For those who fear change, technology, and the future, we discuss if AI technology is really that terrifying for authors …
AI TECHNOLOGY IS MORE COMMON THAN YOU THINK
T
echnology is scary for some authors who are probably pulling their bedcovers over their heads while hugging onto their old-fashioned typewriters, living in fear of the future.
Let me be frank, author-to-author. You have nothing to fear when it comes to AI (artificial intelligence). Even if it has been in the news.
To put it bluntly, AI tools are programs that are programmed to perform tasks. As a tool.
Jasper and Grammarly tools are AI.
Midjourney and Dream are popular AI tools used by graphic designers for amazing book covers.
Today, we’re using AI without even knowing it, such as the AI used for weather pattern predictions and for navigating maps – hello Google Maps.
AI is in the facial recognition tool you use to unlock your phone and that annoying auto-correct we all swear at when texting. Then there are chatbots and the way content is being shown on our social media feeds.
AI AS AUTHOR TOOLS HAS ISSUES
Yet, it seems AI technology does have some authors worried. When you shouldn’t be, especially when it comes to your writing.
AI doesn’t have:
🎤our fabulous voices
🍸our personality traits (that may include our love of Dad jokes and cocktails)
🧡Nor do they know how to build relationships with their readers.
Also, they seem to be breaching various copyright laws with some AI systems being sued by artists for plagiarism.
Google has voiced that using AI is against their guidelines for blogs. Yet it’s rumoured they are about to release their own AI product.
And marketing guru Neil Patel tested 50 million emailers to show AI was a disaster for newsletters.
AI WILL NEVER CHANGE THE POWER OF AN AUTHOR’S STORY
As authors, writing is a total immersion of the mind, body, and soul using our most uniquely fantastic tool called the imagination.
AI isn’t human. Although they may be babied by a bunch of lab-coat-wearing tech-nerds who behave like parents sending their firstborn to school that very first day. It’s a tool.
You are. Hoooman.
As humans, we’re weird and wonderful creatures that have a stockpile list of faults—because that’s what makes us human. It’s something that AI won’t replace overnight.
So, think of AI as another tool to help you, like the way we use typewriters, notebooks, journals, pens, paintbrushes, or the coloured marker you pinched from your child’s latest art creation that’ll live on your refrigerator door for the next month. They’re just tools.
As authors, connecting with your readers matters, it’s what we do through our stories.
And stories have been around since the dawn of time.
Because they’re shared by humans.
Back then, stories were shared by word of mouth, perhaps even via tablets (before Macs) of stone, to painting a set of dots to create images on a wall. Today, if you push your nose to your PC’s screen, you’ll still see those same dots! It’s progress. Just using a fresh set of tools.
What you do with them is where the magic happens.
Talking about tools have you checked out the blog post for the Top 5 Author Tools>>
Other free writing tools we voted for in the office:
Let us know if you have a great AI tool you love using as part of your writing process.
Pst: This fabulously divine excerpt was from our February newsletter. Where were you to miss such a treasure landing in your inbox? Join here >>
