A Note on AI

Look. Generative AI is amazing. But it’s also bullshit.

I saw a meme that I feel encapsulates it perfectly, where basically instead of creating a generative AI tool that can make our jobs easier so humanity can spend more time on our art and music- we created a generative AI tool that is really good at plagiarizing art and music.

That said, I have integrated generative AI into my day-t0-day writing routine, especially with my research process. It has allowed me to confidently write sci-fi stories utilizing considerations in science that I never would have had the knowledge to understand as part of my past writing research.

AI has also allowed me the opportunity to add fun features to my website that I wouldn’t have been able to do myself without either paying someone lots of money, or spending precious writing time learning how to code it myself.

As I venture into a new experiment with Serial Publication, I will be using Generative AI to accent my work and make it more engaging to capture a larger audience. Before you ask, exactly 0% of my prose will be written using AI. Given my seeming misunderstanding of the true use of commas, I’d hoped that would be clear already, but I thought I’d make that clear just in case. And let’s be real, ChatGPT writes like I did when I was a freshman in college trying to impress my hot English professor.

Self publishing is an expensive route of sharing my work with the world. For example, I made far more sales with my Mariana the Moon Girl books than I was expecting, but I still have yet to come close to turning a profit after the cost of publishing those books. As an indie author aware of how prohibitive self-publication costs can be, AI is just too powerful of a tool to not utilize while sharing my work with as many people as I can.

All of that said, I pledge that for any publication I make that is NOT online, namely if there is going to be a physical copy of my book printed - OR - if it is sold in bookstores in any fashion (physical and/or digital), I will be hiring a real cover artist, copy editor, and any other professionals needed to release my work.

For any online products that I make available for free, even if they are initially released under a subscription model and made free later, I will be using AI to raise the production value of my work. For the most part, my use case for AI in this situation will be the occasional image or coding a fun thing on my website.

Additionally, if I ever reach a place where I’m able to make this my living, then I pledge to stop using generative AI for anything other than my writing research process. I have too many artist friends just trying to make a living and make art to insult them by utilizing AI more than how I’ve outlined above.

If you have an issue with this, reach out! I’d love to hear your perspective on this. I believe in paying artists for work, but I also believe indie artists should utilize the tools available to them. There’s a lot of nuance here on what the actual morality is. I think I’m okay with where I’ve landed on it, but also, maybe I’m biased. I know I’m definitely against corporations getting away with not hiring artists, writers, and other creators because of AI solutions—especially since the argument of plagiarism with generative AI is a pretty compelling one.