Living with Artificial Intelligence

By Drew Becker, www.realizationpress.com

Reading well-crafted works is one of the greatest delights for readers and authors. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fact of life and we need to learn how to thrive with it while promoting ethics in writing.

Recently, working with a group of writers critiquing each other’s work, we determined that one member used to write the first few chapters of her book. She was young and some other members suggested we ignore what she had done. I was so surprised that someone would waste the group’s efforts offering machine-written text to be critiqued. In the next few years, algorithms may compose many of our books.

In my youth, I sang “John Henry,”a traditional American folksong.As many of you may remember, this song deals with a railroad worker (a steel-driving man) who challenges a machine to build a new stretch of track. In the end, he cannot keep up and dies from trying. Should we be concerned about a similar future for authors? Many authors have voiced concerns about how AI might threaten originality and affect the quality of books in the future.

What to use AI for

AI is a great tool when used for research. What exactly does that mean? Before computers were on most people’s desks, many went to the library to do research for term papers. We learned to record the essence of what we read from a source and copy quotes to back up with a notation, giving credit to the author. We could paraphrase other writers but could not lift sentences, paragraphs, and more without attribution and quotation marks. Otherwise, what we were doing was plagiarism.

Tools

A plethora of new tools are available. Spell check and grammar check can help writers, especially if we learn and improve our work rather than rely on them. Some of these tools suggest rephrasing of unclear or confusing sentences. Mapping tools can suggest structures for different types of writing and create templates. In programs like Microsoft Word, we can find misspelled words, compare different versions, create mark-up with different writers, and hear our text spoken. These forms of AI are beneficial when used correctly.

In addition, AI detection tools have and are being created. After these tools are made available, however, other tools are being created to fool these tools. It’s a bit of a cat and mouse game at present and we will have to wait and see how our ingenuity meets the challenges.

What not to use AI for

AI, when misused, steals from authors and creatives. As writers, we do not want our hard work to be taken by someone else and claimed as theirs. “Thou shall not steal.” If I stated that this quote was my creation, I would be plagiarizing. In this case most readers would know that the words in quotation marks came from the Bible.

As defined by Merriam-Webster, plagiarism is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own: use (another’s production) without crediting the source.” That would apply to book covers, song lyrics, text from published and some unpublished works, and copyrighted works except those where the copyright has expired. (We also must be careful with those works that we think may have expired since the copyright may have been extended.)

The Future of Authoring

These situations that arise from misuse of AI devalue writing and other creative processes. Competing with those who learn how to “program” these platforms and then shift a few words around from stolen and slightly modified texts seems senseless. A glut of non-readable drivel could be on the horizon, and I’m not sure what we as authors can do besides remain aware. It is early in the acceptance of AI. How it will be used and legislated is unclear. Amazon has a check box to indicate whether AI was used in the creation of books in the Kindle upload, so the big companies are aware.

A couple of other articles can help us understand the current thinking about plagiarism and AI. An article concerning with how higher education is dealing plagiarism is worth a read. Check out https://www.turnitin.com/blog/ai-plagiarism-changers-how-administrators-can-prepare-their-institutions. Another source to review deals with strategies for prevention https://www.aje.com/arc/guide-to-avoiding-plagiarism-ai/.

Is there a way we as writers can turn the tide or at least sound the alarm for the misuse while taking advantage of AI tools for marketing our books? I know that our individual creativity cannot be matched. We all hope that we can protect our work and continue to value the harvesting of deep, original thinking.

We are at the beginning of the AI revolution, and no one knows where it will lead. In the meantime, we need to support any efforts to curb the misuse of AI and keep writing and expressing our creativity to bring our brilliance to the world.  

Drew Becker is a multi-book author, writing coach, branding architect, and is the publisher for Realization Press. His latest book, The Joyful Brand: Personal Branding for Authors, Speakers and the Rest of Us, includes exercises to help define a personal brand and is writing a follow-up book about maintaining integrity today. He appreciates the camaraderie of TAF.