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.