I'm opting out of using any sort of pun or play on words for the title of this post. It is what is is: AI scares me.290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnRnxSEb7PJ
I've spoken about it plenty of times before but for the sake of emphasizing my point I will repeat the following. I spent five years writing a book, and the year I aim to get it published ChatGPT launches and starts writing thousands of hastily-constructed stories for lazy wannabe authors trying to make a quick buck. And if ChatGPT works anything like Midjourney or Dall-e, then thousands of unwitting actual authors had their stories scanned and fed to the AI in order for this to happen.290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ06z8uBFgXp
At the beginning of this development I saw someone online say something to the effect of, "As if being a starving artist wasn't bad enough already." Well, the same appears to be true for aspiring authors, too, except in this case its, "As if trying to get picked up by a publishing company wasn't hard enough."
And that breaks my heart.290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡamlMxlBXDY
After messing around with the technology myself I am willing to admit that it is certainly fun; the cover art for Death and Jane is AI generated, as point of fact... but I write that story for free. I hired an actual artist and typographer to design the cover of my novel, and for good reason. Imagine working for years honing your craft and style to something that is perfectly yours, full of your passion and soul, only to have it snatched from you and mass-produced for anyone to use. How could I condone something like that?290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCEb98m8LAD
It is almost certain that the authors and artists whose work fed these algorithms didn't agree to this, and they most certainly aren't getting any royalties for it, which leads me to believe that AI is effectively industrial plagiarism. 290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAl2XdVljVJ
And the worst part is the technology is only going to get better; its not going anywhere, and the corporate powers that utilize it have vastly more stopping power than me or anyone like me. This makes me wonder what is going to happen to publishing. Will human-made books become more sought-after, thus making it easier to publish? Will it become more difficult to publish as literary agents and publishing companies enact countermeasures to filter out all of the AI spam? Will it stay as difficult as it is now since the number of human authors hasn't decreased?290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtSNb4v4zRO
Or will publishing companies utilize bots like ChatGPT once they're fine-tuned enough in order to write mass-produced stories, cut out humans authors altogether, and keep the royalties of said books for themselves?
On the one hand, some people don't have the resources to commission artists for the quality of work they'd like. For people in that situation, paying $10 for a machine to make a book cover for a novel that (in all likelihood) many will never read seems perfectly reasonable. The logical, frugal side of me can certainly see the appeal in this.290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvCy5mNDK4i
But writing is my passion, and I have the means of hiring artists. And to anyone else who has ever had a passion, who has worked hard to hone their craft, and who has the means to support others doing the same, I implore you not to feed the machine. 290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgX7R2ZytX
Feed a person.
Good luck out there.290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1RrzDiWUxp
Chris290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhM0JAyzxBq
