IWSG: What role does AI play in my writing?
It's the first Wednesday of the month, and time for another IWSG post, delving further into a touchy topic: AI.
Purpose: To
share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without
fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire
can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure
writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!
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Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
The awesome co-hosts for the August 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie, and Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen!
The optional August 7 question is: Do you use AI in your writing and if so how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?
Last month we all discussed writing tools and software, which is a natural lead-in to this discussion of AI in writing, since most of those use some for or another of AI. That led me to check out ProWritingAid, and my initial take on that is here.
Grammar checkers, even something like PWA that claims to help with style, are a lot longer on the "artificial" part of AI than on the "intelligence" part, but they have a place among the tools we use to produce clean, tight prose. Ditto letting the machine read your work aloud, if you find that a better way of editing than reading it aloud yourself.
When we talk about AI in writing, however, I think we are talking about something a little different--tools that can produce a summary or a blurb (which the author had better edit!). Those same tools can write "stories," though what I've seen so far lacks imagination and empathy, as you might expect from a machine. For me, either of those acts is outside the range of acceptable, for several reasons.
First, having AI "write" a story for you, even if you then edit it, is just wrong. I hope no one among us will go that far. I'd say that's also true about letting AI produce a blog post. (We'll leave aside the problems that the huge power demands of things like ChatGPT and all those image creators are causing, and thus the contribution to global warming caused by people just wanting to have fun seeing the machine make a person with six fingers.)
I also won't feed the AI my work. Maybe it'll get pirated anyway--and yes, the use of copyrighted material, without permission or payment, to "train" the AI is piracy--but I don't have to hand it to them on a silver platter.
Finally, since I find writing a lot easier than editing, not to mention a lot more fun (yes, even blurbs), I don't see any point in having some machine do the fun part and leaving me with the heavy lifting of editing it into something usable.
As for another tempting use of AI, to create cover art, that's another and perhaps even more disturbing issue, with all the problems mentioned above, with a more direct impact on artists trying to make a livelihood.
A final note on using AI for research: it's far too often wrong. Skip the AI-generated results at the top of the Google search and check for good answers from vetted sources.
I guess I have some kind of strong feelings on this :) Thanks for sticking with me this far!
Writer's report:
The MS of Washed Up With the Tide is now complete, and getting a final look for errors. I currently have one story out on submissions, and a partial draft of a story that had me very excited but is struggling to go anywhere. I'll keep playing with that while I'm out hiking for the next month or so.
©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.
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Congrats on finishing your manuscript. That's awesome. I think Al has a place as a tool for non-creative writing tasks. I'd use it for those things to save time.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm excited to finally see this story move forward, and go get on with the next :)
DeleteI'm like the AI assisted stuff--reading the story aloud, finding all my misplaced commas, etc.
ReplyDeleteI just wish the AI were a little better about those commas--I have to seriously think about many of its recommendations. I read the story aloud myself.
DeleteWhat you said about AI lacking in imagination and empathy is so right on. It's very analytical--I call it Spock writing. However, for marketing it does kick out some good material.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tested that, since as noted it seems like I'd have to feed my own work to the Machine to get a blurb or marketing piece. Of course, to make that even sort of worthwhile I'd need to have some idea what to do with the marketing text anyway!
DeleteAI as a tool - yes, that works.
ReplyDeleteKeep the stuff in its place.
DeleteStrongly agree that writing is the fun part, editing not so much so why turn over the fun part to a machine. My mind generates story ideas and resolves plot issues while I sleep, again no need for AI. But when it comes to spelling, word usage, and punctuation, I welcome the use of whatever AI has to offer.
ReplyDeleteI need all the help I can get when it comes to the use of the pesky comma.
DeleteAI is like inspiration - the writer still needs to put it into something tangible. (An actual story.)
ReplyDeleteA story, and a heart and soul.
DeleteThanks for stopping by my blog. Congratulations on your progress with Washed Up With the Tide. I too have strong opinions about AI. I see it's benefits in technical industries but for creativity, it seems to raise too many concerns.
ReplyDelete