But is it Intelligent?

On Sunday I wrote a piece of micro fiction for my exchange with Dana. It was a writing prompt piece, and probably the closest I've ever stuck to a prompt. Often what triggers a story in my head from the prompt is barely recognizable as the prompt when it's complete. There have been times where I've had to explain the this then this then this links that happened. But still, the writing prompt worked. It inspired me to write a story.

This past week there have been multiple stories that have hit my radar about AI writing. Or things that have made me think about AI writing. One was a guy who called himself a thought leader in his field talking about how he uses AI constantly for his writing. One, if you call YOURSELF a thought leader, you probably aren't. It's like being cool. If you are cool you don't have to tell people you are cool. You just are.

I know this because I'm very cool.

But back to mister TL. He talked about how it was all his work because he was the one who "guided" the AI through the writing. He gave it the parameters of what he wanted to say and so it was his work. But it's not his work. AI can only write what it's been fed as information. So not only is he not a thought leader, he's a basic bitch follower.

There was another story about how hard it's getting to verify things are or aren't written by AI. Because the AI detectors almost always detect that there is AI used. Even if there isn't. Part of it is that it highlights things that AI does and says AH HA! AI! But AI is trained on the writing of humans. Humans are also trained on the writing of humans. We all lift different styles from things we've read or enjoyed. My style is my voice. It's the way I speak. But I am not the only writer to ever have used odd punctuation and grammar to mimic human speech patterns. But trust, everything I write, I wrote. No AI used.

I don't even like it when PEOPLE tell me what to do, let alone machines.

And then there was someone who was so pleased with themselves for releasing a book they had worked on so long (a few months) to create and were so happy with the words and the pictures that they published. Both created by AI. Which makes me want to scream THAT'S NOT YOURS! That's someone else's work that you've repackaged as yours with the help of whatever AI generator you used.

And finally there was the story about the professor overseas who was hounded by the press so mercilessly on accusations (accusations!) of plagiarism that he took his own life. The same press that keeps pushing stories of the miracle of AI and of people who call themselves thought leaders for using it. AI which is a giant plagiarism machine. Why don't they hound those companies until it's creators take it offline? That would be a much better service than destroying that man's life was.

So why did I start out by telling you about the writing prompt? Because that's how I view AI. The prompt wasn't the story. The prompt was what got me to write a story. And I pulled from my head, from things that I know, from my sense of humor, and I put together a funny little story. But it wasn't the person who wrote the prompt's story.

When people use AI to write a story they are prompt writers. AI then goes through all of its files, everything it's been taught on, and cobbles together a story. It isn't intelligent. It's a cut and paste machine. It lifts entire sentences, sometimes paragraphs, from other work and puts it together again. It's why, if you've even read an AI story, it doesn't always hang together, because it can't. It isn't writing it.

See, what it cannot do is go back and make sure it works. If I write a story with a twist ending, if you go back and read it again there are always clues. Some of those I write as I go. Some of them I add in later after I realize the story is going to have a twist. But they are always there. There is always something that if you know, you can see, but if you don't, you probably won't.

AI can't really do that. Because it's not creating. It cannot think sideways. It's not that smart. It's a program that regurgitates what it's been fed in new ways. Like if you eat too much and vomit it doesn't look exactly like what you ate, but that's all it is. Just worse.

Don't use vomit writing and call it intelligent.

Just don't.