Alas, AI has had a significant negative effect on the writing and artistic world. AI-generated books swarm Amazon. Artists I know have taken major hits to their income, and Facebook is full of AI-generated dreck to the degree that it's almost impossible to avoid it. My friends and I have had books and stories stolen to train AI, without even the slightest bit of compensation, and in the cases where compensation is offered, it's pathetically awful ($2500 from one major publisher offered to allow unpublished manuscripts submitted to them to be used for training). Editors are being put out of work because AI is being used--poorly--to do editing work (to me, an AI-edited work stands out because of certain phrasings, incorrect usage, and overall voice. But I've done enough editing work to see the difference).
I don't advise anyone to take up a technical writing career right now, either, because AI is taking over that world. And there's a certain amount of incursion into code. It is displacing voice narrators, and the information that came out from the writers and actors strike in media regarding the unfair use of lower-level performers to train AI for TV, movies, and voice work is absolutely chilling.
No, AI *has* been harmful to specific professions, and it's just going to get worse. It's moving into education here in the US. Teachers are struggling to find ways to teach writing where the students can't use ChatGPT to fake their way through a written assignment. Some districts are starting to use it in teaching.
If its use was just limited to crunching and munching huge amounts of data in a productive way that didn't displace humans, that would be one thing. If AI promoters hadn't targeted creatives, that would be different. If the output hadn't been so problematic, with false information coming from the LLMs, that would be different. But yes, it has been harmful.
Before I retired, we had a problem with students using AI in my industry (academia), and I found it fairly easy to detect when marking because, as you said, "certain phrasings, incorrect usage, and overall voice." Worryingly, the other week I was playing with a scanner that can supposedly detect AI writing, and I came back as AI. I am now doubting that I exist!
When I wrote the piece, I was thinking of the more often touted 'Terminator' fear and not, as you quite correctly point out, the impact on the creative arts. Sorry.
This year I retired and it is fabulous, I've so many projects for 2025, probably haven't felt so excited and positive since...god knows when.
Yep, that is the way with it. So much to do... So many things to try. Exciting times. Enjoy.
best time of my life, frankly!
Alas, AI has had a significant negative effect on the writing and artistic world. AI-generated books swarm Amazon. Artists I know have taken major hits to their income, and Facebook is full of AI-generated dreck to the degree that it's almost impossible to avoid it. My friends and I have had books and stories stolen to train AI, without even the slightest bit of compensation, and in the cases where compensation is offered, it's pathetically awful ($2500 from one major publisher offered to allow unpublished manuscripts submitted to them to be used for training). Editors are being put out of work because AI is being used--poorly--to do editing work (to me, an AI-edited work stands out because of certain phrasings, incorrect usage, and overall voice. But I've done enough editing work to see the difference).
I don't advise anyone to take up a technical writing career right now, either, because AI is taking over that world. And there's a certain amount of incursion into code. It is displacing voice narrators, and the information that came out from the writers and actors strike in media regarding the unfair use of lower-level performers to train AI for TV, movies, and voice work is absolutely chilling.
No, AI *has* been harmful to specific professions, and it's just going to get worse. It's moving into education here in the US. Teachers are struggling to find ways to teach writing where the students can't use ChatGPT to fake their way through a written assignment. Some districts are starting to use it in teaching.
If its use was just limited to crunching and munching huge amounts of data in a productive way that didn't displace humans, that would be one thing. If AI promoters hadn't targeted creatives, that would be different. If the output hadn't been so problematic, with false information coming from the LLMs, that would be different. But yes, it has been harmful.
I am sorry to hear that.
Before I retired, we had a problem with students using AI in my industry (academia), and I found it fairly easy to detect when marking because, as you said, "certain phrasings, incorrect usage, and overall voice." Worryingly, the other week I was playing with a scanner that can supposedly detect AI writing, and I came back as AI. I am now doubting that I exist!
When I wrote the piece, I was thinking of the more often touted 'Terminator' fear and not, as you quite correctly point out, the impact on the creative arts. Sorry.