Is AI such a bad thing?

Photo: Steve Johnson, Unsplash

AI systems are trained on existing written material and therefore authors are anxious about having the copyright of their work infringed. It’s large corporations that gain most from the introduction of AI and the big profits that can result. Professional writers whose median income fell to £7000 in 2022 are right to be concerned. There are also reports of AI generated stories flooding open submission windows causing more headaches. You can read about the Society of Authors response to AI here. Keeping all this in mind, are there any positives?

I’ve heard of people using ChatGPT as an aid to completing job applications. Any resulting text needs to be customised to the applicant and the job description/person specification otherwise it’s easy to spot AI generated applications from the limited variety in sentence construction and repeated phrases. However, I’m told it’s an efficient way to build a first draft and as there were 140 applications for every graduate job in 2024, I’m not surprise job seekers are turning to AI for support. (There’s more about the struggles of graduates in finding work here.)

I was interested to read a post on social media from an author who promoted the use of AI to generate marketing materials. She suggested pasting copies of book reviews into ChatGPT asking what themes, tropes and emotional responses came from readers. This produced a summary of language directly from reviewers which could be used in promotional material that spoke in the language of those who loved the book.

My first foray into the use of AI has been for a purpose unrelated to writing. I’ve booked a holiday in New Zealand and am planning an itinerary for the two weeks we’ll spend on the North Island (we’re joining a two-week cruise afterwards). I trawled through the Rough Guide and searched lots of online forums to put together a list of places I want to visit. I pasted this information into ChatGTP with prompts relating to the maximum distance we wanted to cover each day and asking for easy driving routes. I was impressed with the results and am now finalising our plans.

Have you used AI? Do you think it’s such a bad thing?