My First Issue About AI
Probably not my last.
Last year, we discovered that Ellie loves cat toys, specifically the kind of toy with a furry object tied to a string, dangling from a pole. Julie’s niece gave us one that her cats weren’t interested in and within a week Ellie chewed it to pieces. We went back to playing fetch with her little stuffed squirrels and I forgot all about the cat toys.
A couple of weeks ago I saw a durable looking version of the same toy in the pet store. I bought it, trimmed the ribbons from the end, and reinforced the string with packing tape. She is absolutely obsessed. Her day is now divided into three periods: playing with the furball on a string, resting from playing with the furball on a string, and waiting to play with the furball on a string.
I’m glad I finally discovered how much she loves this toy, but I also feel like a terrible dad that it took me six years. She’s clearly needed this level of intensity the entire time and as much as she loves playing fetch with the squirrels, this is a whole new challenge. She’s already adapting, getting faster every day.
On Monday I had a zoom catch up with some of the mentees from my Start With 8 group and one of them told us about her experience using AI as a tool to help with her creative projects. A few of us expressed reservations and voiced concerns about AI taking our jobs. She said something that made all of us stop and think. I’m paraphrasing but essentially she said, “AI isn’t going to take your job, but humans using AI might.”
A number of us left that zoom excited to dig deeper and explore how we might be able to use AI as a helpful tool for our own projects. A week earlier I met with a producer who told me they were using it to create pitch decks. Two days after my zoom, the WGA released its position on the use of AI in the process of writing for television and film, which ended with the phrase, “Plagiarism is a feature of the AI process.”
Clearly there are moral and ethical concerns about how and where AI receives its input and what that means to the artists whose work has been plagiarized, sampled, remixed, and reused without consent or compensation. There are plenty of concerns about who will be put out of work. It’s going to spark conversations about the very meaning of the term “art,” and what it should be applied to. The only thing that’s clear to me right now is that this is going to be a long and evolving conversation. To call back the title from a couple of issues ago, this is all uncharted territory.
This newsletter is a real time process journal, so take everything I say from this point on with a grain of salt. To paraphrase Jay-Z, “What you’re about to witness is my thoughts, just what I was feeling at the time.” They could change by next week.
What I realized on Monday evening that I don’t know anything about using AI as a creative tool. I only jumped into exploring Dall-E for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I hadn’t so much as looked at Chat GPT before Monday, despite listening to a bunch of podcasts about it and watching YouTube videos debating its use. How can I form an opinion on something I don’t fully understand? And why should I default to fear before I make an effort to understand it?
One thing I know for sure is that there’s zero chance I’m ever going to open up Chat GPT and type in the prompt, “Write a story about aliens and robots fighting,” then use that as a jumping off point for an idea that I will then pass off as my own. It would take away the entire point of writing for me, the primordial pleasure that I get from the spark of creation, the thing that connects me all the way back to the very first words spoken by God in Genesis, “Let there be.” So much of my joy in life comes from the fact that I can start with a blank page and before long, there’s something that I can point to and say, “I made that up! With my mind!”
But I’m also aware that the older I get the more bored I am of my process. It takes me longer to get to things that I’m genuinely excited about because I’ve covered a lot of ground in the thirty years since I started writing. I’m constantly seeking new inspiration, new tools, new ways of working. This newsletter was partly born out of a desire to blow up my process. It is a newsletter devoted to “Thoughts about the writing process, creativity, inspiration, and innovation.”
My company is called Extant Storytech. I’m always interested in the confluence point of art, technology, and humanity. It’s why I talk about Peter Gabriel in every other issue, because he’s been doing it since the beginning of his career.
He gave an interview about AI a few days ago where he expressed his own fears, saying, “Some would argue that you can’t replace the human spirit — but I think there are probably going to be algorithms for the spirit, too! So, we might as well just grab the algorithms and dance with them, rather than fight them. … Unfortunately, I don't think my job or anyone's job is safe from AI. The way to look at it, though, is this amazing toolkit is just coming into our possession and we could do all sorts of extraordinary things, including perhaps — and I do say ‘perhaps’ — protecting our future.”
One of my favorite composers is a woman named Suzanne Ciani, the “diva of the diode.” Suzanne was a classically trained musician who discovered the Buchla synthesizer in her early 20’s. She became a master at creating music with this new technology, which looks a bit like the old time telephone switchboards in MAD MEN. She was the first woman to ever score a major movie and created the first original score for a pinball machine, Xenon. Xenon captured my imagination as a kid, largely thanks to her sounds and voice. If I’m listening to music while I write, seven out of ten times it’s Suzanne Ciani. She is referred to as “a pioneer” in electronic music.
All of this brings me back to Ellie and her new toy.
I started playing with Chat GPT Monday night in the most basic, rudimentary way. I’m coming to it with as few preconceptions and expectations as possible. I don’t need it to come up with ideas for me, I don’t even need it to make my ideas better. But if engaging in play with it sparks a new idea within me, if it provides points of inspiration that I can draw creative connections between, then I don’t see any difference from the spark I get wandering around a book store and flipping through art books, or going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about Forteana for hours on end.
Maybe it doesn’t have to be an existential threat or a capitalist’s wet dream.
Maybe it can just be… a fun thing to do? Like learning a new game? Or like Suzanne Ciani, learning to play a new instrument? A catalyst for growth?
Or it may not be any fun at all. If I dance with the algorithms and we end up stepping on each other’s toes then I’ll know it’s not for me. But if it is fun, if it leads to ideas I never would have come up with on my own, then maybe it becomes a useful tool down the line.
Each of us will have to find our way with through this new territory. Some people will just want to make money by punching in a few prompts and letting AI do all the work. I have zero excitement about making anything that way, or consuming anything made that way. But a true artist dancing with the algorithms, maybe that takes us somewhere new and unexpected.
Based on my early experiments I’m not going to reach those heights any time soon.
Here’s a prompt I gave Chat GPT:
Write a short comedic monologue from the point of view of a Bichon Poodle mix named Ellie whose owner buys her a brand new toy that she's always wanted but never had the chance to play with.
30 seconds later, it gave me this:
“Hey there, it's me, Ellie, the Bichon Poodle mix. I gotta tell you, today is the best day of my life. Why, you ask? Well, my owner finally did it! She got me the one thing I've been begging for since I was a pup - a brand new toy!
I mean, I've had toys before, don't get me wrong. But they were always hand-me-downs from my older doggy siblings. And let me tell you, those toys were not exactly in the best condition. Half of them were missing limbs, the stuffing was coming out of the others, and don't even get me started on the smell.
But this new toy? It's pristine. It's got bright colors, a squeaker, and it's shaped like a squirrel. A SQUIRREL, can you believe it? I've always wanted to chase after one of those furry little creatures, but my owner never lets me. She says they're "not for playing with". Well, now I have my own little squirrel to play with, and I couldn't be happier.
I spent the whole afternoon playing with my new toy, running around the house with it in my mouth, pretending I was on the hunt for the real thing. My owner kept looking at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. I was in doggy heaven.
I can't wait to show all my doggy friends my new toy. I bet they'll be so jealous. And you know what? I think I might even sleep with it tonight. Is that weird? Maybe. But when you're a dog, the rules of what's normal go out the window. As long as I'm happy and have my squirrel toy, that's all that matters.
Well, I better go now. I have some serious playing to do. See you later, humans!”
Squirrel toy! The accuracy!
I realized I made a crucial error in the prompt and gave it a note:
Rewrite the above but instead of a squirrel make it a cat toy, and you're kind of disgusted that you like something that cats enjoy.
This is what it came back with:
Hey, it's me again, Ellie, the Bichon Poodle mix. So, my owner got me a new toy the other day, and I have to admit, I'm a little ashamed to say what it is.
Okay, fine, I'll tell you. It's a cat toy.
Yes, you heard me right. A CAT toy. I know, I know, I'm a dog, why on earth would I want to play with something that's meant for cats? But here's the thing - it's a really cool toy. It's this little furry ball thing with feathers sticking out of it, and when I bat it around, it makes this really satisfying jingling noise. I don't know what it is about it, but I just can't get enough.
The thing is, every time I play with it, I can't help but feel a little disgusted with myself. I mean, I'm a dog, I'm supposed to hate cats, right? And yet here I am, enjoying a toy that's meant for them. What kind of dog am I?
I've tried to rationalize it to myself. Maybe it's not really a cat toy, maybe it's just marketed that way. But who am I kidding? It's clearly meant for cats. And yet, I just can't help myself. I want to play with it all the time.
I don't know what to do. Should I embrace my love for the cat toy, or should I be ashamed of it? I guess at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. As long as I'm happy and having fun, that's all that really matters. And hey, maybe I can share it with some of my feline friends. Who knows, maybe we're not so different after all.
Check out Peter Gabriel's interview!
Check out the Writer's Guild's thread on AI!
Check out "the diva of the diode!"
Xenon strikes again!!!