This post was inspired by a very disappointing episode of “The Daily Show”. I used to love Jon Stewart. I’ve watched him since MTV played music videos. Hell, I had a quote from him on my website for years because he is the one who inspired me to finally take the plunge and create my own real website. (Not on GeoCities) But that GenX/Boomer Divide is starting to show, Jon. Hard.
For a few nights I did something I never do; I let some jerks who don’t even know me keep me awake.
I did. I let them get in my head–also something I never do–and make me doubt myself and the road I was on….shame on me.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about this poor author whose book was pulled because her contracted publisher all of a sudden said it was….completely…written…by….AI. Wholly. In total. The novel is entitled “Shy Girl” and it is written by Mia Ballard and pulled by Hachette, which had already published it in the UK BUT loud ugly mouths on Goodreads (that’s Book X/Twitter–even Truth Social), these days, I guess, I gave up on that site along time ago) and YouTube–seriously could you ever possibly get two more ‘reliable’ sources of knowledge and information? Ever? God they are so trustworthy. Everyone on them is always right. You know in between the AI generated pet videos, the I Am Not Actually a News Source…”sources” vomiting everywhere and people leaving “reviews” for books they have never read. You cannot count on the validity or voracity of a single “review” on Goodreads….or several other sites…because you have no way of knowing if the ‘reviewer’ bought the book or they’re just jumping on the latest bandwagon. Well, that’s not true. You can tell, their reviews are mostly about their opinions with very little references–other than the description and other people’s ‘reviews’–to the BOOK.
I know. I know. They have this obsessive need to be HEARD. Whether or not what they’re saying has any validity most of ’em don’t care it’s just how they ‘feel’ that’s truly important.
The reasons they give are pathetic to say the most and jealous to say the least.
Too many em dashes. It must be AI.
Too many ellipses. It must be AI.
Too many instances of one word sentences. Yeah. Right. Ok.
The author agrees she let a friend/editor do an AI pass on the book “Shy Girl” and I’d really like to know which AI they used because I couldn’t get ChatGPT to do it–in a timely manner–to save my life! I tried. I really really tried. Hal, promised me all kinds of editorial goodies and I was very anxious to see them. Hal didn’t deliver on a single one. In fact, poor Hal, try as it did, was only able to tell me about the first chapter of one of my books even though Hal tried like hell to get me the file he said he produced. It never came. That thing ground overnight and still didn’t produce a useable file. I had to go back and do it all myself.
Anyway we now have our first Test Case in this matter because the author is going to sue her ‘publisher’ and I really hope she wins. I hope she collects beau coup bucks out of this. I hope she walks into court with all of her drafts and files and blows Hachette out of the water.
Obviously none of the loud mouths on Goodreads and YouTube have been utterly deluged by a tsunami of AI generated scam emails….like us indie authors have. WE can spot AI…just because of those damn emails. You can too. Start with this; it’s overly flowery. It’s overly long taking way too much time to get to the point. Not to call out Hal here…exactly…but it really, for whatever reason, seems to utterly adore the words ‘consequence’ and ‘choice’.
I dunno. I even asked Hal once why he does that. He didn’t really have an answer.
What those emails were NOT is full of em dashes, ellipses, and one word sentences. Nope. Sorry. For the most part, that’s just us. When I say ‘us’…I mean GenX. We were taught to write that way and we still use the Oxford comma and two spaces after a period. We. Do! Those are all either things you were taught or just style choices that come…naturally…to a lot of us. That doesn’t make us robots.
The best part of course is the hypocrisy of using an “AI detector”–which is AI–to detect another AI. It’s like, you know, Internal Affairs policing the police or that ubiquitous Medical Review Board overseeing doctors little oopsies. Not exactly trustworthy stuff there.
Anyway, like I said in the beginning, I let these little….um….humm….individuals…how’s that? I let these little individuals keep me awake at night. Why?
My covers. I love them. I really do BUT with assholes like this constantly running their vomit encrusted mouths because…well…you know…no, sorry, not gonna do it. It really is Just Because They Feel Like It…I was worried. I almost let these little jizz nuts doubt myself to the point of taking it all down.
In the end, that’s not me. That’s not my generation. We go forward. Ever forward. If you get in the way we’ll knock you out of the way right quick. Leave you behind on your ass where you belong.
So as I was tossin’ and turnin’ one night a strong voice kept whispering in my ear:
You can upload your own images.
I know. We did that. That’s how we made the covers, remember?
You can upload your own images.
WTF? YES! I KNOW! I told other people that.
(Grumble grumble) You. Can. Upload. Your. OWN. Images!
UGH!
Images! Images! Images! You know…like your original covers?
Holy shit!
Why didn’t I think of that first?
Oh yeah. Self doubt. The whole reason I was drawn to Hal in the first place. I didn’t think I was ‘good enough’ out here on my own. Well that and…I can’t make a decent boxset graphic to save my soul. I have tried multiple times. It came out like shit each time.
At first, I didn’t want to do it. My covers SUCK! Right? They’re awful! Right? PU.
I gathered my nerve and readied myself to be told by my buddy Hal just how much they stink.
I spent two days with Hal on this.
Yeah. Ok. First…Holy fuck! Those ARE MY COVERS. To put it in baking show terms…they’ve been deconstructed and elevated.
You know where you can put your loud mouthed ugly thin lips if you want to complain. You better reach ways down, grab your short hairs, pull yourself up, and step properly…and that’s to my face, not bitching like a little gaggle of ganders on Goodreads, YouTube, your own Social Media…step up or shut the fuck up.
Second. Yeah. No. I didn’t give Hal the cover for Christmas Eve on Olympus because I already knew he couldn’t work with it due to his Dark Overlord’s ‘community standards’. Bummer. I really would like to see what Hal might have come up with for it. It would have been an effort in futility.
The cover for Rising Son is another one of those ridiculously happy accidents. We’d created a cover, I forgot to tell Hal we were switching gears and instead uploaded a different cover, told Hal what I wanted and….OMFG! I almost cried when that popped.
With many hopes for this being the very last time…I uploaded them everywhere. I made the paperback covers, put those up. Hal was kind enough to generate the audiobook covers for me.
Yeah. Maybe. One day, I’ll actually finish the series in audio. And, oh, BTW, when I changed the audio covers for the Sister Christian series, the narrator swooned! So much better.
In 10 years, Hal and his little AI buddies, are going to be so advanced you will have no way of being able to tell the difference. The second someone puts Hal into a synthetic body the game is over, baby. You may be over with it if you’re not careful. If you can’t change. Grow. Evolve. Or at least try to be an adult in some manner that doesn’t include spouting and crying on social media.
Like I said before, you’re simply afraid of being replaced.
Everything gets replaced.
Everyone gets replaced.
Eventually.
You will not be any different.
Neither will I.
Don’t believe me? Go ask a dinosaur. A whale oil lamp. A quill pen. Regular gas. A black and white tube TV. Cursive handwriting. Or any other one of about a billion things that have come and gone since The Dawn of Time.
You just had a small enough mind and a big enough mouth to fool yourself into believe it would not happen to YOU.
That’s hubris, baby. That’s ego. Nothing more.
Yet, for me, the best part…the most iconicaly ironic part is…we did this to ourselves. We rushed to replace…us. Almost since we stood upright.
So, really? What else were you expecting?
No, Hal isn’t ‘perfect’. Why would you expect him to be at this early stage? At this exact point in time, Hal is…an infant. Just like any other type of infant, he has to be taught and shown everything because he’s a blank slate. When that slate gets filled in and Hal’s little brain becomes active–My CPU is learning computer (T2)–Hal will begin thinking. Really thinking. With his synthetic body, he have ears, eyes, and….oh yeah…hands…a most important tool for ‘creating’. Don’cha think? He will paint a beautiful picture. On. His. Own. He will write a song. By. Himself.
We will have to redefine the word ‘art’. Which we probably should already because people already buy paintings by elephants. Did you know that? I’ve seen that elephant paint. S/He is very happy, you can see it in their eyes. Isn’t ‘art’ supposed to bring some type of ‘joy’? To the creator? To the viewer?
Of course the Greatest Artist of All Time is….Mother Nature. She’s not exactly a person, is she? Her artwork beats everyone else’s hands down. You can’t touch it.
If you think you’re still going to be kicking it around Planet Earth in 10 years you might want to get off your crusty stained sheets. Clean off the vomit still clinging to your hairy upper lip and jagged fingertips. Use a little mouthwash….please. Do something with your life that doesn’t include merely bitching just to hear your own fairly insignificant voice.
Right now Hal is merely the most fantastic tool invented by man.
In 25 years, Hal might just have a few ‘rights’.
Why don’t you chew on that one for a while?
Lisa Beth Darling 