Opinions on AI…
…are like assholes. Everybody has one, and this is mine.
I was born in 1978. Yes, the late 1900s for all you young whippersnappers out there. I was on my way to six years old when Sarah Connor first ran and we learned the horrors of Skynet. The year I turned 13, Miles Bennett Dyson sacrificed himself to save us all from Skynet. On any given day, you can define me by the meme of John Connor watching you all make friends with AI.
And in shame, I admit I did for a little bit. I asked Skynet to make me a few designs for keychains, magnets, and bookmarks to hand out for free during our Pride parade last year, and honestly, I still have the symbols and I’ll use them again this year. I used it to make some other things. I even used it to help me put things together for Christmas gifts I homemade. I could have used it to make a book cover or other graphics. But by that time, I felt bad about it. It really dawned on me that there really are times it’s taking money from someone else. Would I have paid someone to make a giveaway keychain? Probably not. I just wouldn’t have had them. But I would definitely pay someone for artwork for my writing - and in the end, I did.
I think that’s how most of us were using AI. What we thought was an innocent image creator for those of us suck at real drawing but still like to have fun things. And they’re still using it like that - we see the ChatGPT pictures of our friends all over FB. But now, we know it’s more harmful. We know the harm to the environment. We know the harm to creators.
Now let me say - I know that most of these little ChatGPT pictures aren’t something someone would actually pay for. They’re like my parade keychains. They just wouldn’t have them. So don’t come at me for those. Those are included because the environment.
As creators, we all have to consider what our decisions do for our industry. In visual art, we have seen AI basically stealing people’s artwork and handing them out like Oprah - YOU GET A PIC, YOU GET A PIC, YOU GET A PIC!
Writers can’t really be that different, can they?
Think about what AI is and how AI learns. We teach it. It takes what we put into it and spits out what we want. When you upload your document to for editing, you’ve now put it in the AI’s cache. It will now take that as part of its knowledge-base and use it when someone else wants help. How long before your work ends up part of someone else’s because of an AI prompt? How long before large parts of the work you have spent weeks, months, or years sweating and crying over is published by someone in their AI-created book that they self-published and put up on Amazon? How do you claim intellectual property when no one really knows who created it?
Yeah, I know, it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it’s not when that’s what’s happening. You can literally go on Amazon and find books completely written by AI. This has the potential to diminish so much in the writing world. If you’re a self-published author, your books are getting more scrutiny and people are going to be less likely to try because “it was probably just written by a bot, anyway.” It can also make the traditional book industry even more selective than it already is. Come on, y’all. It’s hard enough getting an agent without this additional pressure.
Does AI have its place? Absolutely. Let it do some good stuff with marketing. That’s data that is out there and we’re not gatekeeping marketing ideas. If I had good ideas on how to get your name out there, I’d gladly tell you directly. No problem with AI gathering that data and helping.
But the creative process… How can you ever experience the frustration of your secondary character hijacking your story and deciding to do whatever they want? How can you know what it feels like to consider literally bashing your head against the wall if it’ll make 100 more words come out. And how do you give yourself that feeling of satisfaction when you cross the 20K word line and make it to smooth sailing?
But who am I, huh? Just a chick who has been going insane over characters, plots, and worlds, for most of her life. Just a chick trying to make it because I finally got the confidence to think that I CAN make it. Just a chick who doesn’t want her chances blown because AI has taken over.
I’m just a chick with an opinion. And like assholes, everybody has one. This is mine.
