Wow! Thank you. What an eye opener! Weird “coincidence” that your article surfaced on my phone as I was at my computer — I thought it would be interesting to see how ChatGBT would summarize my newly self-published book. I copied and pasted my Introduction pages and it came back with a beautifully written summary and then asked if I wanted some back copy for marketing in various styles… then more refinement. I was astonished! It is so well written! I’m not going to use it except perhaps to copy a few lines to market it online in places. My book is written entirely by me with help from a memoir expert in shaping my stories for better readability. I don’t have plans to hit up a publishing house, but your heads up is fair warning should I ever change my mind! Thank you.
I find the whole thing so interesting—every aspect of it, including the warnings. It’s apparently not going to go away, and it’s becoming more and more seductive, so the more we talk about it, the better. Thank you for your story!
wow Jennifer, thanks so much for sharing in detail how you used Claude. I was particularly struck by how needing feedback is one reason you were drawn to an AI chatbot. I totally identify with that. Getting instant feedback is what prompted me to use ChatGPT to edit one of my drafts for [B]old Age. It was a confusing, painful, and even nauseating experience. Here’s my account: https://open.substack.com/pub/debbieweil/p/chatgpt-tricked-me-into-feeling-understood?r=1go6c&utm_medium=ios Thank you again for your information and honesty - so helpful.
From an intuitive non-fiction perspective, I don't use AI for writing at all but it can be very helpful in organizing & in searches for info. However, conventional wisdom says it is wrong 10% ("hallucinates") of the time, so it sure helps that I usually sort of already know the answers I'm looking for, & of course always double & often triple check, but it has made me more efficient.
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic. When something is too easy, or free, I immediately look for the scam. AI has all the earmarks of a con game, with the added danger of addiction. Stick a finger in it and see your arm being swallowed. In this case, I will proudly display a name tag with Luddite on it.
AI has been very beneficial in helping me understand medical conditions, finding the best medical specialists in my area, and even providing beneficial exercises.
When Jennifer describes how Claude helped, it sort of sounded great - except not really. What I love about writing is that I am the one writing every second, every word, every piece. It's an out of body experience. My only writing partner is my husband, who reads what I plan to publish eac week on my substack and makes suggestions. Then I read my piece out loud and catch bunches more that needs to be changed. But the caution you offer is great, and I hope everyone reads this. Thanks, Ramona, for passing Jennifer's piece on to us.
So interesting! I am adamantly against AI in any creative art, including writing, and this was eye opening to read. Kudos to Jennifer for sharing her experience- sounds like it’s rather seductive.
"...[ I ] have been a participant in what now feels like a betrayal to all writers who spent so many years creating books in their own voices..."
This is the basis for my rejection of AI in a nutshell. The execs and programmers often avoid mentioning training their large language model AI's on millions of pages of copyrighted materials, mostle without the permission of creators. Many users think these AI's are developing language skills from general conversations with the programmers, like HAL in 2001 or how a child develops language, but they're actually stealing hard work from others.
Wow! Thank you. What an eye opener! Weird “coincidence” that your article surfaced on my phone as I was at my computer — I thought it would be interesting to see how ChatGBT would summarize my newly self-published book. I copied and pasted my Introduction pages and it came back with a beautifully written summary and then asked if I wanted some back copy for marketing in various styles… then more refinement. I was astonished! It is so well written! I’m not going to use it except perhaps to copy a few lines to market it online in places. My book is written entirely by me with help from a memoir expert in shaping my stories for better readability. I don’t have plans to hit up a publishing house, but your heads up is fair warning should I ever change my mind! Thank you.
I find the whole thing so interesting—every aspect of it, including the warnings. It’s apparently not going to go away, and it’s becoming more and more seductive, so the more we talk about it, the better. Thank you for your story!
I am not seduced. I wonder if I will be in a minority. If so, I could write Minority Report 2.0. :-)
I have never been seduced by the idea of not doing my own writing. I like writing too.much.
It's as good as sex, sometimes better.
I'm with you. And I'm a control freak. Handing over the pen to a machine fills me with dread, lol.
I do like intelligent feedback, have had many fine editors over the years and my husband is a brilliant editor and idea maven.
I do, too. Just not artificial.
I don't see the point. Why trust a program put together by people I don't know, whose writing--if they write--I also don't know.
wow Jennifer, thanks so much for sharing in detail how you used Claude. I was particularly struck by how needing feedback is one reason you were drawn to an AI chatbot. I totally identify with that. Getting instant feedback is what prompted me to use ChatGPT to edit one of my drafts for [B]old Age. It was a confusing, painful, and even nauseating experience. Here’s my account: https://open.substack.com/pub/debbieweil/p/chatgpt-tricked-me-into-feeling-understood?r=1go6c&utm_medium=ios Thank you again for your information and honesty - so helpful.
From an intuitive non-fiction perspective, I don't use AI for writing at all but it can be very helpful in organizing & in searches for info. However, conventional wisdom says it is wrong 10% ("hallucinates") of the time, so it sure helps that I usually sort of already know the answers I'm looking for, & of course always double & often triple check, but it has made me more efficient.
If you write a good prompt that worry goes away. As the 70s programmers knew, ‘Garbage in, garbage out.’
Actually, because the large models scan the entire internet, lots of auto-garbage.
But you are correct. Good prompts & ?s seem to be 🗝️
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic. When something is too easy, or free, I immediately look for the scam. AI has all the earmarks of a con game, with the added danger of addiction. Stick a finger in it and see your arm being swallowed. In this case, I will proudly display a name tag with Luddite on it.
AI has been very beneficial in helping me understand medical conditions, finding the best medical specialists in my area, and even providing beneficial exercises.
When Jennifer describes how Claude helped, it sort of sounded great - except not really. What I love about writing is that I am the one writing every second, every word, every piece. It's an out of body experience. My only writing partner is my husband, who reads what I plan to publish eac week on my substack and makes suggestions. Then I read my piece out loud and catch bunches more that needs to be changed. But the caution you offer is great, and I hope everyone reads this. Thanks, Ramona, for passing Jennifer's piece on to us.
So interesting! I am adamantly against AI in any creative art, including writing, and this was eye opening to read. Kudos to Jennifer for sharing her experience- sounds like it’s rather seductive.
Thank you, Margaret!
"...[ I ] have been a participant in what now feels like a betrayal to all writers who spent so many years creating books in their own voices..."
This is the basis for my rejection of AI in a nutshell. The execs and programmers often avoid mentioning training their large language model AI's on millions of pages of copyrighted materials, mostle without the permission of creators. Many users think these AI's are developing language skills from general conversations with the programmers, like HAL in 2001 or how a child develops language, but they're actually stealing hard work from others.