AI is Bad for Writers. Stop it.

We’ve heard the arguments about using AI as a resource as a writer. Recently someone said “it’s like a calculator, but if I’d read every book ever. Why wouldn’t I use it?” And we’ve also heard “sometimes it’s easier to bounce some ideas off of someone.”  People have said they find they think better when in conversation with ChatGPT. We have heard all of these things. And the galling absurd “it’s here, we have to learn how to work with it.”  What on earth are you people talking about? We’re of the concensus that the mental gymnastics it takes to justify using AI aren’t worth it. The case for not using it is obvious but because a lot of people feel a need to try to prove this wrong… here are five reasons.  It feels important to mention why we’re choosing not to use AI in Story Hug – to the best of our ability. Which is really the first point: 

1. We’re increasingly being forced into it.

   This is mainly the thing that drives us to stay back from the use of AI. It’s breaking the internet. You’re feeling it, too. Stuff that used to work fine is no longer working fine. The rush to put AI into everything is absolutely causing problems. And the hoops one must now jump through to turn AI off in settings will likely become more and more onerous. Ultimately, in order for AI to work, businesses are going to have to cede a massive amount of control of their systems to the companies that manage and operate AI. And while we’re not worried the robots will come to eat us, we are worried about consolidating that much power over what kinds of things get fed to us.

2. It’s stealing your idea.

   One of the things students always ask is whether or not they should send their story into the world because “what if someone steals it?” The answer is that someone is likely also writing the idea you have and what will make that idea special is YOUR take on it. The first one of you to get that story to market wins. But with AI? Not only are you telling it YOUR version of a story, you’re giving it consent to then use that story to inform someone else’s story. In a rush to get your story onto paper, you’ve given it away to a robot because it feels like it’s giving you a competitive edge. What you’re doing instead is giving YOUR version, the one valuable thing you have – away.

3. It’s stealing your money.

   If you’ve ever spent time with anyone writing a novel, or written one yourself, you watch a process whereby a really important and beautiful thing happens. For years. For very little money. In the world where that effort pays off. (And it does! Really!)  – a tech company then takes your work, and lets anyone have it. For free. Why? Because we’ve ceded this ground. Tech companies genuinely believe they own your work the moment it is published. And they simply don’t. AI is making money for them based on the intellectual property of everyone.  And they’re winning lawsuits. Centuries of intellectual property? Erased.

4. It’s what the power structures want.

   It’s long been said that TV and Movies are an industry run by people who hate to read. The casualness with which we hear executives say things like “AI is here and we have to accept it” is really another way to say “we don’t need a writer.” You’re handing your creativity to someone who is trying to make money off of it – for them. Not you. This is how we will watch creativity circle a drain. The dangers of using AI as a writing tool is that all it can do is tell you what the audience expects to happen. That’s what Story Hug is meant to teach you.

5. It’s drinking Lake Tahoe.

   Not specifically that lake. But every question you ask an AI costs the world an eight ounce glass of water. Each question. Not session. In order to cool the servers, companies must use enormous amounts of water. Equivalent to, yeah, a glass of water. That’s a staggering amount of waste.  And for what? So you can process your own brain faster? Incredibly damning studies are being done at this moment that all say pretty much the same thing: the more we outsource the things that make our own brains work – the more we lose the ability to use our own brains.