Maria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️

Today, my new walking friend told me that she was writing a book — with the Claude chatbot.

Needless to say, I was horrified.

She offered some examples of how Claude is asking her questions that is forcing her to think about what she's writing and expand on it. When I told her that Claude doesn't actually understand any of the discussion, she said she knows — but then offered me another example.

I don't know what to tell these people. They are so sold on AI systems.

Mar 11 at 3:03amWeb
Show threadKevin Boyd (he/him) 🇨🇦Mar 11

@mlanger "That clock is broken."

"Oh, I know, but it's still right twice a day. I just make sure to only check it when it's correct."

Show threadWandering HermitMar 11

@mlanger

I think the best thing you can tell her is that, per the recent supreme court ruling, nothing by Claude or other ai can be copyrighted. So if she actually wants to own the rights to "her" book, she had better write it herself without ai help.

I suspect but don't know for sure that by sharing her writing with Claude, Claude can then share her work with anyone else. This would allow others to access and copy her work even before publishing, making copyright difficult to prove.

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11
@wanderinghermit Two good points. If she brings it up again, I'll use both.
Show threadJohn TimaeusMar 11

@mlanger @wanderinghermit

As something that asks questions to make you think, an LLM can do that (at a great cost to the environment and your soul).

But you'd be better off going to the local pub, buying a beer for the person on the end of the bar, and asking them for commentary.

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11
@johntimaeus @wanderinghermit This is an excellent point. She might be better off sharing her work with a number of good readers who could ask the questions. But heck, that's not as easy, is it? I think the whole idea of AI in its current incarnation is to get people addicted and dependent on it so the subscription fees can follow. The current model is not sustainable.
Show threadLJMar 11
@mlanger gah. It makes me want to set my hair on fire.
Show threadMissConstrueMar 11

@LJ @mlanger

I read the most amazing story about writers and AI...lemme see if I can dig up the link. I'm at the wrong system, but this story literally, I burst into tears reading it, multiple times. Some because my heart broke, and finally because it didn't.

It's so good. Sooooo goood. You should share it with her.

Ah, here it is: https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-colonization-of-confidence/

The Colonization of Confidence., Sightless Scribbles

A fabulously gay blind author.

Show threadLJMar 11
@MissConstrue @mlanger Holy shit, i needed that. What I'm working on now is intense & intensely human. No fucking machine could write it. No one could prompt their way to any part of it. And I'm at a point where I don't care if only a few people end up reading it. I am changed because I'm writing it. Fuck AI & the techbros who can't handle the messy.
Show threadMissConstrueMar 11

@LJ @mlanger

Yeah, it's brilliant, and I really needed to read it on the day it crossed my path. I'm so glad it found you at the right time too! 

Show threadBredrollMar 11
@MissConstrue @LJ @mlanger i read that last week, it is fantastic!
Show threadMissConstrueMar 11

@Bredroll @LJ @mlanger

I really can't remember anything other than China Mieville that has emotionally mugged me like this piece. Just...as a writer, I'm in awe. As a reader, I'm in love.

Show threadBredrollMar 11
@MissConstrue @LJ @mlanger i could not help myself but to rush to send some support to the author https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter
Robert Kingett (@[email protected])

1.26K Posts, 239 Following, 3.96K Followers · I’m a blind and gay romance writer that loves fiction podcasts, audiobooks, cookies, and cats! I follow more hashtags than people. Because I take frequent social media breaks, the best way to reach me quickly is via my website or email.

Cane and Able
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11
@MissConstrue @Bredroll @LJ I had opened the link in a tab and set it aside to read later and now I'm afraid to. I don't want to be emotionally mugged.
Show threadBredrollMar 11
@mlanger @MissConstrue @LJ it was a good and inspirational experience :D
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11

@Bredroll @MissConstrue @LJ I finally read it. It was gripping. At first I thought it was a true story, but I realize now that it was fiction or fictionalized. That did not detract from it.

Comparing AI-written work to McDonald's fries is perfect. The fries taste good enough, but they do nothing beyond stuffing the consumer with empty calories. (1/3)

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11
Toying with AI text generation is venturing down a slippery slope. I prefer to stay on firm ground. (2/3)
@Bredroll @MissConstrue @LJ
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11
As for passing this on to my friend who is in an active partnership with Claude, I can tell you right now that she would never read the whole thing. She is like the audience her work may someday appeal to: looking for empty calories that are easily acquired and consumed. Quality and originality are not her primary goals. I don't think she is a writer in the true sense of the word. (3/3)
@Bredroll @MissConstrue @LJ
Show threadLJMar 11
@mlanger @Bredroll @MissConstrue so often I feel like I'm shouting into a hurricaine, but Fuck AI is the hill I'm willing to die on. My writing is my own. For good or for ill. From initial idea to finished product.
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11

@LJ @Bredroll @MissConstrue I'm with you 100%.

I'm horrified that people are turning out AI-written work, trying to pass it off as human-written so they can copyright it and profit from it. I'm glad I don't make my living as a writer anymore because I just don't have enough energy to compete against it.

My Claude-using friend doesn't get it. I can tell by talking to her. But she is not a WRITER. She's someone with a story to tell who thinks she needs a machine to help her.

Show threadLJMar 11
@mlanger there is something I find terribly sad about that. One of my goals in life is to always cultivate the beginner mindset. I'm going to be 64 this year & there's nothing I love more than diving into something new & absolutely sucking at it! The process is the point. It's how we grow as humans. Having a LLM write for me would be like saying I knit a sweater that a knitting machine made. Sure, I asked it to do the work. That's not doing the work.
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11
@LJ It also doesn't develop any skills. I'm just a year older than you (65 in June) and I also thrive on trying and doing new things. As I mentioned in a recent blog post, it's the development of skills that has given me opportunities to make a living doing many different things I like to do. But how can people develop skills if they're always turning to machines to do things for them? They can't. All they can do is get good at using idiot-proof machines, and who wants to do that for a living?
Show threadLJMar 11
@mlanger a zillion percent this!
Show threadBredrollMar 11
@LJ @mlanger I can't agree more with the beginner steps, learning to walk in new shoes is how we understand
Show threadMissConstrueMar 11

@LJ @mlanger I’ve been a writer all my life. I published consistently until about 10 years ago when, I just walked away. I’ve got an unfinished ethics treatise, two unfinished novels and dozens of unfinished shorts...and I just...it’s not there, man.

By the same token, all my life I’d been told I couldn’t draw or paint. When I was a kid, my mom would look at art I made, and throw it away saying it was a waste of my time to do something I was bad at. (To be fair, she hated me for being born....) So, by 8, I stopped bringing anything home, and would throw it away at the end of class, and stopped entirely as soon as art wasn’t a curriculum thing.

When I finally went no contact a decade ago, I bought a canvas and some paint, and I’ve never stopped. I’m not a good artist, but I’m ok with that, I am having fun as an artist, and at this stage of my life, that feels like a win. 🥳💃🏻

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11
@MissConstrue @LJ I think doing anything we enjoy is a win.
Show threadBredrollMar 11
@LJ @mlanger @MissConstrue I am no author, though I often wish I'd finish the stories ive started. The AI madness is maybe even more frustrating in software because we can clearly point at the huge risks and dangers in real time yet the hype is winning. I really need to start thinking about an analogue career and now I feel like attempting to write creatively ill just be drowned out by AI generated noise
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Mar 11

@Bredroll @MissConstrue @LJ I don't think I found it "inspirational" because I'm not in the least bit tempted to play around with AI text generation. It's wrong on so many levels.

I've been writing since I was 13 — I'm considerably older now. 🤣 I know how to do it. I've gotten enough commentary praise and monetary reward that I'm satisfied with what I can do. I don't need to mess with my mojo.

But I can imagine how someone might venture down the slippery slope and lose themselves. #NoAI

Show threadBryan HaskinMar 11
@mlanger there is something to be said for what is known as rubber ducky debugging. But most people that are gung ho on LLMs just haven't used them enough, or hard enough to see the many many issues.