WRITING AND AI (PART 2)

REALIZATION

One day in June, at the beginning of summer in Tokyo, I was walking in Ueno Park with my son, and for whatever reason I started a conversation with my son about AI.

DAD

Baby, have you heard of Chat GPT?

SON

Oh yes. I've used it.

DAD

You have?

SON

Yeah, I used yours. You have Chat GPT.

DAD

How come you didn't ask me if you could use it?

SON

Do I have to?

DAD

Smart ass. Sometimes yes.

He shrugged his shoulders. ¨It doesn't matter¨, I said and continued to explain to him what kind of technology it was, what was happening with it right at the moment, about how this technology could change everything, to the point of possibly creating a sentient being. 

¨What´s a sentient being, dad?¨ He asked.

¨A sentient being is someone like you and me. We can feel, and hear, and see and think and dream.¨, I said. 

¨Ok, I see¨, he said.

Then I explained that there was a very specific difference with this type of AI being; They could easily be a million times smarter than human beings.

¨Wow¡¨, he replied. To him this was pure science fiction. ¨A million times?¨

¨Maybe even more than that¨, I replied.

He remained quiet as we continued our walk. He was definitely thinking about it. Then I saw a line of marching ants carrying pieces of leaves and sticks. I stopped and pointed at them,

DAD

Check this out. What do you think of ants? You, as a human being, as a boy.

SON

Ants?

DAD

Yes, ants.

SON

Well, I don't think much about them, dad.

DAD

Exactly. Why do we humans do that? I mean, not think about other things, other creatures, and how our actions affect all the other species on this planet.

My son thought about it.

SON

Ah, you mean like me with the ants?

DAD

Yes baby. Think about it, do we as humans care about other species on this planet? Treat them right? Care about them?

SON

Well dad, we don´t. Look at the zoo right here.

There is a Ueno Park Zoo. Very famous in all of Japan.

SON

All those animals would obviously have a better life if they were back home where they were born, no?¨

DAD

Right. Good example. You think we keep them in there because we are more intelligent than they are and they can not do anything about it?

SON

Ah, yes.

DAD

Then, and this is the million dollar question, pay attention boy. How would a higher intelligence, a million times more intelligent than we are, treat us?

He didn't hesitate.

SON

Oh, they would destroy us, dad. Duh¡

DAD

Good answer, except for the ´duh´. 

He was right. It is that simple. So, after all this time, a year later, 2024, I have accepted that there is still a way to go before we see a sentient being right in front of us, much less one of them pushing us into a cage and feeding us pizza and hamburgers and potato chips. 😂🤣😂🤣

WRITER´S STRIKE 2023

But in regards to the main question and concern about AI replacing writers, well as everyone knows we are fighting back. That was the point of the writer's strike in 2023. After five long months, we won. Or did we?

(The 2 links below explain the strike and what might come in the future)

https://cybernews.com/news/hollywoord-script-writing-artificial-intelligence/

https://www.wired.com/story/us-writers-strike-ai-provisions-precedents/#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20the%20contract%20stipulates,AI%20without%20their%20say%2Dso.

Yes, for now writers are protected, but in the long run, I´m not so sure. There are many loopholes. For example, what will happen when the main story idea is generated by an AI, and then the Big Studio hires

( forces) a writer - that needs to work - to accept a co-writing credit? Well, this could happen. And knowing how big corporations think and behave; more profit for me, less for you. This is just one way how they would do it. So, in my opinion, we are in trouble.

Now, another question that comes up is, how ethical is it for a writer to use an AI tool to help him / her write a story? I know this is something that many of us are thinking about.

My opinion; it is a tool. A new tool that can , if you want to, be used to help you with an idea, or be used to correct grammatical mistakes, or it could allow you to work faster and produce more. Which in the end is like finally having our own ´ghost writer´ or ´writer´s assistant´. 

So there it is, my thoughts on this subject. I know, I know, I barely touched the surface of this difficult issue that came out of nowhere and now it is here staring us right into our face and saying ´what you gonna do?´

I wish all of us the best. I know what I am going to do; I will continue to write no matter what. I am a human being, a writer, this is what I am, what I love to do.

Thanks for reading. Abrazos.