Integritus Prime

I recently checked out a couple of AI platforms: Chat GPT and Playground.ai – inspired by my nephew’s literary and musical experiments using AI. What I found was astounding.

When I signed up for Chat GPT, I first asked it to write a children’s book and within a few seconds, it spat out a perfectly legit story. I then proceeded to ask it questions pertaining to science, and then asked its opinion about the movie versus book, Where the Crawdads Sing, a film I recently saw and wrote about, and it told me to develop my own opinion. Not bad! I asked it to write a blog, and it wrote something very clinical and to the point. I was impressed. Clearly, this platform is great for quick and accurate responses, and it’s fun to try it out as the makers gather data to improve upon their creation.

And yet, as a writer, my very next thought was: what happens when a school kid needs an essay, or some other assignment? What will happen to original thought and creativity? I still don’t have an answer. I do have more questions though: what happens to copyrighting when someone uses AI-generated content and publishes it? What does it mean to take credit for something generated by AI? Are there laws yet or do legalities need to catch up across the world?

As I explored Playground.ai, my questions continued. I have a children’s book for which I’ve written the synopsis and illustration descriptions, so I fed one description into the app and it began generating illustrations. After about 12 attempts (which took about 5 minutes), I ended up with an image that was pretty close to my vision. It was also free to download. So, if I use this image (which I won’t, because it doesn’t feel right), do I own it and claim copyright? Do I give credit to the app, and call it a day? What if, as my brother asked, I pay a human artist to make illustrations for my book, and they use AI-generated images?

While it was a fun distraction to explore just two AI apps in a world where they are currently proliferating, I found it to be a little overwhelming in terms of the vast capacity to create content, which I’m sure many will be using for their social media and other platforms and perhaps for academic and other needs too…I feel, at this moment, more comfortable producing my own content. So, if you’re reading my blog, you know it’s me 🙂

And, as with anything to do with technology, it’s as ethical as we humans are…I’m sure as time goes on, we will figure out ways to address the questions I’ve raised, and others.

Share with me your thoughts on AI – this current storm that’s simply taking over…