Teachers teach off a curriculum, they grade off their own personal experience and take on writing. They WILL correct you into a style even if they don't intend to, it's inevitable. And then the 12th year teacher will try to undo what the 10th grade teacher instilled, because it's not quite right, and guess who's confused?
Of course AI is based on everyone's writing. Computers don't learn (yet) by hacking a library and gorging on every book and then deciding - I think Dicken's style best suits me. They are programmed into a style. That people - including creators of AI - don't see the inevitable pitfalls is mind boggling.
I swear these guys operate like Pot Heads. They're all toking on joints at night, thinking amazing things that will change the world and when they start "creating" it, they're all going WTF, this doesn't seem as good as it did last weekend. No sh*t.
AI driven tractor to plow fields - yeah I get that and can support it. AI developing what we should eat based on "their" knowledge of what's good - no thanks.
Funny how the faster we race into the future, the further we get behind. Gosh, didn't one of the Stoics tell us how to avoid this?!
Hah. That's hilarious. Totally agree that there are great uses for AI. Plowing a field, sure. Hell, maybe even more precision doing delicate surgeries. I know that surgeons sometimes nick the wrong thing with the blade. Happened to me. But yeah, what a fine kettle of fish this one is.
I think we're about to see a tsunami of AI-created work on some platforms, while I think the success of others like Substack will be driven(at least in part) by the desire to avoid it.
I also have to wonder how many clients will now be using AI as an excuse to stiff writers. I know not everyone is looking to scam freelancers, but this seems like a really easy way to do it.
Yup, I totally agree Kevin. There are people who will use those tools to rip off freelancers. Some of the "detectors" I saw seem designed for that exact purpose. One actually says something to the fact of "detects both plagiarism and AI" so honest businesses don't get "ripped off" by shady freelancers. I had to shake my head. How sad and pathetic is that.
Just seems lazy to me, running it through a detector without ever reading it for the content. I get that reading takes time, but if they're paying for the piece, I'd assume they've got the money to pay someone to read them.
The fear around AI writing doesn't make sense to me. It's our writing fed back to us. Do people reject art if someone used an algorithmic filter in the process? Plenty of AI in graphic design, especially the AAA studio games and movies. But nobody bats an eye at it, because it adds to the experience.
Right? Those are good point. From what I've read, the "clients" refusing to pay did read the articles, and liked them. What they didn't like is that they failed the detectors. For the most part, they seem pretty paranoid that google will penalize them for AI content.
Sounds like we are done for. I put one of my stories in the analyzer and it was 98% human. I wonder if that would get me rejected, lol. I think I'm going back to hand written letters.
98% human is an excellent score. It wouldn't get you rejected. the 2% just means there's some words that are often used by AI, but that's pretty normal.
Thoroughly enjoyed this read. The entire AI detection scenario is dripping with irony. Quite the circular argument and unfortunately it will likely get worse as ChatGPT iterates and refines itself. Thanks for making us think, even if we end up shaking our heads lol
I don't like this whole AI thing one bit. I think they should do away with it. I previously thought maybe it could be good for getting ideas. But now I'm not sure that's even the case.
Finding ideas for writing is all part of the creative process. This is what we've always done before.
I think it's creating more problems than anything else.
I can only imagine writers are going to start legal battles about who wrote what first. And who's idea it was. Because it's all going to be the same or similar.
Couple of weeks ago, I didn't either. Watching AI is like the weirdest road trip of all time, the landscape keeps shifting and weird people pop up out of the blue. lol
This is a great point, Linda - I help to run the Freelance Writers subreddit (it may have been one of the sources you saw), and we've had a fair number of threads around this recently. I'll be interested to see how it all plays out - thanks for adding some more nuance to the discussion.
The ones I ran across were on Twitter and Upwork. Is the one you help run r/freelanceWriters? I'd love to poke around there, too. And you're very welcome. :)
It’s a crazy world out there. A fellow writer suggested putting a clause in contracts that says AI detectors don’t void the contract and I think that’s reasonable. At this point the tech is evolving too fast for us to keep up and writers are suffering- losing work to AI or clients to AI detectors that do not work.
I don't disagree with the clause because AI detectors are not consistent. But that said, I could see clients saying nope. They'd be afraid it means writers will use AI instead of writing. New things often make us paranoid and ChatGPT is really doing a number on a lot of people.
I can too. I haven’t put a clause in my contracts yet just because I’ve been lucky so far not to have a client come back and say they ran my work through an AI detector. And I understand where clients are coming from that want human writing and a freelancer gives them ChatGPT. But as you pointed out, ChatGPT is trained to mimic human writing. It feels very much like a lose lose situation.
Yup, it's going to hurt people both sides of the equation. It's not a new problem, really. The same happened with content spinners. Just that ChatGPT is more eloquent than a content spinner.
It's a heck of a thing when we train the robot to be like us, and then penalize the humans. And how do we combat that? Save all of our research notes and versions so we can show our work if a client refuses to pay us? Then we're arguing our work - much like arguing a thesis. Then where does the enjoyment go in writing we used to have? And then, what's the point?
Creatives are in a corner, and it's not just writers, but artists and musicians feeling this same pain, too.
And as you pointed out, Linda, we've done this to ourselves. So to speak.
That's it exactly, Carolyn. Where does the enjoyment go? Right out the window. The whole thing really sucks. There are two very viable options, but businesses won't like either of them. I'm going to write about that in the post I'm working on. :)
For fun, my co-editor plugged in some of our published stories in the AI detector. Wow, one of our writers scored 90% AI! (Our pub is purely fiction, btw.) I have faith that this writer would never use AI to write. Plus, I recognize his style from his nonfiction personal stories. For fiction, AI tends to have little setting or emotional description, let alone dialogue . It's usually just a straightward "this happened, then that happened." The writer didn't use any dialogue, and doesn't have much description. It was more action-focused writing (an adventure story).
Generally in our pub, we found that the more setting/emotional description there is, the lower the AI detection rating!
What a bloody mess!!
Teachers teach off a curriculum, they grade off their own personal experience and take on writing. They WILL correct you into a style even if they don't intend to, it's inevitable. And then the 12th year teacher will try to undo what the 10th grade teacher instilled, because it's not quite right, and guess who's confused?
Of course AI is based on everyone's writing. Computers don't learn (yet) by hacking a library and gorging on every book and then deciding - I think Dicken's style best suits me. They are programmed into a style. That people - including creators of AI - don't see the inevitable pitfalls is mind boggling.
I swear these guys operate like Pot Heads. They're all toking on joints at night, thinking amazing things that will change the world and when they start "creating" it, they're all going WTF, this doesn't seem as good as it did last weekend. No sh*t.
AI driven tractor to plow fields - yeah I get that and can support it. AI developing what we should eat based on "their" knowledge of what's good - no thanks.
Funny how the faster we race into the future, the further we get behind. Gosh, didn't one of the Stoics tell us how to avoid this?!
Cool article!!
Hah. That's hilarious. Totally agree that there are great uses for AI. Plowing a field, sure. Hell, maybe even more precision doing delicate surgeries. I know that surgeons sometimes nick the wrong thing with the blade. Happened to me. But yeah, what a fine kettle of fish this one is.
I think we're about to see a tsunami of AI-created work on some platforms, while I think the success of others like Substack will be driven(at least in part) by the desire to avoid it.
I also have to wonder how many clients will now be using AI as an excuse to stiff writers. I know not everyone is looking to scam freelancers, but this seems like a really easy way to do it.
Yup, I totally agree Kevin. There are people who will use those tools to rip off freelancers. Some of the "detectors" I saw seem designed for that exact purpose. One actually says something to the fact of "detects both plagiarism and AI" so honest businesses don't get "ripped off" by shady freelancers. I had to shake my head. How sad and pathetic is that.
I wondered about that to--stiffing writers.
Just seems lazy to me, running it through a detector without ever reading it for the content. I get that reading takes time, but if they're paying for the piece, I'd assume they've got the money to pay someone to read them.
The fear around AI writing doesn't make sense to me. It's our writing fed back to us. Do people reject art if someone used an algorithmic filter in the process? Plenty of AI in graphic design, especially the AAA studio games and movies. But nobody bats an eye at it, because it adds to the experience.
Why is it different for writing?
Right? Those are good point. From what I've read, the "clients" refusing to pay did read the articles, and liked them. What they didn't like is that they failed the detectors. For the most part, they seem pretty paranoid that google will penalize them for AI content.
Sounds like we are done for. I put one of my stories in the analyzer and it was 98% human. I wonder if that would get me rejected, lol. I think I'm going back to hand written letters.
98% human is an excellent score. It wouldn't get you rejected. the 2% just means there's some words that are often used by AI, but that's pretty normal.
Thank you for the info, Linda.
I’ve wondered about this. Thanks
Mike
Thoroughly enjoyed this read. The entire AI detection scenario is dripping with irony. Quite the circular argument and unfortunately it will likely get worse as ChatGPT iterates and refines itself. Thanks for making us think, even if we end up shaking our heads lol
lol. You're right, it's VERY circular for sure. I shake my head daily.
I don't like this whole AI thing one bit. I think they should do away with it. I previously thought maybe it could be good for getting ideas. But now I'm not sure that's even the case.
Finding ideas for writing is all part of the creative process. This is what we've always done before.
I think it's creating more problems than anything else.
I can only imagine writers are going to start legal battles about who wrote what first. And who's idea it was. Because it's all going to be the same or similar.
I vote to do away with it.
It's creating a lot of problems, for sure. Unfortunately, it's not going away because it makes too much profit for the people running the companies.
Great article! I didn't even know this was a "thing."
Couple of weeks ago, I didn't either. Watching AI is like the weirdest road trip of all time, the landscape keeps shifting and weird people pop up out of the blue. lol
This is a great point, Linda - I help to run the Freelance Writers subreddit (it may have been one of the sources you saw), and we've had a fair number of threads around this recently. I'll be interested to see how it all plays out - thanks for adding some more nuance to the discussion.
The ones I ran across were on Twitter and Upwork. Is the one you help run r/freelanceWriters? I'd love to poke around there, too. And you're very welcome. :)
It is! here are some recent threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/freelanceWriters/comments/12hbg5f/done_with_ai_detectors/
https://www.reddit.com/r/freelanceWriters/comments/11i2bwo/my_writing_keeps_triggering_the_ai_detector_and/
https://www.reddit.com/r/freelanceWriters/comments/125thz2/has_anybody_came_across_unreliability_of_ai/
https://www.reddit.com/r/freelanceWriters/comments/10rhdif/what_to_do_when_a_client_accuses_you_of_using_ai/
Thanks so much. I will head over and devour lol
It’s a crazy world out there. A fellow writer suggested putting a clause in contracts that says AI detectors don’t void the contract and I think that’s reasonable. At this point the tech is evolving too fast for us to keep up and writers are suffering- losing work to AI or clients to AI detectors that do not work.
I don't disagree with the clause because AI detectors are not consistent. But that said, I could see clients saying nope. They'd be afraid it means writers will use AI instead of writing. New things often make us paranoid and ChatGPT is really doing a number on a lot of people.
I can too. I haven’t put a clause in my contracts yet just because I’ve been lucky so far not to have a client come back and say they ran my work through an AI detector. And I understand where clients are coming from that want human writing and a freelancer gives them ChatGPT. But as you pointed out, ChatGPT is trained to mimic human writing. It feels very much like a lose lose situation.
Yup, it's going to hurt people both sides of the equation. It's not a new problem, really. The same happened with content spinners. Just that ChatGPT is more eloquent than a content spinner.
It's a heck of a thing when we train the robot to be like us, and then penalize the humans. And how do we combat that? Save all of our research notes and versions so we can show our work if a client refuses to pay us? Then we're arguing our work - much like arguing a thesis. Then where does the enjoyment go in writing we used to have? And then, what's the point?
Creatives are in a corner, and it's not just writers, but artists and musicians feeling this same pain, too.
And as you pointed out, Linda, we've done this to ourselves. So to speak.
That's it exactly, Carolyn. Where does the enjoyment go? Right out the window. The whole thing really sucks. There are two very viable options, but businesses won't like either of them. I'm going to write about that in the post I'm working on. :)
I look forward to reading that post!
Thank God I am all about Creativity - and AI isn't yet.
I like that you added yet. That's probably more true than we care to know or think about
Hi Linda,
Just finished this article, Interesting. I'm late to the party on AI I guess, I find it very intriguing but scary. I afraid there's know going back.
Thanks Linda, this is a topic that will touch every aspect of our lives. Soon.
For fun, my co-editor plugged in some of our published stories in the AI detector. Wow, one of our writers scored 90% AI! (Our pub is purely fiction, btw.) I have faith that this writer would never use AI to write. Plus, I recognize his style from his nonfiction personal stories. For fiction, AI tends to have little setting or emotional description, let alone dialogue . It's usually just a straightward "this happened, then that happened." The writer didn't use any dialogue, and doesn't have much description. It was more action-focused writing (an adventure story).
Generally in our pub, we found that the more setting/emotional description there is, the lower the AI detection rating!
Exactly. The worse scenario is when writers write like AI and they aren't trying to.