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My Take on AI

I receive spam emails almost daily from people wanting to tell me how I can greatly improve my website by using Artificial Intelligence. Trust me. I will never let Artificial Intelligence write content on my website or write my blog posts. Furthermore, I will never let artificial intelligence write a short story or novel and then put my name on it as the author. 

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

Here’s an example of the emails I receive offering to help me write: “I have just took an in depth look on your  janetmorrisonbooks.com for the current search visibility and saw that your website could use a boost. We will improve your ranks organically and safely, using state of the art AI and whitehat methods, while providing monthly reports and outstanding support.”

Yikes!

It took me a minute or two to get past, “I have just took…” so I could glance over the rest of the email. I continued to read out of curiosity to see if there were additional grammatical errors. The only thing that would have made this email worse would have been if it had gone on to say, “I had saw….”

Thank you, but I think I’ll just keep plodding along and doing my own writing.

Fortunately, almost 100% of such emails are identified as spam. They don’t clutter up my inbox, but I have to skim over the subject lines before I delete them from the spam box.

Writers Guild of America Strike

On April 18, 2023, the vast majority of members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) voted to go on strike. Yay for them! They’re striking to get higher pay and guaranteed residuals from the streaming of the TV shows and movies they wrote. I applaud their courage in drawing attention to the way their work is undervalued. They’re being taken advantage of and this was their only choice after negotiations broke down.

Writers never have gotten the respect they deserve because their faces are what people see when they watch a TV show or movie. But make the actors ad lib and see how entertaining that is.

WGA members also don’t want their writing talents replaced by narrative and scripts being written by AI.

Granted, some shows I see advertised don’t appear to have any substance. Maybe the writers of such pitiful TV programming will find another way to make a living during the strike. They should.

Screen Actors Guild Strike

On July 13, 2023, members of the Screen Actors Guild in the United States voted to go on strike for several reasons. One of the reasons was they wanted better protection against AI. They don’t want their images to be hijacked and used in movies or videos without their permission. I’m glad to see the actors standing up against AI.

Another example of AI

I have a new email account with another company since the Windstream data breach fiasco around June 1. One thing I’ve noticed is that it tries to write email content for me. It’s very irritating. It starts throwing out the next three or four words it thinks I want to say. It’s worse than the words my iPhone thinks I want to say next when I’m texting.

The good things about AI

I would be remiss if I didn’t include the other side of the debate. The most promising thing about AI is the ability it will give researchers and medical professionals the ability to access information instantaneously that will potentially lead to new drugs and cures. Of course, how they will keep (or already are keeping) the hackers out of that process remains to be seen.

We all know there are unscrupulous people jumping on the bandwagon to perpetrate harm in other areas of our lives. The MOVEit and Windstream data breaches this summer are proof of that.

AI and the future of writing

Artificial Intelligence writing doctoral theses. Artificial Intelligence writing textbooks. Artificial Intelligence writing term papers. Artificial Intelligence writing essays for university applicants. Artificial Intelligence writing a novel.

Where will it end?

Worse than that, though

These are uncertain times and we haven’t even seen the tip of the iceberg. Just wait until the 2024 US Presidential Election campaign ads are running 24/7 on your TV and you will not be able to tell truth from fiction. You will see and hear candidates for political office doing and saying things they didn’t do and never said. It will all be smoke and mirrors and our very democracy will be at stake. That’s much more serious and dangerous than AI writing novels. It is our democracy being overcome by AI that should have every American’s attention.

Until my next blog post

I hope you’re reading a book that’s so good you didn’t want to put it down to read my blog post! But you did – so thank you! That book, no doubt, was written by a real human being who worked many years to learn and hone their craft so you could hold that book in your hand and be transported to another place and time.

Enjoy your friends and family, even if they don’t agree with you when it comes to politics.

Remember the people of Ukraine and the people on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

Janet

25 thoughts on “My Take on AI”

  2. Excellent post! I agree with you 100% on everything you have said. I started fighting the idea that some have that they are AI “artists” because they have downloaded an AI app and now they can write a prompt and presto a picture comes out and they claim it as their own! That is not making art. That is like making macaroni with a pasta machine. The machine did your work, not you! Art, whether it is a painting, a poem, a novel or a piece of music, a script, a play, or whatever, has to be created by the spirit, the soul, the mind, the experience and the hands of a human being, not an AI programme, no matter how “intelligent” they may be. And yes, also fully in accord as far as medical research but I draw a thick red line from that to other things. And this generation better be careful because if AI is taking over literature, art, entertainment, science and most all else, you are next to be replaced by a computer programme. I am an advocate for “No AI” and I can only hope that we all join, spiritually at least, the struggle of writers and actors who are on strike to protect their place. And we all remember what happened after the last actors/writers strike, we got “reality shows” ad nauseum! Cheers Janet for such a bold and real statement. All the best and I hope the NC summer is not as hot as the Mediterranean coast of Spain.
    Francis.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Janet, interesting reflections upon AI! Oh, those spam are annoying but easily caught thank goodness. In some ways I worry about the future with AI yet can see its benefits. As everying with life it will be a matter of balancing and setting in place the security – there is little will for the latter however. My son and I often talk about AI as he has just finished his computer science degree and this specialised in AI – a fascinating fast changing course!

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Thanks for these thoughts on AI, Janet. So far their attempts at writing English are fairly ridiculous, but I’m sure that will change with time. That is spooky with the manipulation of images. Could we please regulate that? I wish the striking writers well. If no one watches TV because it’s too boring without real writers, hopefully the advertisers will put pressure on the networks to negotiate.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Well stated, Francis! You said it more eloquently than I did in my post. You are absolutely correct. When you take the heart, soul, and imagination out of any form of art, it ceases to be art. And yes, please — no more “reality” shows! It’s very warm and humid here today. The heat index at noon was 100. I had to be out and about this afternoon. The actual temperature on the car’s thermometer was 99. I don’t want to know what the heat index figure is now! It might drop a few degrees in a couple of days but just for a day or two and then it’s predicted to be back in the mid-90s for the next week. Stay cool, safe, and well. Janet

    Liked by 1 person

  9. I can only imagine the interesting conversations you have with your son! I hope he will be one in the AI world with integrity and one who can help put safeguards into the system. Thanks for your input today.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. I’m afraid you’re right, Rebecca, that the quality of AI-generated writing will improve — although, if it’s no better with grammar than Spell Check, perhaps we’re safe! And the photo manipulation is quite scary. A friend of mine recently went on a trip. When she posted photos on Facebook (it was before I got hacked and gave up on FB) she indicated that she had removed the people from the photos. I was dumb struck! I knew it was possible, but to realize that everyday people could do it with their phones was a real wake-up call for me. That’s strange enough to me, but putting people in photos they weren’t originally in, having them saying things they never said… where will it end? Not well, I’m afraid. I hope you’re right about the TV advertisers getting the message that we’re not watching the shows they’re supporting.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Having played with the free version of AI that Bing provides quite a bit, all I can say is that 1) I don’t think script writers should worry too much about the competition yet and 2) I hope the AI versions scientists use have a considerably higher level of accuracy than Bing! I also hope they build in some kind of fact-checker at some point – Bing lies all the time and seems unaware it’s doing so.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. I agree. I haven’t tried using Bing’s version. There will always be people up to no good trying to mess it up for scientists and physicians. I just hope they can stay on top of things.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. No, I never saw the movie. It’s scary when you can’t believe your own eyes. I think all current and future political campaign ads will see the most dangerous use of AI. And we know from recent history that people are gullible and love to believe lies.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. I do indeed and he is full of integrity and honesty! 😀 Sadly the decision makers are far higher up but I do know there were quite a few jobs he did not apply for as he did not agree with the ethics or ethos of the companies.

    Liked by 1 person

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