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Are You Embracing AI?

collide-o-scopecollide-o-scope
in - Resources
I guess if you use Grammarly the answer is yes. While I would never use AI to write serious material - the joy is in the creating - I have used it by way of experiment. For example, recent articles I have published online include: Your Horoscope Written By ChatGPT (we're all in for much of a muchness), I Got ChatGPT to Finish Ten Limericks (lame, and not nearly as amusing/inventive as a similar challenge in a thread on here a while back), and Write a) a poem, b) blank verse, and c) a 300-word essay on alcoholism in the style of Charles Bukowski. a) was a birthday card rhyme, b) was better, but contrived, and c) was actually quite good, although it was more a biography of Bukowski than an essay on alcoholism.

Recently though, I've branched out and started converting some of my written stories into audio via AI text-to-voice apps, which I record on Audacity, the free audio editing app. It took a lot of editing to get the nuances right, and I had to insert pauses to make it sound more natural, but I'm pleased with the result, which is crystal clear and certainly passable.

I used AI to generate the images, which I now own, and I created a basic opening and closing title sequence. I have loads of snippets of my own music on my hard drive, so I used a couple of those to start and end the clip. I'm currently working on converting my third story this way to upload to my YouTube channel. Whether the material is considered good or not doesn't bother me - it's a demonstration of my skills at the time, and is there for posterity.

Are you using AI?

If you're interested, here is that effort, a freshly-edited version I put together today in ClipChamp.

https://clipchamp.com/watch/kmaN0cy08aM 

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Comments

  • LizLiz
    Absolutely not interested - once in, your words are its property and can be given to someone else. That's how it gets 'surprisingly good'. The SoA and various other writing establishments are saying do not put your material into any of the AI bots under any circumstances. 
  • NephNeph
    Avoiding it like the plague. Curious though which AI did you use for your images? There has been a lot of disgruntled artists who have found their work has been used to create AI generated covers and the suchlike.
  • collide-o-scopecollide-o-scope
    Liz said:
    Absolutely not interested - once in, your words are its property and can be given to someone else. That's how it gets 'surprisingly good'. The SoA and various other writing establishments are saying do not put your material into any of the AI bots under any circumstances. 

    An interesting reply Liz (thank you), but resistance is futile, I fear.


    AI doesn't only garner its information via AI bots it has access to the entire Internet. That Bukowski essay I mentioned would have sourced interviews, newspaper reports, biographies, and stuff in the blink of an eye. The nosy old beggar would see no shame in trawling the entire content of our OWC entries in search of info. 


    I understand the threat to creatives - not only writers but musicians and, in particular, artists and graphic designers, but it's only becoming more prevalent. I've noticed that some publications won't accept submissions that haven't first been scanned in Grammarly by the author. 


    But what can we do? If creatives organised a boycott of ChatGPT, it would no more halt its progress than Canute could stop the incoming tide. The genie is out, and it's all a bit scary. 


    As for copying my work, I'm not concerned about what happens to my writing after I've posted it. I churn out throwaway stuff anyway, and I don't take myself seriously. When I hit the enter key, my relationship with a particular piece ends, and I move on to the next one. In the words of Wodehouse's fine creation S.F. Ukridge, I "...just think up some rotten yarn about some damn thing or other, and shove it down."


    As I've said, I write mainly for posterity. I'd like to think that many years from now, some kid comes home from school having researched his family tree. "Check this out, Mum," he says, "I found a recording of a short story my great, great, great grandad wrote. Have a listen. It's proper naff." 


    And, in the darkness of a coffin buried many miles away, the left hand of a long-still skeleton twitches, forms a fist, and the thumb straightens. Then, it returns to its original position. :)


  • CarolCarol
    There are a number of court-cases underway.

    Amazon KDP now requires authors uploading their books to declare AI content. What use these will be put to in future is unknown, but I'm sure we can all imagine what use it could be put to.

    Of course, the cat is out of the bag with AI, but there needs to be legal protections and compensation for creators.
  • collide-o-scopecollide-o-scope
    Neph said:
    Avoiding it like the plague. Curious though which AI did you use for your images? There has been a lot of disgruntled artists who have found their work has been used to create AI generated covers and the suchlike.

    I mentioned in the previous comment that I believe those in the visual arts sector are most threatened by AI. There are many AI image generators out there, but I used craiyon. I haven't done an illustrator out of a job by using AI images - if they weren't available I'd use something from Unsplash, or my own photo, or create something on Inkscape/Photoshop. I've never paid an artist, so they're not missing out from me. I'm watching the legal developments with interest - but to say it's a minefield would be an understatement. :)
  • collide-o-scopecollide-o-scope
    Carol said:
    There are a number of court-cases underway.

    Amazon KDP now requires authors uploading their books to declare AI content. What use these will be put to in future is unknown, but I'm sure we can all imagine what use it could be put to.

    Of course, the cat is out of the bag with AI, but there needs to be legal protections and compensation for creators.

    Declarations of AI-produced submissions have become more prevalent, and Medium has banned AI-generated content. Sorting out the legal stuff will, i fear, be a long andcontentious affair.
  • LizLiz
    It'll take a lot of doing, but you or your estate can hardly claim compensation if you willingly enter material. 
  • collide-o-scopecollide-o-scope
    Liz said:
    It'll take a lot of doing, but you or your estate can hardly claim compensation if you willingly enter material. 

    I don't know what you mean by willingly enter material. Grammarly? Medium? OWC? The last magazine article I had published took 14 months to get from pitch to publication. I can't be bothered with that kind of waiting time, so I'm happy to bash out stuff for an online audience - and an appreciative one at that.

    I will reiterate though that I stand 100% behind my writing, every word of which has made the journey from my brain down my sleeves to my fingertips. Other than in the context I mentioned above, I would no more ask AI to write material for me than a groom would ask the best man to perform his honeymoon duties.

    I'd rather AI had no place in the creative sector, but we are where we are. I'm a bit long in the tooth to be worrying about ChatGPT stealing my work, but I genuinely feel for younger creatives, compelled to compete in an environment in which talentless chancers have equal standing.
  • LizyLizy
    The very idea scares me!
  • snailmalesnailmale
    Until recently I was accosted by Bing when I signed in, urging me to chat and offering three conversation styles; more creative, more balanced or more precise. I find the prospect of having a meaningful convesation with a robot utterly appalling!
  • LizyLizy
     :s 
  • DeneBebboDeneBebbo
    Don`t even know what Grammarly is!
  • CarolCarol
    DeneBebbo said:
    Don`t even know what Grammarly is!
    It's an editing software system, like ProWritingAid.
  • CarolCarol
    When I was checking my Wordpress blog before publishing it, they've added an AI option to tell you what you could do to improve the effectiveness of the post.

    So I tried it, and it came up with four suggestions, three I had actually done before I tried this AI thing, so those were pointless. And the fourth one, I'd done deliberately.
  • DeneBebboDeneBebbo
    Carol said:
    DeneBebbo said:
    Don`t even know what Grammarly is!
    It's an editing software system, like ProWritingAid.
    But I didn`t even know what that is either! The only aid I use is a spell checker, and it`s grammatical suggestions are bunk half the time.
  • CarolCarol
    Grammarly and ProWritingAid do so much more than that, and as I've found it improves my editing skills so I don't make as many when I'm writing. But that leaves a lot that needs work. 
  • DeneBebboDeneBebbo
    Carol said:
    Grammarly and ProWritingAid do so much more than that, and as I've found it improves my editing skills so I don't make as many when I'm writing. But that leaves a lot that needs work. 
    What things does it help with? Even though I worked in IT for a long time I`m not into tech beyond the basic stuff!
  • CarolCarol
    Wow the list is long, and there's been a couple of things added since I used it earlier this year. There's style- you can set the type of writing it is, so under creative it gives different types, so you choose the one relevant to your writing.
    There's style, repeats, transitions, sticky words and sentences, pacing, sensory, spelling and grammar, adverbs, and so much more.

    You get a summary of the text you've loaded, and it highlights the areas that are good (green), and those that need work (amber and red).

    It still needs the writer to make judgements on whether a suggestion is correct for that scene, bit of dialogue etc. But it is useful.






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