Is someone you know using AI to write?

[gettingby]

An acquaintance wanted to talk to me about writing, but then when I met up with her went on about how AI is such a great "tool" for writers. She explained how she's using it to get ideas, but then she would pick and choose the ideas she liked and rewrite everything herself. She believes by doing this she does not have to tell anyone she used AI since she was not using anything word for word.

I tried to explain the best I could that AI is not a "tool" for writing, and that by using AI to even assist with writing is a big no-no for writers and publishers. Her response was super defensive and she seemed to dig her heels in about how great AI is. It got a little weird, and I tried to get back to writing talk in general, but she kept bringing up AI like she was trying to convince me that all writers will eventually use AI and that it's the wave of the future. At the same time she said no one would know so there really wasn't any problem in her mind.

Then there was her argument that all ideas come from somewhere and that her using AI was the same as wherever my ideas came from because everything comes from somewhere. And then she said there is nothing new in writing so it really was fine to use AI, just as fine as googling something or reading all those books before I wrote my own. She seemed to really believe it was the same thing. I didn't have the energy to go back and forth with her so I ended our coffee meeting as soon as I could without it seeming rude. But maybe I should have been a little rude. She was the one who wanted to meet with me in the first place.

This is a friend of a friend who knows I'm a writer. That's why I met up with her. And the weirdest part of everything is that she wanted me to read some of her writing and wanted to send me not just her writing but what she put into AI from her original idea, what AI gave her, and then her rewriting of it. She said if I saw what she was doing it would change my mind. I tried to tell her I really couldn't get into all that. In the end, the easiest way to get out of there was to give her my email address.

I have no intention of ever looking at her stuff. I also didn't have the energy to fight about AI. I'm just going to ignore her. If my friend we have in common asks, I was planning on telling her I've just got too much going on. Maybe I should tell her that her friend is not a real writer because she's using AI, and thinking that's okay will get nowhere. But not everyone cares that much about writing or understands where AI (LLM) came from and how it was created and how it really has no place in writing. I don't think my friend would care that much, and her friend certainly doesn't care at all.

What would you say to a so-called writer who uses AI? I think some people have convinced themselves that LLMs are a good thing. What a sad and scary thing for writing and writers.

 

[Unimportant]

What would you say to a so-called writer who uses AI?

If they wish to engage with me in a conversation about it, I say all the things that I and dozens of others have already said in all the threads in this section of the forum. Feel free to read them at your leisure.

If they don't wish to engage with me in a conversation about it, I don't say anything to them because why would I?

 

[Woollybear]

Usually I say that the reason I ride a bicycle is to gain fitness. I don't ride electronic bikes, because doing so would go a ways toward defeating that purpose. Other people ride electric bikes, (but not without getting a little side-eye from some of us within the general population... but it's their choice) and there are legitimate reasons some people ride electric bicycles. But I won't, because when I get on a bike... it is to make my body move the bike. I feel spent and very good afterward.

Same thing with writing. I do it for 'writer fitness.' I personally wouldn't use an AI to create a narrative because my brain is not getting the amount of exercise I want for it when the AI does the bulk of the work.

We grow through effort. Process, not product. Etc.

 

[Paul Lamb]

Another consideration about AI that is often overlooked is that it is essentially plagiarism. It is reading and using text (generally without permission of the original author) and building from that to "create" a new bit of writing.

Many of the journals I submit to require me to affirm that I did not use generative AI to produce any part of my work. (Things like grammar and spell checkers are excepted and accepted.) The contract I just signed for my next novel specifically required me to affirm that I did not use AI. So if this friend did use it and then lied, it would essentially be a breach of contract.

To me, AI takes much of the fun and personal investment out of creative writing. The satisfaction of conceiving a great plot or character or resolution is as much the reason I do this as the seeing it published (and reaping the huge financial rewards).

 

[RichardGarfinkle]

I don't think this person was trying to have a real discussion. So, oddly enough, I don't think it matters that this was about AI.

This kind of meet up sounds like a classic proselyting strategy. The proselytizer arranges a social meeting about a supposed shared interest but really they want you to be converted to their viewpoint. They're not there to listen. They're there to testify to the great new thing that has opened up a whole new world to them etc.

Friend of a friend is a tenuous social distance that can make people uncomfortable. There's a third party kind of being held hostage to the target's good behavior. People don't want their friends to hear that they weren't nice to this other person who just wanted to talk to this writer friend etc.

The thread topic is worth discussing, but I don't think that any good that comes of the discussion will apply to the kind of situation gettingby was in.

 

[Jean P. R. Dubois]

Personally I think AI should stay out of the creative arts domain, like writing and graphic arts. But at this point the cats out of the bag and there's little that can be done to put the toothpaste back in the tube. That said I think any and all AI generated or even assisted art should be mandated to come with a clear label stating as such. Much like how movies, video games, and even food (GMO) are clearly labelled, have a little "AI assisted" label on it so people know where their entertainment came from. I know I would be pretty ticked off if I bought a book only to sense something was off partway in then have to do digging on the author only to find it was mostly a computer writing the book.

"After reading the dictionary, every other book is just a remix."

 

[Cobalt Jade]

Can't speak for writing, but plenty of graphic designers are using AI now.