AI and Writing

Greetings,

AI is a hot topic currently, people are playing with AI and art, throwing interesting topics at it to see what it can produce. Some are throwing topics at its chat engines to see what it can produce in the way of written articles and so forth, to see how they compare in comparison to those written by human beings. There is also discussion about whether AI is a threat to people's jobs, whether we will be able to tell whether someone has simply asked an AI to write an article, or has written it themselves. I have some things to say about this topic, and those associated.

In my opinion what is being presented as "AI" is not true AI at all. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. In my mind, this would imply some sort of sentience on the part of the creation, some sort of autonomy, these current creations do not have this, for which I am most grateful. Thus, I would refer to them as MI, or Machine Intelligence. There is a certain amount of autonomous thought, but it requires prompting from an outside source to work. Then again, I am not qualified in the area, so this is (very much) a layperson's opinion.

If you're worried about this AI taking over your job, because it can produce information, write articles and so forth by collecting information the first thing that you need to do is to stop feeding it. Every time a person asks it a question, asks it to write something, tells it how to improve, it gets better at what it does, it improves. You are arming the weapon that is pointed at you, it is like the rabbit telling the hunter where they will be eating, or its path so the hunter can make an easier shot.

This goes for people who are using it to write things and also those who are using it for AI Art. By using it to learn about art and how we think you are also teaching it to think in alternative ways. Stop feeding it.

Next, for all those who have or are considering producing articles of writing of any kind through AI, as an author, I would like to say something, screw you. You are cheapening what I do. You are cheapening what every author on the planet does. You are giving an "out" to people, legitimising it by using it more often, allowing people to be lazy about writing. You are devaluing writing and the value of writers. You are stealing the jobs of researchers, writers, and editors. You are devaluing human products.

Consider that in a piece of writing, especially one that goes to print on a public medium, published in a book, newspaper, or magazine, consider:

• time spent researching the article; 
• time spent writing the article;
• time spent editing the article;
• time spent re-writing the article;
• time spent formatting the article for publication.

By using AI chat-bots or AI writers to produce articles or so forth you are cheapening the human efforts that go into this process. You put in a subject, the AI researches and writes the article for you. It is lazy, you have learned nothing from the process, except how to operate the AI, you are a button-pusher, not an author.

When the AI comes along and takes your jobs because it has learned too much and you can be replaced by someone who can type the same subjects into an AI and produce sanitised articles, appropriate to what an organisation wants. Yes, it is a program, the censorship can be programmed in to it. When people forget how to write, how to research, and our population turns into sheep, following whatever they are fed, remember you were warned. Remember there was a voice that said, "No."

You have been warned.

Henry.