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Writer's pictureK.C. McIntosh

The Robots Are Taking Over!

Ok, maybe that is a bit of a jump. AI has certainly slapped the world, though. It is such a strange irony that the realm of artists is one of the first to be struck by artificial intelligence. Writers can now be mimicked by software that has no interest or understanding in the stories they create. You can type a few adjectives into Bing or Facebook and get a fully fleshed image (minus a few fingers, or plus a few letters) that is damn near book cover worthy. These miracles in the evolution of technology threaten to take food out of the mouth of the artist. It's not like most of us were making very much in the first place.

That being said, I've used a few AI images for promotion, I even considered one for a book cover before I delved me into what all this means. I have, of course, already paid an illustrator for a book cover, I just liked the AI image more. After asking around my fellow authors would they thought of it all, I was shocked at the implication of what AI actually means to the community. They are, rightly, inflamed. That being said, I will never use AI for a book cover. I encourage everyone else to do the same, but it still begs the question. What place does artificial intelligence have in the world of creativity? Should it have any at all? More importantly, can we actually do anything about it or is it inevitable? It's so strange to watch science fiction become science fact. I can't help but wonder if the very thing that makes use beautiful as humans is also the most easily replicated, and the most easily exploited.

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I think that AI can be a tool in the same way as a thesaurus, or a writing prompt. As an aid, not a crutch, to be used by those who don't need it.


If you cannot write or illustrate without AI, you would be better served by gaining those skills first and independently, lest your voice and vision be subsumed by what is essentially an inferior imitation of human creativity.


In a commercial sense, the current unethical and invasive ways that companies are using to train their AI amounts to theft, if used for commercial purposes. Taking from artists and authors, chopping their work into fragments, then reforming them into Frankensteinien monstrosities is an entertaining party trick, but a…


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