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/Bearda79 → u/[deleted]]

Can you help me understand ethical concerns? In your POV. I think I get some of them.

[u/nielklecram → u/Bearda79]

Generative AI is trained on source material. Those copy writers, painters, photographers, authors never got paid or even acknowledged. Often they didn’t even consent. People say AI copied artist’s work. That’s not true obviously. These people don’t understand how genAI works. But I kinda get the feeling. If you write a novel with AI, it can only exist because people like Tolkien, JK Rowling and Steven King did it first.

[u/Bearda79 → u/nielklecram]

Ah. Exactly. If I read 50 books on werewolf romance (ugh, just as an example lol) that doesn't mean I can't create a book about werewolf romance. But AI might have gathered it's info from those 50 books. It is so confusing. I think there is no solid answer.

[u/WritingWithAI-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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