On writing with AI: The Devil is in my foyer, do I invite him in?

[DaveC426913]

Man, when the Devil comes a-knockin', he does not smell of sulphur and brimstone, he smells of sweet perfume and roses...

Doing a bit of research for a short story. All I wanted was some examples of professions typical for jurors in a trial of the time and location of the story (1850s New Orleans - of which I am not very familiar, so I have my work cut out for me).

ChatGPT delivered that very nicely, giving me a list of a dozen typical professions for the type of man that was eligible for jury duty (and also told me women were not eligible) allowing me to pick and choose and start developing some characters. That's just research, right?


And then ... in little text at the bottom, it said - so demurely - 'if this is for fiction, let me know, and I can add some examples, along with some typical names - even some and personality traits and quirks'.

Oof. So I could do all this research and development on my own, one-by-one, for each of the dozen characters, or I could just hit 'Yes' and the clanker could give all this to me wrapped up in a bow.

I mean, look at this wealth of story-related content: french names (Monsieur LeClerc, Jereemia Boone), cultures (Creole), professions (shipwright, planter, lawyer), motives (blue collar upholding loyalty and labour, businessman who wants lawbreakers to be held accountable for disruptons, lawyer climbing the ranks).

How do I say no? (It is even possible to say no? Having read it, can I forget what I read? Can I unring this bell?)

I mean, I've aleady cracked the seal on the AI genie bottle. I already have to put in the disclaimer 'AI was used to do some of the background research that formed the basis of this story'.

How much worse could it be if I changed that to say 'AI was used to make suggestions for some of the content of this story'. Is that so bad? Is this how it starts?

 

[gmax137]

If I were writing that story, I'd book a few days in New Orleans and walk around the old cemeteries, maybe take in a few plantations along the river.

 

[Filip Larsen]

I think there is a difference between using the AI as an advanced search machine where you ask it for specific factual data that you can then verify (to weed out confabulations) before actual use, or ask it to generate any kind of fictional content for your story. If you go with the latter then the story to some degree is no longer your story.

Let's say you seek inspiration for some background material in the story. Traditionally you would research the area and time reading up relevant material and texts while (hopefully) keeping track on what is fact and what is fiction so that you do not accidentally use another authors fiction directly as your own fiction or, worse, use it as facts. If this is something you would still like to adhere to but want to use a chatbot to save some time and effort, then one way would be to search for fictional work that intersects with your story settings and then go read parts of such work for inspiration just as you would without a chatbot.

If nothing else, at least you have correctly identified that a modern LLM offers a drug of the most addictive kind and that establishing clear limits for your use of it up front is a very good idea.