AI’d
There’s been a lot in the news lately about Artificial Intelligence and how AI is disrupting the writing and publishing industry.
When AI-written “stories” first appeared a couple of years ago, authors scoffed. AI-generated stories were bad. Really bad. Whew, nothing to worry about.
But…
We didn’t know that the creators of AI had scraped up a giant library of books (without paying for them) and fed them to the hungry AI machine. And recently, I’ve seen excerpts from AI-written books that were… not awful. Or at least, not substantially more awful than a lot of human-written books. For one thing, AI usually uses correctly-spelled words in appropriate context, which is refreshing for a word-nerd like me.
What’s not-so-refreshing is the knowledge that AI is gunning for our jobs. Maybe not so much for fiction writers (yet), but I’d be nervous if I was a non-fiction writer.
Hell, I’m nervous anyway. Even if AI-written fiction never quite matches the quality of human-created fiction (and I don’t see any reason why it won’t eventually… or next year), Amazon is already being flooded with millions of AI-generated books. Some of them even steal an established author’s name and put it on the cover; so be wary if you discover that your favourite author has unexpectedly released a new book or ten.
From a reader’s standpoint, AI-generated books would be a boon. AIs never have to take time off from writing for injuries or illness or family crises. And why wait a year or more for a human author to release their next book, when AI can pump them out faster than any human can read? Maybe the books aren’t as “good”, but “good” is so subjective that it’s nearly irrelevant. I’ve struggled through some human-produced fiction that’s so bland it might as well have been computer-generated.
When I was a kid, nobody had heard of AI except farmers… and they knew AI meant Artificial Insemination. Today’s AI has a lot in common with the original meaning: We’re all gonna get thoroughly screwed; it won’t be any fun; and we won’t even get a kiss first.
But being human means I’m capable of stubbornly ignoring unpleasant facts. Since it’s far too late to slap the lid back on this particular Pandora’s Box, I’m going to just keep writing and hoping for the best. In fact, I’m going to get really subversive here and imagine a happy outcome!
Courts have already ruled that AI-generated works can’t be copyrighted (at least so far — this is a very new area of copyright law). So maybe in some rose-tinted fictional future, the proceeds from sales of AI-generated works will be divvied up and distributed to human authors. Seems only fair, since the AIs learned to write by reading our books in the first place.
Hey, I can dream, right?
P.S. I hear you asking, “How can I support a human author when I’ve already bought all their books?” Answer: Thank you for supporting human authors! If you want to help, introduce your favourite books to your friends, and post about your faves on social media. Every mention helps! (Some authors have donation buttons on their websites, too. I haven’t felt comfortable doing that yet, so I welcome your thoughts about it.)
Book 18 update: I’m on Chapter 20, sneaking up on the halfway point! Aydan is struggling to put out metaphorical fires that seem to pop up every time she turns around. But then, what else is new?
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Brent wrote: "I will stick to the real authors, a machine can't feel, all it can do is try it's best to fake it, and that doesn't make a good story.And what name will these books be published under, "The Machi..."
Yeah, I agree with you (and Pogo): "We have met the enemy, and he is us." (I tried to put in a link to the Pogo Wikipedia article here, but Goodreads wouldn't let me.) If AI applies any logic at all, it won't be long before it figures that out.
I guess the good news is that no matter what happens, AI will still need power, and there are a whole lot of humans out here with wire-cutters. ;-)
You have a good day, too!
That's true, at least until some Scientist creates one with an atomic power source. A.I. is up there with cloning people for parts, can we do it? Yes, but should we? No. We've managed just fine without a system that can think 1,000,000 times faster than us for thousands of years. If it was programed to create worldwide piece it would be the end of us, fore there can be no peace as long as man walks the earth. None of the worlds leaders can be trusted with this technology. Enough of that for now, I hope to be dead and gone by the time any of this is feasible. (BTW, you can quote me on the peace thing, that is if I haven't stolen it without realizing it.)
Brent wrote: "That's true, at least until some Scientist creates one with an atomic power source. A.I. is up there with cloning people for parts, can we do it? Yes, but should we? No. We've managed just fine wit..."LOL! I often wonder the same thing: "Did I make that up, or did I read it somewhere and accidentally steal it without realizing it?"
I guess all we can do is keep our fingers crossed about AI. Maybe our world leaders will agree to treat AI the same as they treated nuclear weapons. It didn't go smoothly in the beginning, and it's still not great; but at least we haven't annihilated ourselves (yet).
And what name will these books be published under, "The Machine"? A.I. eventually will be able to out think it's programmers and will realize, much like many of us real people, that the main threat to the world is...US. So I not only think A.I. will eventually leave everyone unemployed, but it may decide it no longer needs us. Scary isn't it! BTW, patiently waiting for #18. Have a good day. (BTW, I'm not one of those conspiracy theorists, but I do have an extensive background in computers. This is one of those things that keeps me up in the night.)