Happy Saturday! It’s cool(er) and though it might rain, that wouldn’t stop David and me from enjoying a cool refreshing beverage. David’s itching to ask me something, so let’s look at Linda’s prompt and see if we can work it out.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “plug.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Well, I could check that box with a plug for the book Willow and I recently released. But that can wait. If we were having a beer, you’d be nervous about a question you want to ask.
“Dan, do you think it’s possible for me to ask you a question about a technical subject without you beaming up to the starship Enterprise to give me an answer?”
“That’s a hard question, David. I mean there are a lot of character types on the Enterprise from both eras.”
“Okay, can we agree that you won’t channel Mr. Spock or Commander Data?”
“Yes, but it’s Lieutenant Commander Data.”
“See, that’s the kind of pedantic scientific detail I’m trying to avoid.”
“Got it. No Spock, no Data.”
“And the queen of the obvious, Counselor Troy, can we leave her influence out of this discussion?”
“Agreed. If there’s a medical question, Bones or Dr. Crusher?”
“McCoy.”
“When it takes you guys this long to set the boundaries of the conversation you’re going to have, it makes me want to take cover in the lounge and on the patio. Can I get you a round of drinks before you start?”
“Now that we have established the ground rules, Curley, you can bring me a John Howell’s Special and give Dan a Modelo draft.”
“I’m mystified by the lead-in to this question, David. What is it you want to know?”
“Let me start by saying that I read with interest Brad Lewis’s question about whether you used AI to create that image you shared—the one of your books on the Gateway Clipper—and your answer started me heading down a rabbit hole.”
“When you come up for air, David, here’s some bourbon, a glass of seltzer and some ice. Dan, here’s that beer—be kind to the old man.”
“Cheers, David. So, is your question about how I created the image.”
“No! That’s an open invitation to an answer from Data. My question is why—it seemed to me—you went to such length to explain that you hadn’t used AI.”
“Oh. Well, I get that question a lot. Brad was joking, but others seem to lean toward the assumption that AI was involved.”
“And you don’t use AI, is that what you’re saying?”
“I said I didn’t use AI in the creation of that image.”
“Does that mean you’ve used it in the production of other images?”
“Yes. Some of the images in the video trailer I put together for this latest book were augmented by Photoshop’s AI features.”
“Like what? Can you give me an example?”
“There’s an image of three men standing in front of some stained-glass windows. I took the picture of the room they are in, but Photoshop added the three men. I couldn’t afford actors.”
“Was it the same at the cemeteries?”
“Yes, my photos, Photoshop added the car and the person placing the card in the ground.”
“Have you always used those features?”
“No. This was the first time. In the past, I worked with my own photos, or photos from free sources like Pixabay.”
“I see. Getting closer to my question, how would I know if something I’m reading or viewing was created by AI?”
“I’d like to give you an absolute answer, but AI keeps getting better at creating content that sounds and looks like something created by humans.”
“So, no guidelines?”
“Generally, AI written content doesn’t sound like what we are used to hearing, particularly with dialog. AI doesn’t talk like people, or it tries too hard to sound like perfect people. Also, the grammar tends to be overly perfect.”
“Well. Now I know for sure you aren’t using it.”
“It’s getting harder to ignore. Microsoft Word is constantly offering suggestions.”
“Do you ever use them?”
“No. It’s like spellcheck; you have to click on them to expose the suggestions. I don’t usually click.”
“Does that mean you do sometimes?”
“If I think I may have used the wrong word, I will look. Sometimes the suggestion is hysterical.”
“Example?”
“I wrote, ‘she pursed her lips,’ which I thought would mean she didn’t approve. It was highlighted and I thought maybe ‘pursed’ wasn’t the right word. Co-Pilot suggested, ‘she pursued her lips.’”
“Ha, that would be hard to do, but given your penchant for saying the wrong thing, maybe pursuing your lips might be something to try.”
“Thanks. I’ll stick with my limited human intelligence and take my lumps.”
“Other than perfecting your grammar and pursuing your lips, is there really a downside to using AI?”
“According to MIT, there is. They conducted a study that indicates, that when you use AI to write an essay, as they put it, ‘you’re outsourcing the thinking itself,’ and you get worse at writing.”
“Again, outsourcing some of your thinking might not be a bad idea, Dan, but it sounds scary.”
“I think if AI was writing this conversation, I’d be asking you for another beer.”
OK, here’s that plug
Purchase Links:
- Kindle – https://relinks.me/B0FBLH5YKB
- Paperback – https://relinks.me/B0FBRCQSHQ
- Audiobook – https://relinks.me/B0DP5FR58S
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