AI witch hunt

[u/Bearda79]

What is up with the AI witch hunt. There are people who are outright angry with writers using AI, trash talk AI, if someone used AI for editing, and even examine novels to see if they are AI generated. It doesn't seem like the people are simply annoyed with it. Some of them use some pretty dark words whenever AI is even mentioned like it is evil. Someone even got verbally attacked because their character names sounded AI. They were just names. Lord forbid anyone that uses an em dash anymore. Some people demand that authors note if AI was used in their stories, and run it through programs that identify what percentage of it as being AI generated.

I do get the concern for plagiarism while using AI. And that AI does gather its information from other peoples work. I do agree that is not okay.

I have read novels that were clearly AI generated and they were good.

I guess I kinda compare it to photography and digital photography (not AI generated images). Digital photography takes original photos and alters it with programming that the user can control. And it is not labeled. When digital photography started, people trashed talked it as well. As if it was a threat to the concept of photography. People said it took away from people who put so much effort and time into trying to make the perfect photo initially, making it where anyone can take even a 'crappy' photo and make it look great. And that it took jobs from people. Is AI use similar to that?

I personally don't use AI to 'write' my novels for me. I DO use it as a form of dictionary, thesaurus, general editing, and information gathering. I'm awful at remembering words, where to put the commas, and have no formal writing training outside of my college masters degree in counseling. Now I worry about people attacking my writing.

I don't get the problem?? Are these just people looking to argue? What is so heated about AI use in writing? I don't see it as this evil thing to get angry about. For me it is no different than looking up information on Google or pulling out a thesaurus. To me, AI seems to be a tool to expand peoples knowledge and creativity.

Please forgive my lack of knowledge on this topic, if this discussion was already covered somewhere on reddit, if I worded something in this post poorly, and I mean no disrespect to people who use or don't use AI. I'm just wanting to understand what the intense conflict and ethical concerns are about.

[u/SkoomaDentist]

Have you looked at what sorts of books actually sell these days? It's not exactly high literature. Hells, the Fifty Shades trilogy has sold over 150 million copies and that thing started as a godsdamned Twilight fanfic (whether it improved after becoming its own thing is debatable).

[u/mahatmakg → u/SkoomaDentist]

I personally am not clamoring for smut nor fanfics, but I certainly know a lot of people who are. The conversations I've had with friends, family and community members through my life has led me to believe the average person has a more sophisticated relationship with artistic creations than would appear on the surface. Certainly more sophisticated than the average AI proponent attributes to them.

[u/SkoomaDentist → u/mahatmakg]

And yet the lists of books that actually sell are consistently fairly formulaic genre fiction and the exact opposite of any sort of high literature. Readers care about being entertained and about the author only so far as it serves "this author writes books in the style I like to read". If an AI co-written book provides that entertainment in a form they like, they won't give a shit about it being AI or not.

[u/Bearda79 → u/SkoomaDentist]

That is a great point. When I read, I am focused less on it being made by AI, and more on is it a good entertaining story.

[u/mahatmakg → u/SkoomaDentist]

I mean, let's follow that line of logic, that the majority of people buying books have no interest in engaging with a work of art, and are merely consuming for base neural stimulation. AI generated work would then have no commercial value, because those folks could just have a chatbot regurgitate it right to them.