Scribner's Evaluation: "Conversing With AI: A Handbook for Writers" by ML Brei

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7832263052

    

    A decent guide for those who want to know how Generative AI works, but many caveats abound.

    I've never read how generative AI works in depth beyond web articles and YouTube videos, but I do understand the basics of how it works. The part I did not know is how someone could enter a prompt decent enough for the AI to not vomit out weird-looking mongrels made from all the data it sifts through. Conversing With AI by ML Brei does show a remarkable amount of research to elaborate on how those programs work.

    Yet, I still have very mixed feelings, bordering on negative, over using those programs. It is not that writers using them (even carefully) is a sign of laziness, but it is rather that it could be used to potentially bypass the need to spot and correct grammatical errors manually. I do wonder if it could help a writer with planning a longer book, as Brei focuses on, but I would not say that it is for everyone. I very much agree that planning a project, especially a long-form non-fiction research book, can be a pain for any of us, but whether handing over the planning and organization phases of writing to a computer is essential, Your Mileage May Vary. Of course, to an outsider, there are signs of AI's faulty production processes in Brei's book. When she talks about that "Iberian-Hurrian connection" history book, the organization looks fine, even if the structure kind of resembles a basic essay rather than a legitimate history book. But the part that left me amused, like others would be, was the "Land of Hurrians" map that she recreated with AI.

    

    The problems with AI manifest when one uploads a mostly good looking map into the generator, and the prompt only makes it look worse. The only parts of the above map that didn't look good were the Dead Sea looking askew, and the island of Cyprus being a round blob. Funnily enough, the AI-generated map gets those two places right, but practically everything else wrong. The Black Sea being on land, Mesopotamia appearing twice, and there being only one Mesopotamian river that meets the Persian Gulf are funny little goofs. There are many other problems with that, but at least ML Brei knows that there are many lazy writers out there who totally depend on those programs.

    She does make a good point that it is cheating to let an AI create a book for you. And if the deluge of shite computer-made content that can be found on Amazon (I'm looking at you, Billy Coull) is any indication, there are many people out there who don't get the meaning of learning a craft. And for one thing, an AI can provide a companion for a moment, to help you get of a bad funk. I do find it interesting how Brei converses with an AI chatbot as a means to overcome writers block through having conversations (sometimes gamified) about a story and its characters. I've never thought of using it that way, but it is interesting to know. 

    ML Brei's book is very helpful if you're curious how Generative AI works, and can be used as an aid in writing. By the way, if you're serious about using AI, Brei suggests that one should subscribe to a more premium tier of use.