AI

by Tim Law

Well, let's hope I got it right this time! Please enjoy Tim Law's excellent ideas on Artificial Intelligence!

AI… Two little letters that seem to strike fear in so many of us…

I for one confess that I am very afraid of what Artificial Intelligence is going to do to the creative industries and I guess as an extension of that humanity itself. I laughed along with so many others when AI first reared its infantile head with the eight-fingered man sitting beside a tree which was not quite real.

The first paragraphs created by AI needed quite a lot of editing, but those who wanted this new technology to succeed blew on the embers and taught it everything that they know. We in turn played our part in helping it to grow and develop (sometime consciously and sometimes without our knowledge or permission), and now… We have created a monster, an unstoppable beast, which over time will make life so much easier, just as it is making life easier for us now. And when we consider how quickly we have arrived where we are, it will not take AI long to become professional. Heck, it may already be at that level now.

So, first I want to address what frightens me so much about this brand-new technology. I fear we have already lost control. Humans are being punished for stealing the ideas from others, but the computers are stealing ideas too and we don’t know who to blame for this and how to punish.

My story The Eleventh Tome (self-published in July of 2018 via AMAZON KDP) I suggested as a must read (hopefully buy) to a colleague from the IT department in the local council where I work. He is planning to borrow a copy from the local library and see what he thinks (yay… win!!) but he let me know within a half hour of my suggesting the title that it (my self-published novel) has been scooped up by AI and reused in some other story somewhere…

Did I know? No! Of course, I didn’t know… Nobody told me before then that my work has been repurposed, no one has compensated me for this theft, and I am only one of millions of creatives who have suffered this same fate.

I don’t know how many other stories or poems I have shared online which have also been stolen. The work is still there (my original pieces), so how can I find out? There is no guide, probably because the people who have helped create this monster do not want those millions of victims to go hunting for our pennies and pounds. I also had a moment at work where a colleague needed a quirky poem to promote Poetry Week, asking me if I could come up with something. I said I’d think about it and then went back to my list of tasks I had to complete that day, adding poem at the bottom of the list. Before lunch I was told by that colleague no poem was needed anymore as AI had produced something good enough… Good enough?! I could do better than that… Or so I thought… In reading the AI generated poem I was scared by how “good enough” actually was. The technology is fast. It has come a long way in a short time. And… It is only going to learn more, improve quicker, and soon it will be producing award winning novels.

So, with the fear I have professed, I find I must also address what excites me about this new tech. It is a writer’s friend. It is helping me with this article, making suggestions for comma placement, tightening sentences, guiding me toward ways that help me waffle less. My friend who is a long time Dungeon Master (Dungeons and Dragons… Not Fifty Shades…) has the imagination to create incredible adventures, but not the writing experience to produce a diary entry for a gnomish Government Official who reveals to the adventure party that he has been pilfering from the treasury…

AI helped him to create that and more of the same giving an extra dimension to his otherwise already well-rounded cast of non-Player Characters (NPCs).  Fictitious news articles enhance the roleplaying experience, so too do in depth descriptions of busy city streetscapes or dark alleys where clues can be discovered… In less than an instant a great DM becomes the GsOAT (The Greatest storyteller Of All Time)… I want to be the GsOAT too, or at the very least a far better creative, and so, more and more I find I am tempted to tap into this fresh, new tech. Every second it is learning, and every second it is making suggestions that millions of humans have told it they like. Sure, there is that guilty feeling some of us get. Sure, some of us still choose to click NO when AI is offered. What we don’t seem to realize though, is behind every squiggle, every underlined suggestion, AI is lurking, waiting in the shadows to help us improve and help itself do the same.

AI is never going to go away. Since that is something which I believe to be fact, I next have to wonder if this technology will eventually crush the creative industries? That is something I do not know. Maybe it will, maybe we will find a way to work with it. To me it still feels like the Wild West, shoot first, ask questions later. I don’t envy those of us who decide they want that shiny Sheriff’s badge. Theft is rife, and we poor victims don’t even know anything has been taken. I for one am going to keep on creating, silently thanking AI for its assistance.

My fear and excitement of what is coming next are on par, one not yet able to outweigh the other. I wish we were still looking at the eight-fingered man sitting by the not-quite a tree, but those days are way behind us. Brace for the future, people. AI is telling us all that it believes such a future is going to be beautiful.

No Artificial Intelligence was used in the creation of this article… Unless you count my decision to accept almost all of the squiggly red and blue lined grammatical correction suggestions… We teach it just as it teaches us…