Have you ever wondered how to use artificial intelligence to create plots, trailers, social media posts, or give you business pointers?
Hank Quense has some of the answers in this brief but intriguing book. While I was considering how to approach this review as a determined AI-sceptic, I started developing my own queries for ChatGPT, in particular to generate fiction.
Although The Author’s AI Toolkit does suggest a certain amount of use for this new technology, I’m still not convinced. It could save time, but also stifle creativity.
For non-fiction fact-checking is still something any author has to do alongside detailed research. Many AI pieces appearing above Google searches are innaccurate; but how would you know?
Quense’s approach is to utilise a list of questions split into sections, the showing us how AI responded and how the response could be included in the workflow of building a book. It’s a hands-on toolkit for exploration.
Artificial intelligence isn’t going away, but our approach to it as creators needs to be cautious. Writing a social media post is one thing, but a whole blog post ‘ready to go’ is quite another.
There are undoubtedly self-published books largely or completely written by AI in both fiction and non-fiction genres. The level of sophistication is fast approaching, and it may be hard to tell.
Although Quense doesn’t advocate taking AI this far, his book does not reach into the moral implications of using it in place of human creativity or the issues around data harvesting and copyright.
Again, as an AI sceptic, I wasn’t fully converted by this book and just remain curious about this next step in how we engage online. The Author’s AI Toolkit is a good starting point.
The Author’s AI Toolkit, by Hugh Quense, is available now. It is published by Strange World Publishing.