My AI Post Got A Response…
From A Beginning Writer…
Oh, this person was angry. I did not equate AI with computers helping writers, or ignored how it could really help some writers.
And there was other stuff this person said that I tried to make sense of, but it was so poorly written, and had so many grammar and logic mistakes, I finally gave up, even though I was kind of curious what this angry person wanted me to learn. (It was a long letter.)
Seems my calling anyone who uses AI with their writing stupid really set him off. (grin)
So I tried to look this person up. No web site, nothing published, which surprised me if he was using AI he should at least have a bunch of stuff in the sewer called Amazon Select.
And then I realized an AI had written most of the letter and I just started laughing. He made my point for me. As Forest Gump’s mother once said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
This world is just crazy at times.
3 Comments
J.D. Coker
The main problem is people don’t understand what AI is. Its an LLM. It’s a good tool (when it’s not stealing other peoples work) and that is all. It will never ever, replace human creativity.
LLM’s study patterns. They can write beautiful sentences sometimes(only certain LLM’s, ChatGPT is apalling), but that isn’t what story telling is. It’s all polished writing, okay for emails but then again, for our business, people like emails that help them connect to the author so I’d be cautious even using them for that.
That’s all an LLM can do and also a great chance that its using sentences from someone else’s work!
There is no nuance in anything it produces, no gritty substance that only humans can bring.
Thats why I love Data in Star Trek. He is light years ahead in technology of our AI, and he is still trying to find his “soul” and meaning in life. That series does a great job explaining that AI will never truly be like us, and our species is based on story so best leave it out of your creative work! Story telling is in our DNA. It is the oldest profession outside of hunting and gathering and will be here until we fade from Earth.
Kristi N.
I use AI heavily in my day job–analyzing, summarizing, collaborating–and I am constantly amazed by people who are willing to cede their writing to it. Then I realized that the people who think AI writes pretty decent or “like me” are the people who have a tenuous grasp of craft. They don’t see the flaws, or the flatness, or the lack of humanity. To them, a story is a bunch of words, and that’s what AI is good at spitting out. Fast.
AI is a force multiplier with diminishing returns, and if a writer has little understanding of craft, then they are multiplying by 1. Or zero. If the writer has traveled far enough along the road to have some mastery of craft, AI can do nothing for them except fetch coffee and keep track of character names. It simply isn’t advanced enough–or human enough–to be able to do anything that requires the human frame of reference. It can only mimic mindlessly.
Wasting precious, finite time on getting AI to write just doesn’t make sense.
Suzan Harden
I wonder if the letter was from a bot. Hubby and I receive so many botcoms–phone calls, e-mails, and even snail mails that are not from real humans. Bots have been crawling and scraping my blogs. The last straw was when I was sitting in the living room reading and Alexa randoming started talking nonsense. The Dot immediately got unplugged.
I agree with Emilia. AI robs people of the joy of storytelling. And I love being in the “Zone” as my Hubby calls it–when you’re so deep in the story you’re living your main character’s experience and the words flow from your fingertips.