Screwing with AI

There’s a lot of infighting going on in the Writing Community these days about AI generated … well … everything.

I have a video planned to cover a lot of this in more detail, but here’s where I tend to draw lines:

First, AI is fine if you’re looking for help programming, writing an email, or creating Shakespearean poetry about narwhals:

In realms beneath the briny deep they dwell, A creature rare, enchanting to behold. With tusk as ivory, gleaming like a spell, The narwhal graces tales that oft are told. A unicorn of sea, majestic, grand, Its spiraled horn, a crown of graceful might. Through azure waves, it glides with regal stand, A vision wondrous, bathed in pale moonlight. From Arctic realms, where ice and cold conspire, These gentle beings swim with tranquil grace. Their tusks, a symbol, stoke the poet’s fire, As stories weave around their mystic place. Oh, narwhals fair, with legends intertwined, Your beauty, like a sonnet, shall endure. In ocean’s realm, a jewel thou shalt find, A muse for poets’ words, forever pure.

Chat GPT with my dumbass prompt

Second, anything more than stupid shit like above, and I am not okay with AI as a writer. For numerous reasons. One of the problems is the fact that it’s biased. AI is programmed by humans with human biases and scrubs the internet for additional (seed) information. And we all know the internet is the bastion for sane, civil discourse. Writing a book with AI is patently ridiculous, and I hope those that do so suffer the scrotum-nibbles of a thousand rabid squirrels. The book will be awful, you’ll get no humanity out of it, and you are immediately censored. Plus it’s lazy.

In terms of AI art, I’m a bit more lenient, for a few reasons. First, every piece of art is derivative in some way. AI art is no different. Second, I would not normally DO art, if it were not for AI art. This website, for instance. I make no money, book sales don’t sustain a major website overhaul expense, so I have to use tools that are available. I have two choices – have a site with NO images, or have a site with generated images that I tinkered with. Because I am not popular enough and not selling enough to pay an artist to do up the site, or I would.

AI art book covers? They save a self-published person upwards of $500. That’s $500 they can use on marketing, or buying their own books at retail cost like you have to do with Amazon. AI is a tool in that way.

Now, submitting AI art in a competition or contest? No. That’s called cheating. But for “covers” for short stories, or some web images, I say go for it. It spruces up the place, makes everything a little more interesting, and upgrades the look for small-time folk.

All that being said, I asked it to create a swashbuckling space hero for Alex and Toshiro (this would be Alex) and I like what it came up with!