A.I. assisted writing

[brendancody]

Apologies if this is already posted somewhere, and for being off the forum for a while, but I was wondering what people in the colony think about the future of A.I. (artificial intelligence) assisted writing. I've always considered AI to be a bit of a misnomer. These type of systems are mostly all machine learning - you provide a big body of information (like all the books in a library) and the AI system just builds a map of patterns that it notices. That's a simplistic explanation of what they do, but it does mean that they don't really "do" originality.

I came across this article below, and what I find interesting (and a bit depressing) is that writing in some markets is becoming a production line, and some writers will resort to AI systems as a shortcut to save some time and work.

Can AI write good novels?

Authors are getting a hand from machine learning tools — and some of them think it’s the future of writing.

www.theverge.com

"Lepp [..] allots herself precisely 49 days to write and self-edit a book. This pace, she said, is just on the cusp of being unsustainably slow. She once surveyed her mailing list to ask how long readers would wait between books before abandoning her for another writer. The average was four months. Writer’s block is a luxury she can’t afford."

"Readers, especially readers of genre fiction, like the familiar, she said, the same basic form with a slightly different twist or setting. It’s precisely the sort of thing AI should be able to handle. 'I think that’s the real danger, that you can do that and then nothing’s original anymore. Everything’s just a copy of something else,' she said. 'The problem is, that’s what readers like.'"

Thoughts?

 

[Hannah F]

She's only talking about some writers. If I like a book and see the author has written loads more but find on reading the third book (I tend to be lenient in judgement for the second one) that it is more or less a carbon copy, that's it. I'll seek another author. My reading friends do the same as me. I suspect it probably depends on what genres she's referring to as well.

 

[Hannah F]

As AI works with input and algorithms, I suspect it will pepper its prose with a preposterous number of cliches.

 

[brendancody]

She's only talking about some writers. If I like a book and see the author has written loads more but find on reading the third book (I tend to be lenient in judgement for the second one) that it is more or less a carbon copy, that's it. I'll seek another author. My reading friends do the same as me. I suspect it probably depends on what genres she's referring to as well.

It seems to be particular to niche sub-genres in digital publishing. With fast fiction, just like fast food, I suppose you get what you pay for, and expect!