Baldur Bjarnason replied on Twitter with a really important point that I think is worth copying here:
"Not many know that Amazon, for example, has been fighting a losing battle against machine-generated books for years. Most of these ebooks are unreadable garbage, trying to profit from accidental purchases in the hopes people don’t bother with a refund
"Some are just scraped from the web. Others are just pirated books run through paraphrasing tools. Some are public domain books run through machine-translation. It’s been going on for a while.
"This is going to make that 10x worse and it’s going to spread everywhere."
I think this is brilliant. And another 'advantage' to AI is that it does not get depressed by reading about people expecting a new book every month from an author, and authors killing themselves to achieve that. My process involves a great deal of thought and revision. (As does the writing of self-published authors I admire.)
I couldn't imagine putting myself on a treadmill of producing a book every two months. I'd hate it. I love the process of writing and I want to be able to enjoy it at a sensible pace, rather than have to just churn out content. But I can see how easy it would be to get sucked into that if your living depends on the whims of Kindle Unlimited readers.
To provide some context, my book "Bedtime Stories," which was featured in Greg's Reuters article, actually came to fruition due to a friendly wager with my wife. I'm optimistic that my Substack publication will achieve greater success! :)
No problem! As mentioned on the “Once Upon a News” main page, the Stack is:
Co-authored by #ChatGPT4
Voiceover by #Elevenlabs
Illustrated by #midjourneyv5
🏰📰✨
Success in this case means to find out if people would be interested and pay attention to news articles if they were reframed in a form of fairytales. Other than that the usual metrics apply.
So, the thing is, AI doesn't need to become 'creative' as we currently understand it. It just needs to be able to do what humans tell it to do, and for lots of humans to engage with it. Which is happening. Humans don't really care too much about creativity, if we're honest. They'll take formulaic and good enough if it's cheap.
the majority perhaps - big concern on how this impacts quality of writing and imagination. AI can function but i fear if we let it automate certain writings - intellectual though, philosophy, reasoning etc will suffer. these days, ask a young person a question and they'll look at you confused. this generation ask google not people, but forget how important it is for people to process questions, deductive reasoning, consideration, etc. AI can do a lot for words, but take so much from humans - is my fear. but i think it can also be a plus.
I agree that there's a challenge around the erosion of intellectual thought, yes. And it will be a challenge if people start using things like ChatGPT as a search engine, because it's not, and it will hallucinate quotes and references very convincingly to the untrained eye. But I think the issue around critical thinking, deductive reasoning, media literacy etc. is challenged more by an underfunded education system that teaches to the test.
Suw, you may enjoy my newsletter for modern fiction. some topics of interest perhaps there. I am actually 2 years old on Substack this week and looking to ask fellow Substackers to recommend me for a feature on the platform (I do only organic growth) - check it out :)
In my experience, the tools that we have right now, whether you want to call them AI or not, are actually a great Excelerator. When it comes to creativity, I encourage you to explore and be amazed.
Yes, LLMs and generative AI are certainly creating huge change very fast. I have explored and used them up to a point, but that doesn't change the fact that some of the changes they are bringing aren't positive.
The pure quantity, the volume, the bulk of material that these LLMs can generate is a force to contend with. Ignoring the ebook/amazon side of things for just a moment, the number of blogs and websites with nearly unlimited (and actually fairly decent) content generated will be difficult for all of us to manage. Much less social media, FB, Twitter, etc. You add in elections and politics...it will be challenging for us real writers and deep thinkers, who it may take a day to write 500 words and an LLM can generate that in less than a second essentially for free and 24/7/365 without a break. Fundamentally we will have to orient things differently, away from the "internet"/tech and more in person or "Proof of Person" such as audio conversations which as for right now can not be easily replicated on a person-to-person basis.
Baldur Bjarnason replied on Twitter with a really important point that I think is worth copying here:
"Not many know that Amazon, for example, has been fighting a losing battle against machine-generated books for years. Most of these ebooks are unreadable garbage, trying to profit from accidental purchases in the hopes people don’t bother with a refund
"Some are just scraped from the web. Others are just pirated books run through paraphrasing tools. Some are public domain books run through machine-translation. It’s been going on for a while.
"This is going to make that 10x worse and it’s going to spread everywhere."
https://twitter.com/fakebaldur/status/1631275747431071746
https://twitter.com/fakebaldur/status/1631275749364625411
I couldn't agree more.
I think this is brilliant. And another 'advantage' to AI is that it does not get depressed by reading about people expecting a new book every month from an author, and authors killing themselves to achieve that. My process involves a great deal of thought and revision. (As does the writing of self-published authors I admire.)
I couldn't imagine putting myself on a treadmill of producing a book every two months. I'd hate it. I love the process of writing and I want to be able to enjoy it at a sensible pace, rather than have to just churn out content. But I can see how easy it would be to get sucked into that if your living depends on the whims of Kindle Unlimited readers.
There are days when I am very grateful that I do not depend on Kindle Unlimited and never took off there.
I'm not Amazon's biggest fan, so if I can find a way to write without having to engage with Kindle Unlimited, I'll be very happy!
To provide some context, my book "Bedtime Stories," which was featured in Greg's Reuters article, actually came to fruition due to a friendly wager with my wife. I'm optimistic that my Substack publication will achieve greater success! :)
Hi Kamil! Thanks for the extra context.
I'm curious to know if your Substack is by you or ChatGPT (or any other LLM)? And what does success mean to you?
No problem! As mentioned on the “Once Upon a News” main page, the Stack is:
Co-authored by #ChatGPT4
Voiceover by #Elevenlabs
Illustrated by #midjourneyv5
🏰📰✨
Success in this case means to find out if people would be interested and pay attention to news articles if they were reframed in a form of fairytales. Other than that the usual metrics apply.
Interesting idea. Let me know how it goes!
intriguing post - AI is coming but can it overcome creativity? this be the question i ponder - nice work here :)
Thanks, David!
So, the thing is, AI doesn't need to become 'creative' as we currently understand it. It just needs to be able to do what humans tell it to do, and for lots of humans to engage with it. Which is happening. Humans don't really care too much about creativity, if we're honest. They'll take formulaic and good enough if it's cheap.
the majority perhaps - big concern on how this impacts quality of writing and imagination. AI can function but i fear if we let it automate certain writings - intellectual though, philosophy, reasoning etc will suffer. these days, ask a young person a question and they'll look at you confused. this generation ask google not people, but forget how important it is for people to process questions, deductive reasoning, consideration, etc. AI can do a lot for words, but take so much from humans - is my fear. but i think it can also be a plus.
I agree that there's a challenge around the erosion of intellectual thought, yes. And it will be a challenge if people start using things like ChatGPT as a search engine, because it's not, and it will hallucinate quotes and references very convincingly to the untrained eye. But I think the issue around critical thinking, deductive reasoning, media literacy etc. is challenged more by an underfunded education system that teaches to the test.
so true - education has been abandoned and outdated for two decades. I used to teach, saw it first hand.
Suw, you may enjoy my newsletter for modern fiction. some topics of interest perhaps there. I am actually 2 years old on Substack this week and looking to ask fellow Substackers to recommend me for a feature on the platform (I do only organic growth) - check it out :)
Great chats, and insights here !
Already subscribed!
thank you!
In my experience, the tools that we have right now, whether you want to call them AI or not, are actually a great Excelerator. When it comes to creativity, I encourage you to explore and be amazed.
and find investments in this space - it's a new world, i agree, chat gpt 4 is mega.
Yes, LLMs and generative AI are certainly creating huge change very fast. I have explored and used them up to a point, but that doesn't change the fact that some of the changes they are bringing aren't positive.
so true
The pure quantity, the volume, the bulk of material that these LLMs can generate is a force to contend with. Ignoring the ebook/amazon side of things for just a moment, the number of blogs and websites with nearly unlimited (and actually fairly decent) content generated will be difficult for all of us to manage. Much less social media, FB, Twitter, etc. You add in elections and politics...it will be challenging for us real writers and deep thinkers, who it may take a day to write 500 words and an LLM can generate that in less than a second essentially for free and 24/7/365 without a break. Fundamentally we will have to orient things differently, away from the "internet"/tech and more in person or "Proof of Person" such as audio conversations which as for right now can not be easily replicated on a person-to-person basis.