Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Writing - An Experiment
This week I did a thing.
I tried AI.
Why?
I read two news articles about two more authors being accused of using AI to write novels. The authors in question are Thélyson Orélien (read said article in Le Monde) and Simbarashe Kundizeze (read said article in The Guardian), and both authors strongly deny said accusations. I have no idea whether they did or didn't and nor do I care, for if one does use AI you cheat only yourself and are not nor ever will be an artist or author to my mind; thus I will allow others to consider the validity of the two cases. However what I did find strange - icky even - is AI is being used to check and accuse authors of using AI, which is something of a circular to me with hints of Westworld - the intelligent robots checking the art of humans for a collusion of robots before branding humans as cheats - and I wondered if these AI tools could be considered accurate.
Indeed what recourse is there to counter a robot? So what did I do?
I downloaded Grammerly and put my own writing to the test.
Now I find my own writing a bit weird. An artsy voice that echoes an older, bygone use of language, full of prose and poetic liberty, breaking current literary rules as I see fit and worrying about little more than the telling of a story. If it works for the telling then purists can do one, and I imagine many editors would cry, break down even, but I write for me and the reader as opposed to linguistic purity. Anyway, people who read my work seem to like it and I doubt my audience will ever be any greater than a thimbleful of water in a sea of literature anyway, so what harm.
Grammerly downloaded.
So easy. Too easy?
Writing from my novels was entered.
Tested...
And it said my writing was unique and original - or something to that effect.
Everything I input came back the same.
Phew.
Seemed okay.
Only then it started correcting my writing. Prose was rewritten. And what it came back with was entirely correct, not a million miles from words I might use. It was powerful. A good voice. Similar to mine own. Frightening. Why? Because art is in the practice, the experimentation, and this tool circumvented ALL that. It made the artistry redundant. I could see why such a tool would appeal to some. All the hard work removed from the art. Putting in ideas and having all the slog, the blood on the page, the endless edits done for you in an instant. Oh I got the jitters. I really didn't like this.
So I deleted it.
Grammerly.
Off my computer, or so I thought.
Lo and behold it was now on my browser.
Oh so helpful.
Suddenly it was offering to write bloody Thread posts for me.
Argh!
No!
Fuck no.
So as an old man the rest of my afternoon was spent making sure I'd got rid of it. I fumigated the PC. Saged the shed. Trembled at the thought of AI. It really is powerful and I don't like it. It does everything for you and I want to cry. It's horrible. Fortunately - in my case and as an aging gnome - it's pretty much passed me by, but I dread to think what it will do to the art of writing in the future. How bland might books become...
If there's a topic you'd like me to consider in a blog, a book you think I really need to read and review, or a TV Series you think I'd enjoy (and you'd like me to include it in my blog) drop me a line and let me know.
Finally.
If you do buy my books.
Thank you.
And let me know what you think. Get in touch on Threads.
I'm always there; a writer, you see...
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