Less than helpful

 Twice since Christmas I've tripped into conversation with AI masquerading as a person.

In both cases I had contacted a helpline.

One with my bank, and the other with Amazon.

In both cases AI could not answer my query.

How many more firms/businesses out there have installed AI instead of a human being to supposedly answer questions? If all you want is the store opening times, then its probably fine, but anything with a  hint of complexity and I doubt you will be satisfied.

The sad thing is we don't know that this is happening until we have reason to contact a helpline.

Problems ahead.

 

23% of US authors reportedly used AI in their work during 2023

47% of them used AI as a grammar tool

29% used AI to brainstorm plot ideas and characters.

"It’s just words," one is reported as saying. "It’s my story, my characters, my world. I came up with it. So what if a computer wrote them?"

The US author quoted above claims using AI has made her writing faster, therefore increasing her output and presumably earning her more money in sales. I'm reading this and wondering How far can this go? 

If I asked a programme to write three paragraphs on a particular event or subject, in the style of a particular author, could it perform well enough to fool readers? If so, would it be considered a form of plagiarism? If Lee Child finds books coming out recognisably written in his style, can he do anything about it? Authors like Dunnett, Mantel, Seton, Christie – are they fair game? 

Seems to me that this is rather like letting a fox loose in the hen house because there are going to be Problems ahead. Massive problems.

Temptation

 

I asked Copilot (otherwise AI)

why Reading as a hobby was good for me and these are the answers it gave me:

1.      Mental Stimulation: Reading keeps your brain active and engaged, which can help prevent cognitive decline as you age.

2.      Knowledge Expansion: Every book you read opens up new worlds and ideas, broadening your understanding and perspective.

3.      Vocabulary Improvement: Regular reading exposes you to new words and phrases, enhancing your language skills and communication abilities.

4.      Stress Reduction: Immersing yourself in a good book can be a great way to escape from the stresses of daily life and relax.

5.      Improved Focus and Concentration: Reading requires concentration, which can help improve your attention span and focus over time.

6.      Better Writing Skills: Exposure to well-written content can influence your own writing style and improve your ability to express yourself clearly and creatively.

7.      Entertainment: Books can be a source of endless entertainment, offering stories and adventures that captivate your imagination.

8.      Empathy and Understanding: Reading about different characters and their experiences can enhance your empathy and understanding of others.

In essence, reading is a hobby that not only entertains but also nurtures your mind and soul.

Not bad, eh? I can guess which people are going to start using it on a regular basis.

What hope is left?

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are revolutionizing the publishing industry. That is the polite term for what is happening. There are other, less polite views from those who object to any sort of software doing all the work in a fraction of the time it would take an actual cover artist to do it. There are fears it will put a lot of software artists out of work.

In 2025, these technologies will play an even more significant role in content creation, editing, and distribution in various ways as the algorithms grow more and more sophisticated and generate content indistinguishable from human-written text. Used in journalism it can and probably begin to produce more news articles, reports, and summaries.

These algorithms study our behaviour online. This allows them to “provide personalized content recommendations” or, as some see it, plague us with ads of what to buy next. It is claimed publishers will be able to provide more of what we actually like. Tools like  Grammarly  already assists writers with editing. I've used it myself and wished it were swifter. By 2025, such tools will offer more suggestions and reduce the time required for manual editing. 

It will be tempting. I can see that. But I also have fear that if authors turn to using AI to “write” six books a year for them, what hope is left for the struggling author who can manage to hold a job and write at night and perhaps publish a title every two years?

Pretty lights are springing up

 Now December is here,

Pretty Lights are springing up everywhere. The main street of the town has formally declared Christmas is coming and the internet is jammed, presumably with people buying presents and goodies  in advance. The weather alternates between freezing the extremities and then days of 13 degrees C as we had yesterday which made the pigeons think it was spring and the males started
pestering the females. I did a spot of weeding in an attempt to keep the weeds down for the coming year. 

I'm still tracking my family tree and fascinated with the level of detail there is to be found. I discovered a great aunt I never heard of who died at 3 years 10 months old in 1871 - and found a picture of her headstone in Escomb cemetery. Her parents were married in Escomb Parish church, which I think is the old Saxon church. I didn't know that when I visited there years ago.

Chasing ancestors is a fascinating hobby.

What's acceptable changes

 

Does anyone else feel that writing a book is far, far easier than trying to sell it?

I suspect there are many reasons why sales go up and down and one of them is changing tastes. I never would have believed back in the day that I would be reading urban fantasy in 2024, but I am, and enjoying it.

All my life I've bought books and promised myself I would only buy and keep the books I wanted to re-read. Now I am starting to feel guilty because apart from Dunnett and the occasional Rankin - oh, yes and Mary O'Hara and her delightful My Friend Flicka, I have re-read hardly any of them. The books are beginning to haunt me, because nobody lives forever, and even if I started today, would I get them all re-read in time? And would I enjoy them today as I did back whenever I bought them? Chances are I would not. People change, tastes change, writing styles change and what's acceptable changes. 

To get back to the problem of selling the books after you've written them - well, it ain't easy. Try Googling "marketing e-books" for yourself and see how many pages  of helpful hints and tips spring up on your screen. Testament to how hard it is, I think. The market is overcrowded with e-books of every type and description, including the aforementioned urban fantasy.

The mysteries of one's past

 Instead of working hard on my new story (which already has 8 thousand plus words written) I have been side lined into checking my family tree these last few days.

I've started this before but this time I stuck in and checked the four grandparents back as far as I can, and astonishingly, one tracks back to 1485. The most astonishing thing is that it is the string I thought least likely to go anywhere. 

I'm always wary of these people who claim to be descended from some historical figure way back in the 12th century, so I've double checked forward and backwards (so that grandparent, parent and child match each other.) Apart from that I don't know how to prove the links. Any ideas would be welcome. The lady on the right, in the smart hat, is Mary Weston, my maternal grandmother. If anyone recognises the children in the two pictures below, do let me know as I haven't a clue who they are!