Not bashing AI. I have a hatred for it, but hey if it's for you, why not.
I want to read stuff writtten by humans, for my very own personal reasons, and I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way.
Currently, I stick to editions of old books from well-known authors. I guess that nobody will bother to redo Sense and Sensibility with AI.
But over time, I fear that this will not suffice.
So what are your strategies?
by betlamed
5 Comments
Honestly I’ve been gravitating toward indie bookstores and small presses lately – they seem way more invested in actual human authors and usually know their catalog pretty well. Plus asking the staff for recs usually gets you stuff that’s definitely written by real people since they can tell you about the author’s background and other works
Also checking if authors have social media presence or interviews helps, AI-generated “authors” tend to be pretty sparse on that front
I usually just go for writing that feels messy or personal, AI tends to be too perfect and safe. Diaries, forums, and old books still feel human.
Probably just avoid Kindle books and just read reviews on the books you’re interested in.
I’ll bash AI if you don’t want to. AI sucks, and it cannot create art, music, literature or anything else. It can only mimic the work of actual human minds. We should use it for medicine and technology, and completely ban it from anything art-related.
But unless there’s regulation requiring AI output to be labelled as such, I’m not sure how to weed it out. Maybe your strategy of going for known or classic authors will work, but that’s hard on genuine new writers who are actually writing their books. A podcast I like has started using the tag “Guaranteed Human”, which is so gd dystopian but sadly necessary.
If anyone is reading this who uses AI to make stuff, please stop. Please use your actual mind instead, even if the result is imperfect. An imperfect thing written by a human is at least an expression of something real.
Why would you use books, a medium that truly allows you to express your thoughts, ideas or stories in detail, just to let an AI express them for you.