You Don't Need An MFA When You Have Chat GPT: How Everything is Changing, Everywhere, All At Once.

Part II

Dear Desperate Writers,

Last week I talked about how AI is changing publishing. For those of you who are entrepreneurial sorts, here's a video about how you can write AI generated books and then put them through other AI feeds to make them undetectable as AI generated books.

I can ask Chat GPT to write a positive review of my book, The Dog Lover Unit, and it will discharge the essay sentence by sentence across my screen faster than I can read it. I'll spare you the whole thing, but here are the first two paragraphs:

 Write a positive review of The Dog Lover Unit By Rachel Rose

ChatGPT

Title: A Heartwarming Tribute to the Canine Heroes: "The Dog Lover Unit" by Rachel Rose

"The Dog Lover Unit" by Rachel Rose is an extraordinary testament to the unwavering bond between humans and their canine companions. With eloquence and compassion, Rose invites readers into the remarkable world of the dedicated men and women who serve alongside their four-legged partners in the K9 units.

From heart-pounding rescues to tender moments of connection, Rose skillfully weaves together captivating narratives that celebrate the courage, loyalty, and intelligence of these remarkable dogs. Through her vivid descriptions and engaging storytelling, she brings to life the daily challenges and triumphs faced by these canine heroes and their handlers.

First of all, I asked for a positive review, but my goodness! Honestly, Chat GPT. I blush. You knew my book so well, it was like you had devoured it.

I can also ask Chat GPT to make a book club buffet inspired by Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and it does rather well:

1. Handmaid's Harvest Salad: Create a salad using fresh, seasonal ingredients such as mixed greens, pomegranate seeds (symbolizing fertility), and a tangy vinaigrette dressing.

2. Resistance Rolls: Soft rolls filled with various fillings like roasted vegetables, hummus, or savory meats, representing the resistance against the oppressive regime in the story.

3. Gilead Tea Selection: Offer a variety of teas, including herbal blends and traditional black teas, served with honey and lemon. This represents the tea ceremonies often depicted in the novel and provides a comforting beverage for discussion.

4. Commander's Charcuterie Board: Arrange a selection of cured meats, cheeses, olives, and artisanal bread on a board, representing the opulence and privilege of the ruling class in the book.

   ~         ~         ~

   How does Art Auntie intend to navigate all of this? Preferably while reclining with a box of bon-bons. She did not give permission for her book to be consumed by AI. Authors don't give permission. It has been taken from us by machines and the tech minds who created them. This same book of mine was pirated and sold at a deep discount by an online company after it came out. None of what it has been used for has benefited me as its author. (listen below from 1.49)

I can see some advantages to this technology. I know people who use it to save time, as the go-to tool for writing a cover letter or complete first draft of whatever they need. They correct it, personalize it, and off it goes.

If we could trust the AI, the argument could be made that we would get far more complete access to all the research out there on a particular subject, which could be useful and efficient for non-fiction writers. We can all be plugged into the Great Hive Mind now, and let it do the work for us. Why would anyone want to opt out?

But on the whole, I can't see the win for writers. I can't see any benefit to flooding an already severely oversaturated market with more dubious content.

And of course the risk goes beyond the livelihood of writers and artists. The alarm has been sounded about AI's threat to the global social order. We are already living in an era where it is increasingly difficult to know what is quality, ethical journalism and where fact-checking is challenging. As noted last week in the Wall Street Journal, Japan is the latest country to sound the alarm about AI. Japan's largest telecommunications companies have written a manifesto against uncontrolled AI, noting that “in the worst-case scenario, democracy and social order could collapse, resulting in wars." as well as the risk that “AI models could teach people how to make weapons or spread discriminatory ideas."

Perhaps a proliferation of short, subpar books will be the least of our problems. But for those who place great value on books and book culture, a profound human creation is at risk.

I hope that the markets for books like AI generated Apricot bar code architecture and John Vaillant's Fire Weather remain completely separate. At the very least, I would like to see publishers branding their books as human-created. Book clubs and readers who care about books generally can insist on it. Many book clubs care about literary tradition and are interested in the people who write the books they love. Will we be just as happy to read a book written by a computer if the book becomes excellent? Call me old fashioned, but your Art Auntie sincerely hopes not. Although there has been a bit too much emphasis on writers' backgrounds, cultural, sexual and political alliances for my taste recently, moving from that to anonymous tech bros as the official literary creators of many books is swinging the pendulum WAY too far in the other direction. Part of what I value in a book is the mind of its creator, the singular mind that lived and was shaped by specific human experiences, had the idea, came up with the characters and themes and, scene by scene, and brought it all to life.

 Book clubs and book lovers can demand that publishers mark those books written by humans as Human-Generated (and others clearly labeled as AI generated). Right now, there's no such requirement.  Perhaps we'll see more hybrid models, like we do for food, where the label reads "85% organic ingredients." Will we want to purchase and read a book that is 85% human generated? I assume that many readers won't care, or won't want to pay a premium, as we do for organic products. But I hope and believe that most readers will care. In fact, human-generated books will be organic, in that they are created by humans, organically originating in the mind of a specific free-range person. Whatever readers choose to support, your Art Auntie would like very much for every reader to have the choice, and would like publishers to start labeling AI generated books immediately.

Reminder: In May we will discuss our first DESPERATE WRITER read-along book, Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer and assign our next one, to discuss in July. Tune in for our podcast!

For Desperate Writers in Vancouver, your Art Auntie will be reading at Kogawa House:

and will be co-hosting this beautiful event at Notional Space: