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When I began to think about this thing of writing, I saw several ways to break it up. That has expanded a bit as I came across a good article in a Missoula, Montana newspaper, about an author who thinks a lot like me in terms of the writing world from her perspective based on her experiences. I related to a lot of it, though there are also differences. Here's the link to the article.
Another article I had recently seen is something we all need to consider-- how much will we let AI, as in ChatGPT, influence our reading, world, and what we do.
It turns out that Amazon already has 200 books written by what is basically a bot-- and that's only the number where the author shared how they wrote the book. ChatGPT already has 100 million signed up-- or what it had when I read the article, with probably more by today.
This is a big deal for authors dependent on making an income from their creative work. But even for someone like the author in the first link or me, we want our books to be seen. Selling is how that happens, but the most important part is that others read our work-- and ideally like it. If the system is crowded with bot generated work, how will that influence what is out there.
Those who use something like ChatGPT, can turn out books like hotcakes. Are they as good as those by creative authors? Who knows. Not for my reading taste, but then I am not fond of reading formula writing either and it's been around a long time.
Stephen Hawkins wrote his concern that robots and AI would take over the world. I don't see how it could but maybe it could take over creative writing and what will it do to children as they find they don't have to write their essays-- something many of us learned much by doing whether successfully or otherwise.
More next blog about my own writing life as this time, I hope you will read those links.
We have been reading a new book by Rick Rubin-- "The Creative Act: A Way of Being." Here is one of the many worthy quotes from it.
"The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and the mundane and get to what might otherwise be invisible."
This is what those people lose out on when they allow a bot to write their books or essays. I wonder though what it does to those who read such works. It would be more fair to readers and writers if it was required that the book was written by a bot. As it stands, there is no such requirement. Unless a reader is familiar with the author, they might have no clue from the blurbs.
2 comments:
I definitely think bot-written books should be labeled as such for the readers so they know.
It is hard to imagine AI writing a book as well as someone who has lived and draws from their experiences, insights, and creativity. This is not a good thing.
Our reliance on technology has already caused a lot of harm, especially to our younger people that have not known a world without cell phones, computers, video games and such. The imagination and creativity of our young, in particular, is demonstrably suffering all ready. It makes me sad and a little afraid of what is to come.
I agree and what AI can do is truly scary. I saw a clip of a speech by Biden where what he said was changed by AI, but many would believe what they see. That old joke about who you going to believe-- me or your lying eyes -- is no longer a joke. We have to be very careful what we believe when it's online somewhere and it can be twisted.
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