Rita Riebel Mitchell
Rita

AI: And I don’t mean the steak sauce.

Life in General, Writing, Writing technique

Just Ask It a Question

AI (Artificial Intelligence) seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. One AI tool, ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a chatbot that can answer our questions in a conversational manner and is relatively easy to use. It’s free (there is a paid version), so anyone can try it out. There is also a ChatGPT app for your phone or tablet.

A Helpful Resource

I’ve used ChatGPT to create a few images for Friday Micro when I didn’t have a photo and couldn’t find a picture online that coordinated with the micro story of the week. I’ve also asked it for recommendations on ways to improve my website text.

For personal use, I researched toilets (we needed to replace one) and companion planting for my garden. The ChatGPT website pointed me in the right direction, but I double-checked the information because it is not always accurate.

For Research But Not Composition

ChatGPT does not write my flash fiction, micro fiction, or other stories. They are composed and written by a human… me. Many publishers have a clause in their guidelines prohibiting the use of AI to write stories submitted to them. They have several concerns, including originality and copyright. How do they know if the story is AI-generated? Software programs and websites have been created to detect work that is A1-generated, but I wonder if these products can really do what they say they will.

Publishing Work Produced by AI

I’ve read that some self-published authors use AI to write the books they sell online, on sites such as Amazon. How can you tell if something is not written by a human? One telltale sign is finding an author who has self-published many books within a short period of time, such as producing 10 books in a week or 100 books in a month. Those books are probably at least partially written by AI.

Will AI Take Over the World?

I know artificial intelligence can be a good tool, saving people and businesses time and money, but I worry. We need guardrails that currently do not exist.

I’ve watched many sci-fi and horror movies in which AI goes rogue and takes over the world, replacing, enslaving, or destroying humans. Will that ever happen? Who knows. Fiction sometimes has an eerie way of coming true.

Here are a few movies you might (or might not) want to watch or rewatch, to get the idea. Click on the links to watch the trailers.

Click here for another list of AI movies on Wikipedia.

For better or for worse, Artificial intelligence will be instrumental in our future. The time to begin learning about it is now.

As I learn more about AI and ChatGPT, I’ll write more on this topic in future posts.

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