Even though it is the one of the main subjects of my novel Scenes From A Dying Planet, AI is not used to create my writing.
Following an article once which suggested AI could help writers I was shocked by what I found. I asked the AI to review part of a chapter I had written to see how it would critique it. I then asked it to show how it could be improved. In both cases it was very clear that the large language models used train AI incorporates every kind of word out there, including advertising and salacious hyperbole. That was reflected in the ‘improvement’ which i rejected as completely unsuitable. There in lies a genuine problem with AI machine learning. It is exactly that, a machine that uses words from every source without any reference to pitch, tone, cadence, sense, meaning and above all tastefulness. We all refine and filter every word we see, hear or read very heavily. We have a ‘rubbish bin’ in our brains where we dump what we think is inappropriate without us particularly making any effort to do so: our brains really are that sophisticated.
If you don’t believe me go out into a crowded area with someone you know where everyone is talking loudly and making a noise. Ask that person to step away from you, but still within normal hearing distance. Ask that person, once they are in position, to call out your name through all the noise and loud voices. Even if not at first, your brain will filter out all the sounds it is hearing through your ears and you will realise that someone is calling your name. This is a known phenomenon and is incredible. This can happen even if you are deep in thought about something else at the time.
Our brains are sophisticated and constantly filter, process, review, fantasise and re-evaluate, even when we are asleep. Which is why we dream. And writing is dreaming. A novel is a dream we wish for. A place we want to go to in our dreams. A world we want in our dreams. I will not allow AI to shatter those dreams or my creativity. So I give you the Newrick Guarantee – AI has not been used to create my writing, nor has it robbed me or you of a world of wonderful imagination and creativity.