Intro
A bit of a controversial topic for today, but I decided to do this anyway. AI is starting to be everywhere, and as a writer, I absolutely don't like it. Some of these might upset some people, but these are my opinions, just as you are allowed to have your opinion about it. I am not going to hate on anyone and I hope everyone can be civil about this.
So. before continuing, I will list my reasons for why I don't like them. It is of course up to you to continue reading, or click away if you don't agree. Below this list I will explain in more detail.
Reasons I Personally Dislike AI
- It's often not writing
- AI is stolen content
- It's actually not really that good
- It drains creativity
- The 'Disabled Author' excuse
- It shrinks the writing community
Now we all know what we are getting into now, let me get into more detail about what I actually mean.
1. It's Often Not Writing
These are a bit specific, but I often come across videos on Youtube titled 'I wrote a book with AI in 24 hours' or 'I can write X amount of books in a year, and so can you'. Without even looking at the video, I feel already triggered and annoyed by it (very lightly put honestly). Twenty-four hours? These people always say they read it and edit it, but unless they have some supernatural reading and editing speed, I doubt that they actually do that.
Imagine the following scenario for a moment:
You are someone who loves to write and puts their whole heart into the characters, worldbuilding and stories. One day, a friend or acquaintance comes up to you.
Them: "Hey, I have this idea about this story, do you want to try and write it?" (Gives a very general but maybe interesting story idea).
You: "That does sound interesting, but why do you want me to write it? Don't you want to write it yourself?"
Them: "Nah, I'm not that great at it and I need help. But I can give you information about what I want in it and give you feedback on what you've created."
You think about it, and decide to take them up on their offer. You spend a long time working on the story, sharing it with the other person. The other person gives a bit of input here and there, but mostly just says the story is good and has no edits or changes. Then, finally it's done, and you give it to them.
Them: "Oh this is perfect! I can publish this and probably earn a lot of money with it."
You: "Wait... What do you mean you can publish this? I wrote this story."
Them: "I gave you the initial idea and gave you more ideas to put into the story, so I have the rights to the book!"
---
Sounds strange doesn't it? How would you feel if someone pulled something like that? Honestly, that is basically the equivilant of writing with AI. You give it a prompt (or some even ask AI for that), then tell it to write a scene. Then tell it to write the next scene, and the next, and the next, and so on. And then you take that and publish it. The only difference with the scenario, is that AI is not original and takes from other works.
2. AI is stolen content
They say AI is open for everyone and is fair use for everyone. But guess how AI models are trained? By using other people's work, most of the time without permission.
This was the case with AO3 one time, a very popular fanfiction website. Someone screened everything and put it in AI for training. Stories that people have worked VERY hard on are stolen and used for people who don't want to do the work. This is not the only thing of course, but also actual novel, art to copy someone's art style etc. AI takes these stolen things and mashes it all together like a Frankenstein monster. These stories are not original at all, and just combined from content that people stole from others.
3. It's actually not really that good
As said above, AI takes stuff from other people and throws it into a huge Frankenstein story. It really is not that good at all. AI is inconsistent, cliché and makes up things that are not supposed to be there or changes something mid-story.
It could honestly literally say at the beginning that the main character's parents are dead, and then a few chapters later, they are having a conversation with their parents. And this would not be in ghost form. You would have to remind the bot that their parents are dead, so they can't talk to them.
Even changing names, or 100% forgetting about the actual plot. If you publish these, I would be surprise if there is a good review on it.
4. It drains creativity
I admit, I have fallen into the trap of AI once and I hate that I did. I was lucky I caught myself and got myself out of it. What I can tell from experience, is that it drains your creativity. You cannot come up with plots anymore or a reason for a character to do something without asking Chatgpt to give you suggestions. Please, I am begging you not to fall into that rabbit hole. It might sound easy and productive, but it actually is not. Your own ideas are often a lot better than a computer's ideas because it only knows what it has been trained on.
Some of your ideas might sound stupid, but write them anyway. Get each idea out there and pick the version you like best. Your creativity is important for writing a book. This does not only count for writing, but any other art thing. Yes, you could ask a prompt for a drawing, but don't ask for a fully detailed description of what you should draw. Yes, you could ask for a prompt, but keep it at that and develop and write the rest yourself. With your creativity, your story or art piece will be unique and personal. AI can't do that for you.
5. The 'Disabled Author' excuse
One thing that really frustrated me when people defend AI writing is the excuse of: 'we want to make writing accessible to everyone and disabled writers need AI!'
My first question is: what makes a writer 'disabled'? Surely most people can come up with a story and write it. And if you can't do it without AI... I'm sorry for being blunt, but maybe writing just isn't for you in that case. If you are missing two legs, you will not be running a marathon either. Some disabilities mean you can't do certain things but you are very good at other things.
NaNoWriMo is gone because they decided to support AI writing. I guess not everyone can write 50k in a month, but does that really matter? The idea is to write, and with NaNoWriMo you don't 'win' anything anyway. I can't even get the 50k in a month anymore, because there is a life outside writing. If you can't write 50k without AI, then celebrate that you've written 1k for the month. Writing is not a competition, you have to write what you want and take as long as you want. The police won't be standing at your door if you haven't written a book this year.
6. It shrinks the writing community
You can ask ChatGPT for advice on your book, or give you inspiration. You can even ask it to read your story and give you feedback (I would not recommend this cause it saves and uses your story for others). But what happened to writing buddies? What happened to actually having a group of writers who can give you feedback and advice on how to continue? Yes, ChatGPT is quicker and you don't have to wait a few hours or days for someone to finish reading. But the feedback and tips you get are not personal.
I still meet up with a friend of mine to go writing together. We go to a writing event together or go to each other's homes to chat and laugh about our novels. Can AI do that? Can you connect with AI like that? I honestly don't think you can.
Conclusion
So these are my reasons why I don't like using AI for writing and think you should stir clear of it as much as possible. Like I said, this is my opinion, and you don't have to agree with me.
I hope you at least found this post useful and will learn something from it. Until next time!
--- Get Scrivener — my affiliate link (I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you).
No comments:
Post a Comment