'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Use the AI Bomb'
Realizing AI is the filthiest word in the indie author lexicon now, I’ll tread lightly, so… hear me out.
First, know this. I’m no fan of AI in the general sense. I think it’s a creativity killer and will continue to be. How could it not? AI is doing what AI does, evolving. It was that evolution that eventually elbowed me out of a job. I’m not angry, and I’m not bitter—much—but it is a fact that those advances are often cheaper and more convenient than their human counterparts.
I’m not saying they’re better, just more efficient.
Again, hear me out.
Although the AI monster was hovering close, a phone call made me say when. A potential client needed their website SEOd. While I went to the kitchen for my usual two o’clock Folger’s infusion, this young man explained all his needs. They were simple. Small website, local market, standard copy with hypers attached. And then, as I watched the coffee filling my mug, the young man sighed and said, “But my marketing budget is thin.”
And that... right there... was the moment I became obsolete. There were other factors. My grandson needed us, and my husband was recovering from cancer, but that phrase brought it all to a head. Staring at a sink full of neglected dishes, I realized my job had to die. This young man with a family to feed and a business to start had little money to throw at an SEO content writer. His copy was simple, but he’d need more work as the months advanced, and I knew it would be cheaper if he did it himself. The skill held a learning curve, but it was small, and since the Content Management Systems I used had SEO (AI) programs integrated into their formats, that learning curve became a meandering trail I knew a novice could walk.
After leaving my mug near the greasy lasagna pan on the stove, I slumped at my kitchen table and began digging my SEO grave. “There may be something cheaper,” I said. “Let me give you some links.”
I could have drowned the truth in another sip of Folgers, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. My conscience wouldn’t let me because, unlike AI, I could feel. I felt that young man’s pressure. I heard the yammer of a toddler in the background and a wife giggling after, and I couldn’t throttle the truth. Deep down, I knew it was time. Given the speed of technology’s winged feet, I knew my other clients would also discover my uselessness, and I’d have to confess to them all. Because the bottom line is this: Those programs sometimes were (and are) more convenient, and let’s face it… cheaper.
And when money is tight, efficiency matters.
Period.
Like that young man years ago, Indie authors and writers are small businesses too. We have budgeting needs, and we must use the tools afforded to us in the most cost-effective way possible. AI can benefit indie authors as we navigate the confusing universe of editing, proofing, marketing, and writing software options. AI can be, dare I say it? Useful. It provides a self-service route for indie authors with anemic marketing budgets. I’ve used AI myself. And yes, I’ll keep using it.
Will I type hopeful words into ChatGPT and reach for my Krispy Kreme while AI rattles out the next GAN? No. I’d never do that as creation is a process, not a trip down technological lanes with “Roomba-Writer” dusting our plots. However, I will use it more practically and never criticize others who do the same. Indies are financially stricken, and any cheaper alternative becomes a beacon of hope when a carton of eggs costs eight bucks, and a decent editor costs hundreds or thousands.
And make no mistake. AI isn’t new. ChatGPT is only its most controversial.
LaMDA (Language Models for Application) programs have been lurking in technology-based communication for years. I know this because… treads lightly… I worked with them.
After divulging my secrets that day on the phone, I dusted my ego and searched for alternative work. I found it in a company contracted by history’s most trampled search engine. Since that job came with an NDA attached, we’ll call that search engine… “Schmewgle.”
Yes. I helped teach “Schmewgle’s” pet lapdog to bark human speech... and it did.
But I wasn’t alone in teaching that dog a new trick, nor was “Schmewgle.” There’s more than one AI pet in the contentious AI pen, and many are now self-learning. Every word entered into an AI program translates to data the program uses to learn. Predictive speech/text, correction, translation, summation, and various other AI communication modules are commonplace now. I’m often surprised when I hear indie authors swear they’d never employ them... because they have.
If you’ve used Grammarly, you’ve used AI; if you’ve used Word, you’ve used AI. And while assimilation may be futile, I’m not saying to stand nobly while the AI bull runs you down.
I am saying to grab the AI bull by its horns.
Tame it.
Ride it.
Use it.
AI is a tool like a wrench or a potato masher. The problems arise when indie authors assume it is the yellow brick road to a bestseller list. It’s not, and only a fool would think it could be. While accessible and cheap (for now), indie authors utilizing any AI program should tread lightly when assuming it can completely replace the knowledge and expertise of a seasoned human editor or proofreader. It can’t.
Editing goes beyond word placement and evaluating patterns of dialogue. Editors consider the writer’s voice, the content, and the breathtaking flow of human emotion. AI is cold. It calculates data and responds, but as poet Joyce Kilmer beautifully noted in his poem, Trees, ‘Only God can make a tree.’
And only human writers can make readers feel.
Perhaps one day, AI will write a novel as expressive as Conroy's or as thought-provoking as Faulkner's or Woolf's. Still, it's a tool for now—a convenient pet with bare-bone knowledge of human frailty related to misplaced commas and passive verbs.
As an indie author and as a courtesy to my hardworking editors, I’ll use AI as the tool it is meant to be… a writerly Roomba cleaning the copy before sending it for professional—human—appraisal. Running copy through Grammarly or PWA is an efficient alternative to nit-picking commas with my aging eyes and coffee-addled brain. No editor wants to see my insomnia-inspired, unwashed word salad. For that, AI is beneficial and a means to an end. But that’s all.
AI is a gadget.
A gimmick.
A writerly tool.
Twist it, turn it, tighten its teeth, but never forget it’s a wrench.
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