Something white bobs in the shadows a block down Roberts Street. It's February, and not unusual for snowshoe hares to explore the areas between human houses. What is unusual is how their white coats illuminate rather than camouflage their activities. The Keweenaw of Michigan's Upper Peninsula averages over 300 inches of snow a year.
As of February 25, we've barely had 100 inches. The unseasonable weather feels like a harbinger. Yet, it's not the weather I'm questioning these days. It's a different sort of movement and I'm contemplating tracks left across my WordPress spam folder -- a curious change in bot communication.
Let's go down a rabbit hole and talk about AI. (Artificial Intelligence) for any puzzled dairy farmers and cattle ranchers out there who might be wondering why literary artists care about the breeding cycles of cows. Though, writers are getting screwed, too.
Did you notice my intentional slights of keyboarding? My deliberate word, inference, and punctuation choices?
- "Let's go down a rabbit hole..." is cliche but I reasoned that I could get away with it because of how I set up an image of a white snowshoe hare in the introduction.
- AI (Artificial Intelligence...) According to standard rules of style (AP, Chicago, APA), a writer introduces a phrase before using its common acronym. I did it backward to use humor -- in my era of ranching out west, AI was/is standard for "artificial insemination." It set up my opinion that AI refers to getting screwed if you are a writer or a cow.
- "Slights of keyboarding" is a playful twist on the cliche "slight of hand."
Writing is complex as a system of written communication. Imagine explaining what writing is to an oral culture. Imagine, if the scientists of the future enable you to talk with your pets, how you'd explain to your python, ferret, or poodle the system of writing. You hold this pen, you see? A pen? Oh, it's an instrument to write with, to scratch ink onto paper, or you could type. What is typing? Well, it's another system of writing, but first, maybe I need to teach you the alphabet. Sorry, Pet Python, but phonics didn't work for me either. Hmm, I see your point. Snakes can't hold a pen. Can you tap the keyboard with your nose?
Think about how diverse writing is across the world. What are we communicating? Economic exchanges? Innovations? Solutions? Shared ideas? Debates? Righting injustices? Speaking out? Speaking up? Speaking truth? Expressing beauty? Entertaining a child? Entertaining the masses? Directions? Instructions? Educating? Consoling? Inspiring? Self-identifying? Saving stories? Saving face? Saving the world from climate change? Humor? We have many different systems of writing; an entire industry of devices and software for writing; universal and yet infinite reasons to write. Diversity is found in systems, languages, implements, genres, standards, and creativity.
Can AI replicate all the complexities involved in writing? Can it absorb the nuances of diverse expressions? Can it come up with meaningful communication? Can AI imagine?
In my imagination, I see a way of communicating through images. When I read a well-crafted passage that has voice and creativity intact, I can experience the writing in the imaginal. It's not the words that move me but the emotion of the images the writing evokes. Or ideas that come to life from something someone else wrote which stirred a response in me. I can imagine stories written in a book. I can feel the wash of a poem like a waterfall. Will AI be able to generate sentience? I don't need writing to hear the songs of Nature -- sentience can be expressed through dreaming, and dreaming leads to imagining, and imagining leads to stories, and stories lead to writing.
We already possess Higher Intelligence -- the realm of the imaginal. Imagination is the tool of writers, non-fiction or fiction. Writing is creative expression. Why do we want Artificial Intelligence? We certainly do not need it. Aren't we doing things too fast already? Why do we want to diminish humans and smarten technology? It sounds like the plot of a future sci-fi. While I acknowledge the importance and relevance of tools, my concern is the rapidly growing pace of our reliance upon these devices. And now, they are training devices in the arts?
And the advancement of AI is problematic for writers on many levels. It does not advance the craft or creativity of higher intelligence. It serves no humanitarian purpose and yet it can subvert the activism of the people beneath the power it serves. Who profits from AI? Not writers. Nor are writers compensated for the writing developers use to program AI.
Yet, AI has been with us for a while ("a while" is code for "my higher intelligence is too lazy to go use artificial intelligence to look up the accepted answer). AI has been helpful/annoying with grammatical corrections in programs I pay for -- Pro Write, Grammarly, and Microsoft Word. As the corrections grew more sophisticated, the AI increased. But often, it was wrong because it could not process context or creative discoveries. There is more about AI that I don't know than I do.
But what a great time for me to collect Spam Comments to correct the obvious AI writing. When I taught English at Finlandia University, I had a student who used a grammar checker on his paper. It also offered him an AI tune-up to "make your writing better." It made his writing hilarious and horrendous. Like these AI-generated comments in the CR Spam Folder (horse apple pile).
Language is a living, breathing thing like dream figures pearled into strands of communication. Will AI ever develop the capacity to create pearls? Another question is, why? For now, keep using that Higher Intelligence!
February 27, 2024, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about artificial intelligence. Use any genre. What is unfolding or has the situation existed for a while? Who shows up, AI or a figure of imagination? Go where the prompt leads!
- Submit by March 4, 2024. Please use the form below if you want to be published in the weekly collection. The Collection publishes on the Thursday following the next Challenge. Stories must be 99 words. Rules & Guidelines.
- Writers retain all copyrights to any stories published at Carrot Ranch.
- A website or social media presence is not required to submit. A blog or social media link will be included in the title of any story submitted with one.
- Please include your byline with your title on one line. Example: Little Calves by Charli Mills. Your byline can be different from your name.
- Please include the hashtag #99WordStories when sharing either the Challenge or Collection posts on social media.
I wholeheartedly agree with you but do believe I am in the minority. There are many who feel we should “accept” AI and many more who feel we should “embrace” it. I’ve yet to be convinced of either.
I’m curious as to why many feel we should accept and embrace it, Sarah. What purpose does it serve? What need does it fulfill? Have we considered the impact of acceptance on our imaginal spaces in life, psyche, art, innovation, humanity, community, and the world’s dream? Thanks for sharing your thoughts, though I feel uneasy that our thoughts are in a minority.
Preaching to the choir here, Charli. I don’t understand the mindset of accepting it never mind embracing and using it. I don’t understand the purpose of it. *Especially* in creative works. I definitely don’t I understand how this is helping us in any way. I’m having a Matrix flashback. (My son is home from college next week and I was planning to have a conversation with him about this as he’s a computer science major and they are necessarily dealing with this. Perhaps he can shed some light on this for me.) ???
I’d love some insight from a college student who is majoring in computer science to understand why they are making AI necessary to learn/use! If you see some light, share it with me because I’m confounded by AI’s lack of usefulness versus its use.
I watched an interesting interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the subject. He points out AI has been an integral part of our lives for a long time. He suggests we have to adapt our ways of teaching and thinking as a result. For example, teachers might begin giving oral exams instead of written tests, which would prove the student’s understanding instead of their ability to mine information from the internet – or have AI do the assignments for them. AI is distinguishable at the moment, but as it evolves, it will be more difficult to detect. There will always be those who seek a “quick fix,” just as craftsmanship will always garner the higher value over the mass produced. I don’t know about embracing AI, but we do as a culture need to understand it is already a part of our lives, for better or bitter. We as creatives will find our muses and refine our art, as we always do, and we will create. It’s in our natures.
Kerry, I want to look up that documentary. Tyson is definitely someone who would apply Higher Intelligence to the subject. Interesting about the test-taking. I think teaching needs to be flexible and adaptable regardless of responding to AI in the world, but it makes sense for us to be prepared for adaptations. “For better or bitter…” Could AI come up with that, lol? As you point out, AI will continue to learn. It’s the pace that is disturbing, as if deeper, slower processing is to become obsolete. Yes, creatives will continue to create. I wonder what AI’s “nature” will be? Or is… Funny thing, but since we started. discussing this topic, I’m getting a ton of spam submissions about using AI to generate content here.
What program did you use for this post? It’s excellent. I laughed at the AI clarification, and also was thinking this is a repeat prompt. It’s not, I was thinking of the Robotic Writers of March ’22. I was confused as I did write about an AI man but that was for your Farm Life prompt from a week prior.
Anyway, yes, this shift is very scary. It is good, I suppose, when the AI texts are so poorly written that we can identify them as such. But what about when we can’t? And now the technology can be used to imitate voices and images well enough to fool listeners and viewers. Duplications that can be used for duplicitous ends. Will/does AI steal written words? What becomes of copyrights? Of human rights when the machines are unleashed? Perhaps in our communities we should all promote ye olde oral storytelling or at least live readings of our stories, bring humans into a transparent circle. Does anyone remember Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences? Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence? Those are the types of intelligences worth exploring, developing and celebrating.
Oof. I mean a virtual ranch is one thing, and I am grateful for the technology that makes this community of HUMANS possible. But I don’t want to read text generated from technology; as you so brilliantly show in this post, that is not writing. And I heard a report on AI that shows how error prone it can be, how messed up “facts” can be; how it even incorporates and promulgates bias (huh, how’d it learn that?)
Sorry, I’m way over the word count here. But this shift is very scary.
Ha, ha! I see what you did with your opening! Beyond that and the ranchin’ use of AI, not much to laugh about with this serious shift. It’s been out there, in development, but it’s been recent that AI has had huge implications on the broader writing industry (the screenwriters’ strike was last summer and now AI can fabricate the “authenticity” of media sources and output). Technology has always been about working with Nature to make situations easier for humans. Chert was the natural resource we used to make spear tips to hunt animals we could not take down as hairless, clawless predators. Silicas, copper, tin, iron, diamonds, gold, fossil fuels are the natural resources we use for much of our modern technology. Modern humans have developed good mimics, too — synthetics, plastics, and now artificial intelligence. But why AI? We learn about its unscrupulous uses, and scammers have gleefully adopted it because even in its clunky infancy it still sows confusion and sparks reaction. We’ve only begun to understand bias. Will AI, built upon our biases, be able to unlearn it? We don’t want to lose our capacity for Higher Intelligence — which includes all the intelligence categories. I think psychologists also use four other classifications beyond Gardner’s educational theories, including emotional and existential (deep thinking/dreaming). Does AI have the capacity to replicate such complexity? Sure, but can it replicate humanity’s capacity for complex and diverse intelligence? It can correct our spelling errors but can it break rules of spellin’ for play, innovation, or shifting mindsets? Which leads me back to why. Isn’t it wondrous enough to develop and encourage Higher Intelligence? Why do we need AI? This is going to be the existential crisis of our era. All the more reason to embrace imagination and apply our diverse brain/heart/body powers. This shift is too unexamined to let loose. It’s too early in development to normalize into acceptance. And who is accountable for the risks it could do to world?
Totally agreeing with you.
I’m not on twitter/x anymore but, when I was, I saw authors talking about how AI stole their work so… I don’t know what happens with copyrights. I deal with this at work, too. This shift is scary, I agree.
I closed my twitter account when it became a black X. I never signed on to a black X. But even before that it was becoming less of a fun and human place.
Same. My account is technically still there but I don’t want to be on x so I don’t use it or add any content. Agree with you, sad as it is, that it was less human and, for sure, not fun at all.
I’ve not used Twitter since before it became X but left my account to see if humans would steer it back to the useful and playful ways in which Twitter was once used, but alas, I’ve lost hope on that front. It is sad because Twitter was once fun, too. And it’s further evidence that we are moving too rapidly with technology. There’s much to be said for the slower intelligence of deep thinking.
So, I’ve been dealing with a copyright issue. As someone who was widely published back in the dinosaur days of print and fresh digital platforms, my published writing ended up in Norwegian textbooks. A US law firm searches out such situations (presumably and ironically, with AI bots) and then garners royalties for American authors, which the Norwegian entities pay. But what about the initial infringement? I never gave permission for my writing to be used in textbooks.
Further, who is going to track down all the writing used to teach AI? It’s bonkers!
Whoa. Back up. Stop. No way. Norway? That sounds like an income stream, Boss. But yeah, it shouldn’t be, not that way.
Charli,
I played with this ‘shift’ here; There are explainations at the post for usui too, at my post;
Usui Phantom
Great 99-words, Jules! I was curious to explore the meanings of usui. I did not know about the term as a descriptor for sake. They way you used usui poetically was well done. In the practice of Reiki, Dr. Mikao Usui, developed the Usui system but that’s associated with his name. I also found this term listed with usui: fukurami ga nai. It means lacking expansiveness. Expansiveness is a cornerstone to tending dreams and creativity therefore, I’d say that AI is fukurami ga nai!
That sounds about right to my ear. Fukurami ga nai!
I thought so, too! 😉
If you are getting this twice, it is a reflection on old school posting tactics vs AI.
When I first started paying attention to the AI hoopla, I went at it with an open mind. My theory is, if I didn’t learn about it, I couldn’t democratically decide to embrace it, or not.
I also had issues with the name Artificial Intelligence. Tell me one person who is of an era before internet that doesn’t think of green men and space ships when they hear those words.
Giving it the acronym AI only makes it worse, because I, like Charli immediately let my brain go to the veterinarian showing up with whatever he needed to artificially inseminate the cows. So, I took liberties and call it by my own description that I mostly mumble under my breath. Apparently it’s for public dissertations.
Some of my favourite podcasts I choose to hit and miss or move the cursor to the half way point because they go on and on about how grand AI is and how they use it.
Trundling along to the shifty pile with everyone else, is not where I choose to go. Perhaps when I can no longer see or can’t clutch a pen or have my fingers dance across a keyboard, then I can only hope that most of the bugs have been swatted away and I will be able to use it to do what I choose.
AI is here to stay, and it’s been here for a long time already. How we use it is up to us.
To end with some humour, I need to reminisce back to the time, I made the decision to turn on the auto correct button in my writing program. My imagination allowed me to think I had a personal little minion snoozing in the backroom of the program waiting for me to spell something wrong. Unfortunately, they didn’t get much sleep due to my great capability to use Canadian spelling vs USA suggested that keeps popping up among other things. This afternoon they are on a coffee break, therefore no spell check or any other form of fix it has happened here, in case you are pretending not to notice.
Hi Ann! Ah, I got your comment twice. For some *reason* Canadian comments get help up at the Word Press border. I’m against it, but the AI Bureaucrats are the worst!
Like you, I’ve sat on the fence and even took effort to learn as new technologies unfolded. And, I also can’t get over the images already built in my head long before the New Acronym for AI came out and yes, artificial intelligence sounds sounds Jules Verne-ish. I wonder if the disconnect generations of our times seem to have or feel stems from the rapid rate of technological developments? Even our ranching pioneers built spreads based on generations of knowledge passed down. Today, we are disconnected generations because our experiences are so out of line with what newer generations experience. We are no longer “knowledge keepers.” Those podcasters, I’m guessing, think AI is “the latest-greatest” without realizing the longevity of what it is displacing.
You are a model of radical acceptance — AI is here, has been here, and will be what we make it out to be. But I’ll be a voice for Higher Intelligence and hope for collaborations that benefit people. I’ll continue to ask why so people continue to use their own brains to answer, as we are doing here. I’m not sold on the new “potato digger.”
Ha, ha! Spoken like a true Dream Tender Ann — you made your AI into a dream figure! That’s how we stay sharp in the imaginal.
I went with a slight revision from the first chapter of my upcoming sequel…A AYE, Matie…
I like revisions, Bill — way to use the real noggin (RN — but wait, we might get confused between Real Noggins and Registered Nurses).
I can understand the use of AI for non-creative, tedious writing, like in some areas of coding, or in certain aspects of business paperwork – those are the best examples where people I know have defended the use of AI, and I could see their point.
But for creative writing, it’s only usefulness is entertainment as we feed it a ridiculous prompt, then laugh at the obviously bad writing it produces, right? As in the incompetency is the point. Right?? *feel free to pretend this is in the Anakin and Padme meme format* (And of course, that would only be novel and therefore interesting for merely one or two times… I tried, but there’s really no way to deem AI for creative writing as having any long term usefulness. Nope.)
No real creative writer would ever be interested in using it seriously, and any one who isn’t a creative writer has no true need to use AI to pretend to be one. And as for anyone who wants to replace actual writers with AI, and is in a position of power to do so… why are you working in a creative industry that you clearly don’t participate in yourself during your free time? Go get a job in an industry that you have some passion about!
Actually, my own comment turned into the inspiration for my story.
https://elderberrytea.wordpress.com/2024/02/28/the-repurposed-program/
Good points, Nicole! I’ve heard the same arguments for coding, business responses, etc. My qualm in the business realm is that it replaces people. Who decides what work is “tedious”? A friend of mine is taking a yearlong course in innovation, and at some point she’ll get access to an AI advisor. So, as she innovates an idea, AI will coach her. That’s convenient for the course organizers and saves them loads of money. They invested in AI over hiring experienced entrepreneurial coaches because it costs less to pay the Bot than the humans. I’m very curious to learn how she will be advised and will stay tuned…
Absolutely — it’s very entertaining right now to read AI responses. I used it to be instructional in the classroom when a student used a grammar checker feature called “make my words unique.” Oh, it did! My concern is what we find funny could get normalized, accepted and even change how we communicate. I think we already experience loss in humanity because we’ve disconnected from oral traditions. I never thought I’d see the possibility of us disconnecting from written traditions but we are at the cusp. Of course, there are plenty of Higher Intelligent people, Creatives, and Dreamers to show how creative writing connects all of us in beautiful, aspiring, and even terrifying ways.
I hope it does not have longterm usefulness but I can’t help but think it can be dangerous. Awesome that you used your comment to inspire your story! Keep using that beautiful imagination you have!
While I do understand the viewpoint of it being useful for coding and business, and agree to some extent that those points have validity, I also don’t think it’s a particularly good direction to go in. While people are currently checking AI’s work for errors, one day people will get lax at checking, AI will make some major error, and then Ka-Boom! Chaos while people scramble to figure out what went wrong.
Good point about what counts as tedium to whom. Some people like jobs with more repetitive elements than others. And people continue to need some form of employment.
Another point I just thought of is the forgetting of skills. We’ve already experienced so many losses of skills thanks to modern conveniences like grocery stores and washing machines, and clothing stores – not saying that most people should stop using these things, I won’t – but SOMEONE ought to still know how to do things in the traditional way! That knowledge needs to be accessible somewhere for us to be able to relearn things. I don’t want AI to contribute to the loss of more skills.
Chilling to think, but with a loss of skills and diligence to check/find errors, we could miss the Ka-boom moments. Thanks for pointing out skill loss, too because we are seeing a lot of that, as well. Not only does that impact the next generations, it also makes the older generations feel irrelevant. We’ve expanded the topic so much, I have lots of different worrisome (and funny) storylines coming through.
I took the easy way out and avoided the conversation. LOL! I shared a BOTS from when I worked as a bookkeeper/admin assistant for Dearborn Ranch: https://tankatuesday.com/2024/03/04/ai-99-word-story/