
Key design principles include:
- Dialogic Interaction: The interface acts as a locus of creative conversation, not command. Users and AI engage in rhythmic, iterative exchanges.
- Ludic Engagement: Timed writing sessions create a game-like environment that lowers the barrier to creative risk-taking and discovery.
- Genre-Contextualized Prompts: Exercises begin with stylistic or thematic frames (e.g., hardboiled detective, solarpunk) that stimulate imagination and variation.
- Flow and Momentum: Near-zero latency and smooth interaction loops preserve creative momentum and encourage immersive writing states.
This design contrasts with dominant AI writing tools that emphasize output generation, positioning Vibewriter instead as a platform for embodied creative practice.
Tech Stack
Originally developed as a macOS application using the Tauri framework with a Rust backend and Vanilla JavaScript + Tailwind CSS frontend, Vibewriter integrated with multiple AI endpoints, including local models (LM Studio) and OpenAI’s GPT API. The system has since migrated to a web platform architecture leveraging Node.js and Express on an Ubuntu server, interfacing with OpenAI’s GPT-4.1-nano model for efficient, context-aware completions.
Key components include:
- Frontend: Modern Vanilla JavaScript with TipTap editor and Tailwind CSS for a lightweight, customizable interface.
- Backend: Node.js server mediating AI API calls, managing user sessions (Firebase Authentication), and orchestrating timed interaction logic.
- AI Integration: GPT-based models provide partial text suggestions tuned to prompt and user input context, supporting the call-and-response dynamic.
The backend also logs interactions for iterative refinement and research analysis.
Positioning Within the AI Writing Ecosystem
Vibewriter occupies a unique niche distinct from existing AI writing assistants like Grammarly, Sudowrite, or Lex.page. Rather than automating the writing process or focusing on text correction, Vibewriter explicitly frames writing as a craft and creative exercise—a “gym” for building writerly habits and voice.
This project challenges the conventional framing of AI writing as either an aid to “get the work done” or as a threat to authorship. Instead, it models an AI-human creative partnership emphasizing presence, play, and discovery.
Theoretical and Cultural Foundations
Vibewriter is informed by interdisciplinary perspectives on creativity, technology, and culture:
Rick Rubin’s creative philosophy: Creativity as “listening” and “tuning in” to a shared external source, embracing imperfection and openness (Rubin, The Creative Act, 2023).
Jazz improvisation: The dialogic, rhythmic, and playful “trading fours” as a metaphor for human-AI interaction.
Contemporary literary discourse: Responding to concerns raised by Hua Hsu and Anna Wiener (The New Yorker, 2025) about AI’s disruptive effects on writing, Vibewriter offers an interface that situates AI as muse rather than author. The End of the English Paper
Can AI Writing Be More Than a Gimmick?Design fiction: Vibewriter functions as a speculative artifact that operationalizes alternative futures for AI creativity, inviting reflection and critique of emerging norms.
Research Questions and Contributions
- How can AI interfaces be designed to preserve and augment human creative agency rather than replace it?
- What role can playful, ritualized writing exercises play in building creative flow states with AI?
- How can musical improvisation metaphors inform the design of human-AI conversational interactions in creative contexts?
- What are the implications of treating AI as muse for authorship, collaboration, and the evolving craft of writing?
Vibewriter contributes a novel interface paradigm and a working prototype that embodies these research questions, serving as both a practical tool and a design fiction for ongoing exploration.
Future Directions
Planned expansions include:
- Genre packs: Curated writing exercises tailored to diverse writing styles and professional domains (e.g., academic, marketing).
- Integration with Ghostwriter: Serving as an accessible entry point to a more comprehensive AI-assisted writing environment.
- Community and distribution: Positioning Vibewriter within cultural discourse about AI and creativity, including partnerships with creative leaders and institutions.
- Interface refinement: Exploring multimodal cues and adaptive AI prompting to deepen the sense of dialogic engagement.
- Prompt Editor Suppose you could share a paper you’re working on and it could help you develop it further? This might be more of a Ghostweriter feature, though.
Conclusion
Vibewriter exemplifies an emergent class of AI-augmented creative tools that prioritize human agency, play, and co-creation. As a speculative design fiction artifact and functional prototype, it invites writers and researchers alike to imagine and enact alternative futures for writing—where AI is a muse, a collaborator, and a source of creative inspiration rather than a tool of completion or replacement.
References and Further Reading
-
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act (2023): Rubin’s exploration of creativity as “listening,” tuning in to a shared source beyond the self, and embracing imperfection deeply informs our design philosophy. Ghostwriter embodies his call for collaboration and openness, offering AI as a muse that “nudges” rather than “takes over.”
-
Hua Hsu, What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing? (New Yorker, 2025): The cultural disruption of AI writing challenges notions of authorship and pedagogy. Our approach embraces these changes by supporting creative process and reflection through interface design, helping writers reclaim agency amidst AI’s rise. www.newyorker.com /magazine/2025/07/07/the-end-of-the-english-paper
-
Anna Wiener, Can A.I. Writing Be More Than a Gimmick? (New Yorker, 2025): Wiener’s critique of AI writing as a generative but imperfect partner guides our emphasis on co-creation over automation, highlighting the value of AI as a prompt generator and collaborator in the creative act. www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/can-ai-writing-be-more-than-a-gimmick
Sketchnoting revolutionizes note-taking by transforming complex...
A...
See Also
Use the Contact Form below to discuss how you can engage Near Future Laboratory to help you make sense of your organization's possible futures.