The GIVING THANKS Week, Again

 

Thanksgiving week is upon us.

 

Grateful for my brilliant children, and for good kids everywhere.

 

Grateful for my patient husband, and good husbands of others.

 

Grateful for our beautiful feline housemates, and for good pets all over the globe.

 

Gratitude to my critique group and beta readers, and all who read unpublished works and help to make them publish-worthy.

 

Grateful for all the things that work so well so we give them no mind.

 

My wish is to remain grateful, especially when it’s challenging.

 

Thank you for reading this and have a gratitude-filled Thanksgiving week.

NOVEMBER 18TH 1963:

 

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY, THE FIRST PUSH-BUTTON (TOUCH-TONE) TELEPHONES DEBUTED IN THE UNITED STATES, EVENTUALLY REPLACING MOST ROTARY-DIAL MODELS

 

Well, then. Rotary dials are now “historical.” That’s hysterical.

 

Turns out that of all the “retro” thingies, teens and twenty-somethings do not know how to use a rotary dial. They stare at it, try to press here and there, and when nothing happens, they declare the gizmo to be broken.

 

That’s okay. I don’t drive a stick-shift vehicle, either. But I know the basics of how it works and if my life depended on it, I think (I hope) I could manage somehow. I also think that if I was caught in a time-travel tunnel<, I could manage to make a call with the early phones where you cranked the one lever, and an operator listened to your instructions and connected you.

 

My point of amazement is that having no notion of how to use a rotary dial means young’uns aren’t ever watching older movies. There are plenty of scenes in movies from pre-1963 where dialing a number is visible. Hitchcock alone used these for tension building.

 

Grumpiness spiel done, I am glad for the push-button dialers and today’s the day to celebrate this milestone.

AI, AGAIN: “STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES”

Since I read (was it by AI? There was an author name attached, but one never knows) that fifty percent of writers admit to using AI not just for grammar/spelling checks (guilty here), but also for story ideas and even writing, I decided to embark on a mini experiment.

 

I asked Microsoft’s co-pilot for blog post ideas. It was friendly, greeted me by name, and asked what general direction I wished to write about.

 

I typed, “about life.” Why make it easy (i.e., specific) for Mr. AI when I can be general and vague? If I knew specifics, I would not be talking to you, sir.

 

AI suggested I write a post about “Stories we tell ourselves; how these affect self-perception.”

 

AI already knows me well, and it’s only the second time I EVER talked to it.

 

AI also offered to write the post for me. I won’t copy and paste any of its output on the subject except to say it was so generic sounding that, at least for now, AI hasn’t gotten my “voice.” Anyone who has read more than a couple of posts on my blog would know AI’s reflection on our self-perception was not worded by me.

 

I’ll let you know if it ever starts sounding like me. But then, would anyone know if it’s yours truly or AI testifying to that? I wonder.

 

Speaking of wonder, this was the absent core in the post Mr. AI churned. Wonder was wholly missing.

A few days ago, I learned from a friend that their relative is having AI write songs for them, that is under their name as author. This, the relative is doing for commercial reasons. (I was so flabbergasted that I forgot to ask how many sales relative has made doing this.)

 This relative gives AI a general theme, mostly about love loss and disappointment, and AI comes up with the words and the music. What does AI know about love? Plenty, I'm told. How soulful are these pop songs? Convincing, I was told. How rewarding is it for the human who is making AI generate them? Apparently, my friend's relative is tickled pink. 

Call me a luddite, but I have no doubt these churned bonbons contain no wonder at all.

 

I won’t visit with the co-pilot for a long time to come. Let’s see if it passively follows my output, or if the choice to engage/invite it augments its learning.

 

Brave new world? More like cowardly new world. Just saying.

I’m an AI resister. That’s the story I tell about myself, and I’m sticking to it.

©Tom Gauld

AYI-YAH-YAI---AI is EVERYWHERE

 

In an older post, I disparaged agents whose submission forms ask if your fiction was written by AI.

I mean, who would do such a thing? Like, really?!?

 

I spoke too soon or too naively.

 

Turns out there are presses where all the books are written by AI. Not “assisted,” but churned and blasted out into the ethernet.

 

AI comes up with the titles. AI writes the books. AI creates the covers, with “art” if appropriate. AI edits and posts online. AI connects to POD services for the innocent luddites who want printed copies. AI generates SEO friendly marketing campaigns.

 

Not naming names. AI will tell you if you use internet search. AI results now feature at the very top of the number one search engine.

 

Yes, you can “pen” a book in minutes. For an added fee you can have a whole series.

 

Writers, our days are numbered.

This lovely “Lady with Cats” was AI generated.

There’s a novel there, no doubt.