Back when we were shooting Gemini Rising during the digital stone age, I recall the habitual stoner guitarist Jah (beautifully portrayed by Matt Fischer) improvising a line of dialogue that proved to be quite prescient nearly twenty years later. 

AI has become inevitable, and, like the switch from vinyl to cassette, I’m not sure how I feel about it. The problem is, no one asked me then, and certainly no one cares now.

It’s everywhere and has been for a while. But more and more, I see it encroaching on the creative space like some kind of Cthulian (try writing that one without spellcheck) vaporous monster. Apparently, you can write an entire shitty (romance? tee-hee) novel using it, upload it to Amazon along with an equally shitty cover, and rake in the cash. As an indie author who’s yet to hit “Shrimp” status on the 20Bookto50K Facebook Group, it’s, frankly, tempting to create a new pen name, feed the A.I. monster, and have it spit out next month’s PECO bill.

There’s only one big problem with that: it’s not why I write, not why I create. To quote a genius who’s inspired centuries of writers: I cannot heave my heart into my mouth enough to fake that. And also, I enjoy the writing process too much to take that leap.

So, have I ever used AI? Full disclosure, yes! I’ve run my prose through Grammarly for years. It’s good at catching errors that slip by my blind spots, although I typically ignore its stylistic suggestions. And most recently, I’ve asked Chatgpt to “tighten” the ad copy for some of my Facebook posts, and although it’s been enlightening to see how much I suck at writing ad copy for my own books–much too humble and beseeching, I see how my friendly chatbot assistant could be as seductive as a gorgeous secretary in a sleazy 70s potboiler when it comes to “expanding my ideas.” So far, I’ve resisted, although a reviewer recently accused me of using it in a book written before I’d ever heard of generative AI. For the record, I’ve always used em dashes (although I prefer parentheses). 

It’s a weird time, and I’m not militant, like some of my peers, about other authors using it. I get it, and I also get that books written by real people are better. And speaking of sleazy 70s potboilers, I’m currently chewing my way through a well-thumbed copy of Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side of Midnight and loving every minute of it. 

Okay. One last AI confession. While burning the midnight oil the other night, I cheekily asked ChatGPT to create a portrait of the characters from my soon-to-be-released novel, Black and Blue Ivy. I fed it the character descriptions, asked it to make a picture resembling an old V.C. Andrews cover, and this is what it spit out. And frankly, I’m astonished (and frightened) at how closely these characters resemble the ones formed in my head now committed to the page. Dare I use this image in my promotional materials? 

I admit, it’s tempting. Would I prefer hiring a real artist for the job? If I had thousands of extra dollars lying around I would, but I’m already spending hard-on money on actual cover designers, line editors, ad creators–real people with real skills whom I’m happy to hire for the job. But this picture is so cool. It sums up the theme and style of my story so well, and if it got eyeballs on my book… Again, seductive.

As you can plainly see, I’m somewhat torn. Are the La Résistance authors who blatantly refuse to engage in anything AI and who love to call out anyone who does the true heroes, or are their careers destined to perish on the barricades while the robots take over?

I don’t know, and I’m frankly a bit scared to find out. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your honest thoughts about this topic. 

*No AI was used to write this post. All awkward phrasings and clunky metaphors are my own.