tl;dr
I’ve never used AI to produce any of my fiction. However, I have used AI in other ways, sometimes related to the fiction process. I’m no longer using AI in any capacity.
Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve given a lot of thought to AI. I’ve wrestled extensively with the pros and cons of using it (both to support my fiction and as a marketing consultant). And the honest truth is, I wanted to be able to talk myself into using it. But after looking at it from every angle, that’s not where I am.
For the time being, I’m swearing off any use of AI.
In the interest of being transparent, I’ve never used AI to help write my fiction. Not once. But my site used to include flash fiction writing prompts, and all of those were produced by AI. (I tweaked and edited them, but the first drafts were created via AI.) I have taken down all of those prompts, and I won’t be publishing more in the future. Some of the stories on my site were written using those prompts, and those stories are still live. (But to reiterate, I wrote those stories. Not AI.)
As a professional marketer, I have used AI a lot. I produced well over 100 articles and dozens of pages of web copy using AI to create first drafts. I used AI to brainstorm, edit, help with SEO, and anything else I could automate. In fact, I encouraged others to use AI, too.
No more.
It could well mean the end of my marketing career. I don’t know. What I do know is that any marketing I do for the time being (writing, consulting, web dev, design, and anything else) will be done by me alone without the help of AI.
My reasons for swearing off AI are simple.
- I’m not comfortable with how AI “learns,” often using human-created content without credit or compensation to the original creators.
- I’m not comfortable with the lack of oversight or regulation of AI in the US right now.
- I’m not comfortable with the environmental impact of AI, which uses far too much of our limited water supply.
- I’m not comfortable with the ways AI is displacing the human workforce—a trend that’s likely to continue and get worse.
- I’m not comfortable with the ways AI is increasing the wealth gap, shoveling more money into the hands of the super rich while shortchanging the majority.
- I’m not comfortable with the ways AI is being used to create low-quality “art”—everything from social media AI slop to poorly “written” novels.
In the coming weeks, you’ll see massive changes to my professional services site (storyweavermedia.com) as I make it clear that any marketing, consulting, coaching, or publishing services I offer are all AI-free. You won’t see any more changes on this site because the only AI content here was the writing prompts I’ve already removed.
If the day comes when all of my concerns about AI have been addressed, I may consider using it again. I don’t think it’s inherently evil. I think there are ethical, good ways to partner up with it.
But in its current form, I will not use it or support its use.