AI: the seduction

designatedvictim

Red Shirt
Joined
Sep 16, 2024
Posts
365
It's not, exactly about writing porn with AI.

OK, it is.

As usual, I'm late to the party. I have not been reading any on the AI threads because I don't use it for writing.

Sorry, in advance, because I'm probably just regurgitating opinions already hashed out here.

The term 'AI' is usually thought of by the masses in the sci-fi sense - a reasoning process that intelligently gathers and uses information to form new or refined conclusions. We're nowhere near that yet. Not yet, at all.

I think of it more as a web search aggregator with an much more refined method of collating and presenting existing information vs generating new information.

Now that I've highlighted my ignorance, I'll also admit that I don't use AI much. It's being pushed a bit at the office, but I'm naturally somewhat alergic to The Next Great Thing.

Still, I have been using it more at work and my manager is pleased that I've been seduced by the Dark Side.

I'm slowly working around to using it more because, so long as you know enough to doubt - or at least, question - many of its suggestions, it does have a way of pointing out things you might not immediately notice.

The night before last I was sitting at home tweaking my WIP and the blank hole in a place where I wanted a brief scene where the three MCs did something mundane without any sex or sexual overtones.

I thought "Let's see what ChatGTP can do with a vague-assed writing prompt!"

So I did.

Without being specific to my story, I asked for a rough framework involving a three-person dinner scene.

It gave me a nice, outline form: setting, characters, scene progression, interpersonal dynamics, rising tension, conflict, peak, resolution, then details to layer in.

It felt like being transported back to Creative Writing 101 in college.

It was, after all, what I'd asked for.

The result ended with its usual type of prompt: 'If you want, I can turn this into a fully written scene with dialogue—or tailor it toward drama, comedy, or something darker.'

Just to see what would happen, I said 'Expand it into a full scene.' I didn't even ask which of its suggested directions to go in.

And it delivered.

It pulled together - and I think we can all agree that it did just that, pulled together a scene based on what the engine was trained with - a full-bodied scene with background details, colorful setting details, dialog, randomly assigned names, the MC being slightly vague and mysterious ("I don't know if I'll still be here in two weeks." as if he was about to disappear on some deep-black Seal Team Six shit), atmospheric interactions with the host and the waiter, the plucky semi-comic lampshading by the other woman in the scene.

I was... impressed.

Not so much that it was good (although I must admit it felt better than what I usually do, in my personal opinion), but that it was easy.

No wonder people are freaking out over it.

And, like any tool, it can be misused.

Not so much as some vague Tool of Evil, and not so much as tool to ease your work, but as a crutch to pump out extruded story product with remarkably little effort.

TL;DR

I was slapped in the face with how easy it is to use LLMs to throw together bits and scenes and shocked by it's seductiveness.
 
I was slapped in the face with how easy it is to use LLMs to throw together bits and scenes and shocked by it's seductiveness.
All fine and beaut, but Lit doesn't allow AI. You should read the multiple threads, because here in the AH, the majority are over it. It's been a constant thing this last year and a half, and it's been done to death. We really don't need another thread.
 
I may be more sympathetic towards you, OP, than others here, because I agree that AI can be used more ethically by writers than it is in the infamous, "write this story for me" cases. It can be useful as a tool, even for creatives.

But: I think what matters is principle.

I won't use AI because I find it disturbing and disgusting that computers may replace human art (at least practically, in our capitalist's world). It's not about what I even use it for; it's the use itself. Any prompt I send adds to the ocean which is our collective engagement with AI. Whether or not my prompts are ethical or morally acceptable, then, they still (marginally) feed into the AI craze. Which I think sucks. So I abstain, and I suggest you (and anyone who seriously cares about art) do the same.

I also, respectfully, hope your manager is at least not a manager within a creative/artistic industry, because them being "pleased" by your use of AI would be very sad indeed.
 
Back
Top