Ugh! We need to talk about AI, a.k.a. - It's Turtles All the Way Down

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There are so many different opinions and questions flying around about Artificial Intelligence, especially when it comes to writing books. Did the author use AI? Is any use of AI acceptable? Is it cheating? Is it stealing? And on and on. (Why do I feel like I'm about to poke a wasps' nest?)

There have been a lot of discussions lately in author and reader social media groups I follow which I find both irritating and fascinating, but one thing I have come to the conclusion about is that it might be a good time for me to create a position statement and share it with my readers so they will know exactly where I stand on the issues.

First, it is important to understand the definition of what AI is. Is it an algorithm? Is it a computer that can learn? Is it good or bad? (If you want to skip this part and scroll down to my position statement below

, go for it! I will not blame you at all!)

Did you know that even the experts don't know exactly what AI is? That's part of what makes it scary.

Though I am by no means an expert and won't pretend to understand it all, my basic take is that AI is a group of computer systems that gather information, connect information, analyze it, and improve its output by "learning" from what it gathers. (I know it's much more complicated than that but hey, I'm giving it my best "AI for Dummies" try here!)

Keeping it simple and in the context of writing fiction books, there are many issues to tease out and only a very few I can address here before your eyes roll to the back of your head like mine.

Does AI "steal" knowledge? I think the answer depends on what information is given to it to learn from. Some humans are writing novels solely for the purpose of feeding the machine. (Ick!) But there are loads of authors who have had their work fed to the machine without their consent, which I consider stollen property. Is there anything that can be done about this now that the cat is out of the bag? I hate to say it, but probably not. 

Do people use AI to write the content of their novels? Yes, some do, and the market, especially Amazon, is being absolutely flooded with these books. Book customers are not being given the opportunity to know if the book they are purchasing is full of "AI slop," and there are a lot of things wrong with that. Not only are human author's books getting lost in the deluge, as of now there is really no way to prove that you wrote every single word in your novel if you really did. 

One of the biggest problems with AI is that it feels like there are no guardrails. Another is that the use of AI is not as black and white as some people think because they want to have a clear choice–to use AI or not, period. (For some, my use of an "em dash" here will be enough proof to them that I am using AI to write this article. No, I am not, however, when it helps me catch an incorrect spelling, I'm okay with that in this context. See how slippery the slope is?)

So, there are some folks who are adamantly against any use of AI for anything because it is based off of stollen intelligence. Some of these are the same people who will have heated discussions about this on social media whose platform is run entirely by AI. As someone once said, "It's turtles all the way down." (That's a fun phrase to Google!)

Still others will note the environmental impacts AI will have because it uses enormous amounts of power, water, and other resources. I am concerned about this myself, and it will be up to people with much more power than I to set up the guardrails for this as well, which I am fairly confident will happen, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Let's face it. Virtually all use of a computer, whether it is on your desk, lap, or in your hand is using some kind of Artificial Intelligence. It's been around for decades and we have all been using it without really knowing for years. Are we using stollen intelligence every time we do? Are we morally wrong to use computers and the internet? How does one decide?

"Okay," you say, "Get to the point Syd!"

Here goes...

My Position on the use of AI for writing Historical Fiction:

I have not and never will use AI to write anything inside my novels. I LOVE writing, so why would I give away my joy to a machine? When I write, I feel God allowing me to "ride on his coat tails." It's like my favorite quote from the Chariots of Fire movie when the olympic runner says, "When I run, I feel God's pleasure." Writing is like that for me. The spiritual experience of creating is one of life's greatest pleasures. That can never be matched by giving AI a prompt and then letting it spew out great human story. The commitment I have made to myself and the Lord is to trust him with my writing, not a machine.

I also go to the great expense of hiring a human for all the editing of the interior content of my novels, except spelling and some punctuation correction. I also love to edit as much as I can and think it makes me a better writer when I do.

However, I do use AI for research. It is simply much faster than individually Googling everything I need to know when writing a well researched story, (Googling is still just another way of using AI). Believe me, I also ADORE research, especially when I can do it in person, but there are many things that AI can gather for me in seconds that used to take me days or weeks to collect, which means I can spend more time writing than hunting. When it comes to calculating how long it takes to get from London to Carlisle by horse drawn coach in 1847 as opposed to travel by steam train, I can either get out my old maps, ruler, and calculator or ask the machine. Which would you choose?

I use AI as a book launch coach. It will create a schedule of all the things I need to do in order to publish my novel, all the items I need to create for marketing, etc. I can use what it suggests or not, but it has been an invaluable tool (which is what I choose to call it) and I couldn't have released my books, especially the first one, without it.

I also use AI to help with my marketing, which includes marketing copy and images. (I am constantly on Canva!). Every single book you have ever looked at online has had to be identifiable to the algorithms on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. and the way these platforms know how to place a novel in the right category is by the Keywords in the text that is on the back of the book, the author/publisher descriptions, ads, posts, and so on. Let's face it, AI knows best how to "talk" to AI.

The last thing I have used AI for a few times is to brain storm ideas, with varying results. Sometimes the ideas it comes up with leave me in stitches! Other times it might jolt my mind to consider something I hadn't thought of and I grab the ball and run with it myself. 

A word on Blogging (Yawn!): I am not a blogger, and though this article can be considered a blog post, I just don't have a lot of time to blog in my current life. Maybe someday that will change, in the meantime, I will occasionally use AI to create a blog post on something I think my readers might be interested in that I simply can't take the time to research and write about in my blog. If I ever do so, I always state that I used AI up front.

Conclusion:  I could go on and on about this, but you're already bored and so am I. Suffice it to say that I think AI is a tool that can be used like any other tool, for good or ill. Just like the internet, it can be used to share the Gospel or to control the masses. It is what it is, for now, and we will see what comes of it. Since we live in a fallen world, we who have been interested with the righteousness of God in Christ must use any tool for good and for his glory. Sure, we will all make mistakes, but we must keep the ultimate goal in mind and keep our eyes on Jesus.

I'd love to know your thoughts. You can email me at sydsartsongs@gmail.com (and yes, we will be using AI to communicate, ugh. It's turtles all the way down.)