Writer's Guide 101 (Wattpad Edition)

LXXXII. The Biggest Lessons AI Taught Me (HOT TAKE)

To be honest, I admire and hate AI! It amazes me how a machine is able to write a whole novel, imitate Hayao Miyazaki's iconic art style and alter images as shown in the case of Zhang Jingna whose photograph was passed through OpenAI's newest image model against her wishes.
    At the same time, I hate it as a lot of these AI bros kept shoving down our throats how a machine can do better than me. No way, José! I doubt a machine alone can create something beautiful and stop anyone from appreciating genuine human talent.
    I believe AI could work well if there were regulations where people are able to prevent any scummy users from using images without consent. Seriously, why hasn't anyone patented a hi-tech seal or watermark technology that actually protects your art or books? No matter how hard they try to force us to embrace AI, it will just continue to push many people to seek projects made by real humans.
    Those things become a novelty to sought after. Even Wattpad is becoming riddled with AI from using them in moderating the platform to many users having their book covers made with it. No offense but if you're gonna use AI on your books, don't expect me to engage with you!
I think AI can somehow work if you're using it for reference and not claiming ownership or profiting off of it. It is a shame to see AI-generated books here on Wattpad that I kind of have play "Where's Waldo?" in terms of closely examining everything before interacting with them.
    Speaking of books, it has come to my attention that Meta is also feeding off pirated books from various authors, big or small, on LibGen (which is kind of like an archive of different published materials ranging from academic papers to comic books).
    I first heard about it from Daniel Greene's recent Fantasy News video where he goes deep into how you're able to find out if you or someone else has had their works stolen. I recommend you guys check it out if you're interested.
    If you're one of those folks who's fallen victim to this AI shtick, all you could do is spread awareness about it and try educating yourself about copyright laws regarding this. I keep thinking about how hard it is for ordinary folks like many of us who might not be able to afford a lawyer and file a DMCA takedown.
    As much as I hate fearing to post my stuff online, it also taught me to limit how much content ranging from WIPs to illustrations I can share. You could say I should hop on to Cara which is a new platform that literally prevents AI from scrapping off your works.
   However, Cara doesn't have a wider reach as it's mainly a portfolio site for artists. If you wish to get commissions and build a huge audience, then you should be able to be where your potential clients are. You've also gotta appeal to non-creatives as well.
    You could say that AI is much faster and affordable, that it's not so different with people taking inspiration from other writers and artists. Now, here's the thing! A machine doesn't exactly understand the importance of consent and originality. A person, on the other hand, can at least give credit and have a level of understanding about what they're working on.
    AI is unable to fill in the gaps so it's no surprise why they're chock full of errors in an attempt to copy someone's work. I think Wattpad and other platforms could benefit from tagging any books made by AI and flagging users who fail to indicate the use of AI. Let us not forget the harm AI has on the environment.
   It runs on multiple computers just to perform a task which require tons of energy. Just imagine how much fossil fuel typing a single prompt cost!
   Unless we set some regulations on AI, it ends up becoming a dying fad alongside those NFTs and Cryptos.
    I know someone out there is huffing and about to angrily type their comments on why they think I'm wrong as they threaten to cancel me on Wattpad, but please don't do that! Let this be an open conversation so if I ever miss anything, kindly let me know. I want this to be an informative segment in this book.
    AI can never fully replace human talent in my eyes. A wise man once said "I would rather have AI help me do my laundry and chores than do my job." If anything, you're better off looking at an amateur twelve-year-old artist's work on MS Paint than a hollow schlop regurgitated by a machine.