Two years ago, when I began writing Fake Creativity, which includes a fictional book within the plot, I had decided to use AI to craft those specific portions of the text.
This was because, not long before, Google’s AI search update essentially wiped my blog off the face of the internet (where I’d previously enjoyed writing and sharing stories). If I had to trace Fake Creativity back to any one point, that was the moment of its inception. What happened to my blog made me extremely worried about the future of art and authenticity and I envisioned a book that warned of how blurry that line between art and imitation would become, one which laid out a terrifying example within its own pages.
Initially a little over 3% of my novel was generated from prompts to match a fictional best-selling romance novel within the plot of Fake Creativity. After multiple rewrites and editing passes by myself, and then subsequently a professional editor, I would say at least another whole percentage point (if not more), was knocked off the total words that were generated by AI.
I knew doing this would call into question my own authenticity, but I believed in the message I wanted to tell with Fake Creativity so much that I risked the entire future of my writing career on the decision.
I’m still thousands of dollars in the hole on this book, but one day I hope to donate a large portion of its proceeds to organizations and nonprofits that work toward safeguarding us against AI and protecting our privacy and ownership of our own data and creations.
But the craziest thing about all of this is the reality I tried to warn about in Fake Creativity, seems to have come even faster than I could have ever imagined.
Books are being accused of AI left and right, but in truth there is no definitive way to know if it was used in the process or not. That is unless the author comes out and says it. For those who have already read my book, you know that I used AI with intent and purpose, and for those who haven’t you can read more about my use here (but doing so may spoil the story): The use of AI in ‘Fake Creativity’ – Blake Loch
AI isn’t going away, and people will continue to use it to ‘attempt’ to make art. We can try to cancel them all we want, but the way we’re often going about it, isn’t much different than the witch trials of long-ago. As a result, innocent creatives will get in harm’s way, and maybe have their creative passion destroyed purely because of false accusations. Sure, these efforts might out a few bad apples, but the damage to the entire world of art might be irreparable.
I strongly believe we must let each individual work speak for itself. Until there is a way to prove the authenticity of each and every piece of art, we must merely let them exist.
Regardless of whether AI was used or not, all content needs to be judged purely on its merits. We are an intelligent species, and we need to have faith that we can appropriately evaluate any work on its quality, authenticity, and originality.
We currently reside in a time where a budding writer may be accused of using AI simply because they are inexperienced. As a society with the internet at our disposal, where opinions echo and grow exponentially, we may unjustly crush their dreams, even though they might have gone on to practice and become the next Hemingway or Shakespeare.
We need to be extremely careful in how we handle this issue of AI and think long and hard about viable solutions for the future.