Isaac Asimov’s day has come. Sound the alarms. The robots are taking over.

If you’re unfamiliar with his name or work, he was one of the most prolific science fiction writers of the twentieth century. He’s got an entire series of short stories and novels known as “The Robots” and one of his most enduring claims to fame was coining the word, “robotics”.

In Asimov’s world, robots were programmed with three hard rules*

They could not harm humans or through inaction allow harm to come to humans, they must obey orders given by humans unless those orders violated the first law, they must protect their own lives unless that violated the first and second laws. Anyone who has seen the movie I, Robot (which is based on the same-titled novel by Asimov) knows how that goes. If you haven’t seen the movie… well you know how that goes.

I’m taking some artistic license here when I compare current AI technology with the walking, talking, physical task performing robots of Asimov’s world. It’s not a senseless comparison though. Today’s AI generators are performing human tasks at the behest of humans with the presumed purpose of making our lives safer, easier, and more efficient. In medicine, AI is being used to read MRIs and engage in predictive analytics. The American Department of Defense is studying its use in military campaign modeling. Companies, small and large, are utilizing AI capabilities in accounting. In other words, AI is potentially protecting human lives and making day to day tasking easier.

For every positive outcome though, there are risks and concerns. This isn’t one of those articles that talks about how AI is going to lead to the end of mankind. I’ll leave that to the Asimovs of the world. My little corner of the world is the corner populated by The Creatives. Artists, musicians, screenwriters, poets, novelists live in this little nicheland. Many of us are worried. We’re worried about becoming obsolete. We’re worried about keeping up with machine produced material that moves at lightspeed compared to our snail crawl. We’re worried about the quality of work we’re seeing being produced. We’re worried that our own labor is now being stolen as AI crawlers take and parse our words, our music, our art and spit them back out in still-recognizable form.

Those of us who are writers who publish on Amazon, are already seeing a glut of horrific AI material. The “writing” is bad. It’s really bad. And because of the way the Amazon analytics work, when one person uploads 100 AI written books in a week- they’re going to be bumped to the top of the sales charts and human written books get pushed down into obscurity. Amazon is, apparently, taking steps to remove material like this when it’s reported enough- but this takes time and in the meantime, consumers are grabbing horrible books and legitimate writers are losing out.

Author Timothy Wolff recently shared one such book and his review of it.

With the controversy around AI books invading the KU store, I decided to review one of them. pic.twitter.com/cNvoRrT8fx

— Timothy Wolff – SPFBO 9 Author (@TimWolffAuthor) June 27, 2023

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

I decided to give ChatGPT a test run to see just how good it could be. My results were two-fold, and I found it disturbing. I gave a simple task- write a one paragraph story about a woman with a broken heart who goes to Africa. In the first iteration, a literary version popped up in about 5 seconds. It wasn’t awful, it wasn’t great. A few lines were poetic, but there was a lot of “word souping” that detracted from a real story. I know in six months it’ll be better though- because that’s how the software works. It learns and improves (through the use of human produced art- which is the biggest issue here). Interestingly though, when I asked it to produce a story using the exact same prompt but this time asking for a really funny one paragraph story, it fell completely flat. AI, it appears, doesn’t know how to tell a joke. I’ll share both paragraphs at the bottom of this post.

Can the genie be put back in the bottle? No. Should it be? Arguably, from a publication point of view AI can help with tasks such as creating outlines, sifting through source content, editing services- tasks that take time away from the actual act of creating. I’m not going to opine here on that, because I’m not entirely sure yet where I stand on virtual assistant type tasking. If we can’t rebottle it though, then controls and guidelines (firm guidelines!) need to be put in place. Whether we’re talking about Google’s embrace of AI and the potential for Google doc content to be mined as mentioned in this article, or retailers choice to list AI written content at all, both creators and consumers deserve a clear indication about the origins of subject matter and ownership of intellectual property.

By the way, there’s a petition out there that needs signing. You don’t have to be a writer to sign it! The premise is simple- books written by chatbots/AI generators should be identified as such. You can view and sign it HERE.

Now for my “One Paragraph Story” outcome from a popular chatbot.

The literary version:

In the wake of a devastating heartbreak, Sarah found solace in the whispering winds of change. Determined to heal and rediscover her spirit, she embarked on a transformative journey to Africa. Amidst the vibrant landscapes and diverse cultures, Sarah's broken heart slowly mended. She immersed herself in the rhythmic beats of local music, savored the flavors of exotic cuisine, and embraced the warmth of newfound friendships. Africa's untamed beauty mirrored Sarah's resilience, and as she stood on the vast plains, her heart soared once again, filled with hope, and ready to embrace life's infinite possibilities.

The “really funny” version:

As Sarah ventured off to Africa with her broken heart, I couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of her desperate attempt to find solace in the wild unknown. It was like watching a sitcom in slow motion, witnessing her stumble through one comedic disaster after another. From her clueless encounters with wildlife, mistaking zebras for love interests, to her knack for attracting trouble like a magnet, it was clear that her journey was more about generating laughter than finding healing. Oh, the irony! But as much as I wanted to revel in her misfortune, a part of me couldn't help but hope that Africa's vibrant chaos would somehow help her find a way to move on. After all, laughter is the best medicine, and maybe, just maybe, the laughter she found in Africa would mend her heart in the most unexpected way.

Did you laugh? I didn’t.

All previous content is produced and owned by Kristy Mcginnis and may not be stolen, chopped up, and regurgitated by any robots.