AI and Publishing

Interesting Articles I've been Reading

Since most of my time requires my focus on ongoing stories, I rely upon RSS feeds and emails to filter the news for me. A headline caught my attention the other day about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and writing/publishing. I looked into the article further and found some interesting perspectives. I thought I would share the story along with some others that I reviewed in my research. The interesting part to me was the tone of each article appears to come down to two items: is your job at stake or are you a fan of technology?

AI Is About to Turn Book Publishing Upside-Down by Thad McIlroy gives a nice analysis in my opinion. He looks at the broader perspective of the industry as a whole and the disruption that’s coming. Those of us who’ve been indie writers for a while can already see the changes just in the ability to publish from the desktop. But what will happen when a retailer like Amazon is no longer needed by the readers? It poses an interesting question. While I might not buy into some of his analysis (or just have a more cynical outlook), I recommend a look at his article.

The history of AI and Research Publishing by Shrutika Sirisilla gives an interesting look into the tools over the years and the increased speed and capabilities that AI can bring to the table.

I guess I’ve been out of the loop since I was surprised to see that major organizations like CNET publishing AI-written articles for a while. While the article points out that this type of publishing isn’t new (AP claims they have used it since 2015), it does make me wonder about the liability of accuracy. It also makes me wonder about the next concern for authors. Funny thing happened in May when you see the article about CNET staff unionize due to this issue.

According to this article on the same site, Video Game Voice Actors Say AI Has Put Their Jobs 'On the Chopping Block'. I realize deep fake AI on voice and video is not that new but the point seems to be around the fact that the “genie is out of the bottle” so what happens now?

Finally, the most disturbing story for me personally came from Discover Walks News where AI Authors Are ‘Choking’ Human Authors On E-Bookstores. However, one example does not make me believe that Armageddon is here yet. Yet, it doesn’t take long to find other instances with similar results. Futurism.com has this article about authors using AI.

So, what’s your take about using this technology? I’m sure I’ve used it for editing as well as some quick illustrations (below).

Does such use make me a hypocrite if I’m concerned about the long term impact for authors/writers/creators? I’d love to hear your thoughts.