AI and Storytelling

 

Yesterday, Clarksworld Magazine, a respected Sci-fi magazine, announced that it was suspending submissions because too many of them were written, not by a human, but by an AI program, most likely suspect being ChatGPT.

For those of you who have not been keeping up with what's going on, there have been several  AI programs that have come onto the market in recent months, the two most troubling are the ART AIs and the writing AIs. These programs, once they have received a set of instructions, create the images.

As an experiment and to show what I am talking about, I went to a free AI art website (Hotpot) and imputed the following:

"Sword and Sorcery -- A muscular man is fighting a large six-limb alien that has insect  featured. In the background a woman in robes is lying on the rocky ground."

This is what the program came up with

As you can see, the images are similar and are not quite what I wanted. Granted, it was a free program, and the ones you have to pay for would produce better results. But there is a problem using such images.

These Art AI do not operate in a vacuum. A human artist draws their art from within themselves, to express how they see the world. They do the work, from start to finish, (Unless they are copying some other artist, which is another discussion.)

On the other hand, AI programs have a database of images to draw from. They take the input given them, sorts  though it's image database, and chose bits and pieces from those images, based on the description given. It then blends the bits and pieces together to create the images you see here.

And that's the problem: the image database. Images that belong to the artists that created them. it is using established images, snipping off small pieces of them, blending them with snippets from other images and coming up with a "new" image made up from fragments of old images.

This has caused an uproar in the artist community, as artists see their art being cut up and blended with other artists works to produce a new image. A number of tabletop gaming companies have already pledge not to 

use AI generated work for their products. 

The problem is that the longer these AI programs are around, the more sophisticated they will become. An AI program that has a ten thousand image database today will have a hundred thousand image data base this time next year, and a million image database the year after, making it harder to see where the snippets of the images are from. The AI programs are quicker and overall less expensive than hiring an artist.

But it isn't just the images that are being chopped up and reused in "new" forms. Writing AIs have suddenly become hot, promising to make your writing tasks quick and easy. Need a blog post? Just feed in a few key words, push a button and wait for a minute or two and there you go -- blog post ready to go. 

While it might be useful in some cases, it's too easy a crutch. Need a story? Just drop in the elements you want in the story and five minutes 

later, there is the story.

Only, it isn't that easy. Like art AIs, writing AI have a database they use to create the article or story. And like the Art AI, it takes bits and pieces of articles and stories, blends them together and creates a "New" article. It's plagiarism by a thousand cuts, across a wide number of similar articles or stories. 

But there is also something else: List most things done by AIs, there are a few things off. As you can see by the images above, it doesn't match what I asked for it to create. No alien insect-like creature, the woman in a couple of the images looks like she's sliding into second base. The woman in the second image has three legs. So, none of the images would match what I wanted. 

The same sort of problem extends to writing AIs. The longer the article/story is, the more likely problems will be worked into. They are not perfect; like any first draft, they need to be carefully edited to eliminate the problems. And that assumes they are salvageable to begin with.

For example, I ask another AI, (Copy.ai) this one a writer AI and give it the following "Warhammer -- A BattleMech, 70 tons, best known for its twin particle projection cannons." It gave me back the following bits:

"The Warhammer is a BattleMech, 70 tons of solid steel and energy weapons that can make short work of your enemies."

"The Warhammer is the ideal balance between firepower and mobility. Carrying a pair of large, twin particle projectors, it is arguably the most powerful BattleMech ever developed."

"Warhammer is a BattleMech designed to fight in the 3050s. It is built around the massive twin particle cannon that can fire a five megaton blast, the cannon being mounted on each arm. The heavy armor makes it well-suited for long-term missions but leaves its pilots exposed when armed with short-range power rifles."

"Warhammer is a powerful BattleMech. It is powered by two powerful particle projectors, one located at the rear of each arm, and capable of tearing through even the toughest armor. The 'Mech also carries two Class-50 medium lasers in its right arm to keep enemy infantry at bay and protect against jump infantry attacks."

"Warhammer is a BattleMech, 70 tons in mass, best known for its twin particle projection cannons. It has been noted for its devastating firepower and accurate shooting. Although Warhammer was designed primarily as a ranged weapon platform, it has proven itself to be an effective close-in fighter, with a variety of specializations making it especially suitable for that role."

"Warhammer is a BattleMech, 70 tons, best known for its twin particle projection cannons. The turian design team commissioned this model specifically for the Matriarch of Shear."

"Warhammer is the largest BattleMech, weighing in at 70 tons and boasting a pair of powerful particle beam cannons. With its signature "claw" arms and high speed, Warhammer can move quickly to engage any opponent. The Warhammer's armament is designed to make short work of infantry, light vehicles and even large machines such as air-tanks."

"The Rifleman is an Irian BattleMech of the late 30th century. Like other Irian BattleMechs in this era, it has a case of shell shock and is only suitable for defending other units from enemy attack, as well as destroying enemy units with particle projection cannons.[1] It has a top speed of 134 km/h for being a 55-ton 'Mech. A Rifleman carries a pair of CASE5 accelerators to boost its firepower when in close combat."

If you know anything about Battletech, you would see the last couple of the examples are wildly inaccurate. (A Rifleman weighs 60-tons, and the only way it could reach 134 km/h would be if it was shoved out of an airplane at one hundred thousand feet. Also, CASE is not a weapon, but a system designed to save a 'Mech from a death by ammo explosion.) 

Art of any sort shouldn't be easy to do. There needs to be effort, of heart, mind, and talent. I can't draw worth a damn, but not everyone can be be an artist. AI is cheating of a sort; it lets the computer do what the human can't. And that isn't good. There are legal questions that will go deep into the heart of the use of those databases, but it isn't right. Letting AI create art is not what AI is for.

AI are not the panacea some think they are, and they are dangerous in that they makes it too easy to create content. No matter how good they get, stories should be a human endeavor, as well as Art. If we concede either one to AI, we are that much less human and that much less creative.

Oh, so you know, it took me three hours to research and write this blog. With the exception of the image and the Warhammer quotes above, I wrote all of this myself with no AI help.

Later!!

Craig

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If you want to take a closer look at the Russian-Ukraine War Factbook, or to buy it, you can go here: https://www.amazon.com/Russia-Ukraine-War-Factbook-Craig-Reed/dp/B0BL5CRLLK/ref=sr_1_18?qid=1672081631&refinements=p_27%3ACraig+A.+Reed&s=books&sr=1-18&text=Craig+A.+Reed

or here:

https://www.casematepublishers.com/distributed-publishers/military-miniature-press/the-russia-ukraine-war-factbook.html#.Y6oA4H3MJ0w

For my other non-Battletech writing, all four of the Outcast Ops novels I co-authored with Rick Chesler are on Amazon and are part of the Kindle Direct program. In the US: 

Outcast Ops: African Firestorm on Amazon

Outcast Ops: Red Ice on Amazon

Outcast Ops: Watchlist on Amazon

Outcast Ops: Shadow Gov on Amazon!

In addition, there is a physical version of Watchlist here: Outcast Ops: Watchlist Paperback

For those in the United Kingdom,

Outcast Ops: African Firestorm on Amazon UK

Outcast Ops: Red Ice on Amazon UK 

Outcast Ops: Watchlist on Amazon UK

Outcast Ops: Shadow Gov on Amazon UK

For anyone else, please check your country's Amazon Website (if there is one).

Also, check out the other Outcast ops novels:

Outcast Ops: Game of Drones by Rick Jones and Rick Chesler

Outcast Ops: The Poseidon Initiative by Rick Chesler.

In addition, Outcast Ops novels are on audiobooks! If you're member of Audible, you can listen to them free! The audio versions can be found here: 

Outcast Ops: African Firestorm (Audible) 

Outcast Ops: Red Ice (Audible) 

Outcast Ops: Watchlist (Audible)

Outcast Ops: Shadow Gov (Audible)

The audios for Game of Drones Games of Drones (Audible) and The Poseidon Initiative The Poseidon Initiative are also up on Audible, or though Amazon!

All of it created without AI!

Please read or listen and leave a review!