It’s first Wednesday, so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group post! Today, we’re looking at artificial intelligence.
October 4 question: The topic of AI writing has been heavily debated across the world. According to various sources, generative AI will assist writers, not replace them. What are your thoughts?
I’ve been watching from the sidelines as various authors discover that their work has been pirated in order to “teach” artificial intelligence programs how to write. Fortunately, my work has not been stolen, but I’m hoping they win the lawsuit because theft is theft, whether it’s digital or in real life. Generative AI is supposed to assist writers, true, but so far, all it’s doing it stealing their work and imitating their writing style, neither of which is helpful to anyone.
I think if we ever have a true artificial intelligence, it will be able to listen to logical arguments and decide for itself whether stealing from other authors is wrong. Until then, we must rely on the legal system to protect ourselves and our creative works. If we can get this ironed out, we’ll see how “helpful” an AI might be to a writer. I suspect what we’ll see is a tsunami of poor quality, AI-written “manuscripts” taking over the market, with the consumers unable to tell the difference and ultimately deciding it’s not worth the trouble to determine what’s real and what’s not.
