The world is grappling with adopting AI in all aspects of itself. We, of course, are concerned about it infiltrating our writing.
All over the web, we see writers bragging about using AI to write better. They are claiming that putting their ideas into a program, and accepting what comes out, even tweaked, is their property to submit and be proud about. That saddens me to my core. They did not struggle to improve their word choice or syntax or flow by reading great works and practicing. They instead accept these “corrections” as their property, daring even so much as to think it can be copyrighted. That is plagiarism.
Literary journals and publishers are screaming about not accepting AI. Professional journals are turning down work that is AI written. Amazon is attempting to make AI writers transparent to the public. The Authors Guild has filed a class action lawsuit against ChatGPT for using authors’ fiction in feeding the AI machine without compensating the authors. The courts are beginning to see that AI material cannot be copyrighted to the “author.”
Unfortunately, Grammarly promotes AI, which means FFW no longer endorses it.
However, there is one major talent you lose (or never discover) when you utilize AI . . . your voice.
When using AI, you are using other people’s voices to write your work. You do not take the time to struggle through bad manuscripts, stilted sentences, and questionable writing to hammer out better and better work that becomes branded with your own unique manner in putting words together. That’s because you quit using a unique manner to do it.
You copied.
Using AI takes the load off your brain, whether you are writing an entire story or just trying to insert more flare into your plot via an outline. Many original writers write themselves into a corner and have to scramble their way out. This blood and sweat makes for better writing, and better yet, makes for a life-long lesson that sticks. When AI does the work for you, it isn’t your brain that created it . . . so it isn’t retained.
But it’s a tool, so many say. No different than a thesaurus. That’s someone assuaging themselves, or attempting to justify the shortcut.
Are there good uses for AI? Of course, just not in creative writing, in my humble opinion.
(NOTE: Here lately, we’ve been inundated with submissions. Some incredibly ignorant submitters use AI for their article but then write their own pitch/query/letter of introduction. The voices are insanely different. They are instantly rejected, despite the loud protests. Such rejections will continue in considering submissions for FundsforWriters articles.)
Leave a Reply