AI Killing Writing and Creative Content

Is AI killing writing? I have been contemplating the relentless spread of AI in our lives for a few years. I’m not covering chatbots or the danger from social media robots flooding forums. There are enough articles on those without my input. My viewpoint is from the writer’s perspective. I’m trying to ignore the AI tool sitting in the interface for this website which can create content…

Most recently, I wrote about it in my novel Dissemblance. This was not the primary focus of the book, but rather a section dedicated to the production of a TV series.

The book is set in 2037/8, although I wouldn’t describe it as science fiction. The main subject is memories of an undergraduate looking back from that date. Here’s one small passage from the story about the use of AI to improve TV show dubbing.

“…the AI will have to adjust mouths to fit the dialogue when it gets done. The dubbing experts, or I should say the AIs, have that down to a fine art alongside instant translation into however many languages you want with associated adjusted mouth movements and expressions. It’s hard to spot any dubbed dialogue in anything produced in the last few years, given that the original is not an actor but an AI’s avatar.”

AI-generated versions, I fear, will replace writing, narrating, translations, photography, and even complete so-called live-action TV and movies. The trend is already in place. Green screens for special effects have spread to whole scenes. Animated AI avatar actors will soon replace real actors.

AI Killing Writing Impact

Writing

So, is AI killing writing? Writing, including new text, can be generated or altered in seconds. We are adding or expanding descriptive content. This is spreading fast from the grammar and spelling checkers by adding checks on writing style, reading ease, and passive sentence amounts, with some additional tools covering generation and humanising as well as detection.

What might be the reasons for the numerous legal actions taken by writers against AI companies for using their books to train the AI? Here is one of many articles listing the actions. So far, the legal case results have been mixed.

The list below is a features list from one I’ve used for grammar checking for a while.

Other tools go further into text creation. For example, blurb creation. This one AI Blurb Generator also has other tools available to create blurbs as well as text. I fed in the requests for a blurb on AI destroying some creative arts. Under five seconds later I had a blurb.

Of course other AI generators are available, not least the ubiquitous ChatGPT. Its input from me and output reproduced below in under 2 secs.

Have I used these tools? I’ve dabbled, but my content is my own, including so-called grammar errors and other mistakes. How long can I resist? I’m not certain how long I can continue to resist. If AI could actually produce marketing that benefitted my sales rather than Amazon’s and Google’s income, then maybe I’d use it for that. So far I haven’t seen anything that can achieve that without paying more than a normal ad, which doesn’t work.

AI hasn’t helped me get my books made into movies or TV shows. There is currently no quick AI-generated fix that can instantly produce a successful script. Yes, there are AI script creators.

Narration

I appreciate my wonderful real narrators listed via the ACX platform on audiobook pages and individual titles. I thank them for their work and interpretation. They bring their voices to my work. However, I think their time may be coming to an end.

Take Amazon, owner of ACX. A new option, Virtual Voice, has appeared on the KDP platform alongside the buttons to create hardback, paperback, and Kindle formats.

Here shown for Dissemblance. Don’t worry, a real narrator is working on that book. If that is published, then the button is no longer available.

The quality of the output remains closer to text-to-speech tools. Those have long been available and have an excellent purpose for the visually impaired. The new output narration requires considerable tweaking currently, especially for dialogue, but it’s getting better. What can we expect in ten years’ time?

Translations

Translations have long been available such as Google Translate.

I’ve used real translators via Babelcube, who I also appreciate, but again, auto-translate will take over. It’s faster and, for some, cheaper.

AI Killing images and Animations?

AI photography and animation are not just about deep fakes and social media jokes. I did one converting a photo of my son in the garden with our dog to show him with real sheep in the garden. It took under 30 seconds for ChatGPT to create it.

That was done as a joke, but deepfake scandals have shown what is possible. Not only can ChatGPT create lewd pictures of mostly female celebrities, but it can also create something from nothing.

I asked ChatGPT to ‘create a picture of a spy following a woman in 1950s style.’ There wasn’t much information available for the tool, and the rendering process took some time. If I’d been more specific, it would have been quicker. There are many alternative systems on the Internet. Could this be a potential cover for my next book? With refinement, I could have asked for ‘real‘ people or changed the date setting.

By the way the featured image is also a ChatGPT effort.

Music

Another selection from Dissemblance:

More concerns for creatives… The Grammys stopped two years ago. It was impossible to know which music had genuine artists.

Live shows have AI support for original delivery, and you cannot tell what is real and what is AI-produced. My various types of parents told me that it very quickly went from voice tuning and backing tracks to everything AI. No artists to pay. Copyright arguments didn’t matter despite numerous high-profile court cases. What exactly is a live performance or a studio recording? All the cases did was expose how many adjustments there were in the studio and on stage.

… The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations from the 1960s was used as an example. That was physical tape overdubbing. Digital replacements for tape and then endless manipulations of wave envelopes. Computers then took over to record or adjust their performance before AI took that to the current extremes. Did the artists know? Of course they did. They lost. The rights holders and producers lost. The AIs took over

If you believe any amplified live performance is entirely authentic, you might be slightly misinformed. My personal bugbear is backing tracks used instead of a band, but even cheap mixers and pedals can transform live sound.

The unit below (not just picking on Boss/Roland) has the following features for under £300 (less than a group of backing singers), and I’ve highlighted the real differences from previous generations of older pedals:

•   Enhance your sound with essential effects like compressor, EQ, delay, echo, reverb, and more.
•   Create processed sounds with lo-fi, distortion, radio, ring mod, and other specialty effects.
•   Automatic pitch correction for soft fine-tuning or aggressive electronic tones.
•   Harmony and doubling functions for creating impressive ensemble vocal sounds.

AI Killing the planet – Data Centres and Energy

The growth in AI has already created considerable concern with data centre power (and water for cooling) usage. Lots of social media chatter about that aspect.

Current energy usage is already concerning and may slow the adoption of renewable and non-fossil fuel generation because of excessive demand.

AI may not just kill off creative arts, but its energy demands may significantly hold back efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions. Another threat to the world.

AI Killing or Enhancing Censorship

One area that has received mixed reviews is the use of AI to impose or remove censorship. This can affect movie or TV production. For example, multiple age-specific versions of a scene where AI adds or removes nudity, violence, or swearing, thus allowing a production to fit with content guidelines. We have seen this with lyrics muddled or altered in songs. Rather than cut scenes completely have multiple versions.

AI Killing Writing Thoughts

So what can any creative do to halt this or adapt to it? Regrettably, the options are limited. The publishing industries, including books and music, as well as the movie and TV production sectors, are primarily controlled by large technology companies. They are only interested in maximum profitability, not the creative process.

I fear for the future of professional writers, actors, photographers, camera operators, and sound recorders all losing out to AI. How will they be paid?

As with all technological changes, AI will also take over other professions, but art has largely escaped this impact. Automobiles and lorries replacing horse-drawn carts is a notable example. When every book and piece of music is the work of an algorithm, what then for humanity?