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Writer's Toolbox—Harnessing AI for Efficiency · Reality Writes

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hello.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hello.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And welcome to another episode of Reality Rights.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I am author Ellie Alexander and I'm here where the tech guy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: I actually just realized I didn't need my glasses in this episode.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you might need some sunglasses.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be fine.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: The sun's uh it's getting later in the day, it's kind of going down.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: We have filtered shade.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's perfection.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's January.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's January.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's um it's hard as a Pacific Northwest native to wrap my head around the fact that January is like this in California, but no notes.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: No complaints.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, uh, hopefully not uh drought complaints later.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, and actually, I mean, I have a lot of notes in terms of what's happened in Southern California.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I should the caveat is that we are in Northern California, but yeah, it's been devastating to what what's happening in SoCal off of uh This is the podcast where we talk about all things bookish, writing, and pretty much whatever is on our mind.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when we were in Southern California earlier this year to kick off the year, uh pre-fires, we got the outside bug, the road trip bug.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we've been deciding to um do some podcasting in our backyard.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, or wherever we are.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or wherever we are.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Shake it up.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but we start off with I'll start off with my message uh that I always love to uh tell everyone is like, please share the podcast.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it just takes a second on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube, wherever you listen to us.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it would be great.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we would totally appreciate that.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Spread in the book love, introducing it to another reader or writer who you think might find it enjoyable.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we never know what we're gonna talk about.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: We have a loose idea what we're gonna talk about, but we wing it.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: It it all comes together in the end.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Some solid reporting.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Solid reporting right here from our backyard.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, uh, today we're gonna talk about uh a controversial writing topic, which is AI.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: AI is controversial and more than just writing, but yeah, it definitely in the writing and publishing world.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So earlier, well, in late 2024, I should say, we went to Author Nation, which is a big indie book conference, and I learned so much.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there is a big push for um, I would say a number of new companies that are spinning off AI enhanced writing apps, um, you name it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like there, there are even companies going so far as like you put in a concept and a prompt and it writes the whole book for you.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um the gamut, right?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and right now everybody's freaking out, going, what?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: AI writes books.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it can.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: But and there always is a caveat, right?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's I mean, it it the the con the output is good, but but I was well, so I was shocked.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I did have a a bit of an existential crisis being in this one particular panel and watching it happen in front of my eyes, because obviously I've I've been in the AI loop.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I try to stay aware of everything that's happening in the industry.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew what it was capable of to some extent, but this blew my mind.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I would not have known the difference if somebody was reading me the passages that it spit out.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I got into a discussion with a guy sitting next to me.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, this is so great for you as a writer.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you won't have to write anymore.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, I'm I'm not your audience, like, I'm not the writer you're looking for in this scenario.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because for me, the process of writing and creation is absolutely my favorite piece.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I would never want to give that up.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's there is something I talk all the time about how writing is work, but it is also magic because when you are in flow, there's nothing better on the planet.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's just nothing.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, you're in a story.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am a plotter, so I know going into a story, I have an outline, I have a plan.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then somehow, every time, 40-something books later, I'm part way through, and a character does something different, or this amazing plot twist happens, and it is like magic.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love that discovery.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love immersing myself in these worlds.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: The kind of writing that I hope that I create for you, darlings, is an escape.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's also an escape for me.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's my favorite place, which is not to say that I don't think there are ways, and we're gonna talk about them today.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get into them, uh, that AI can not that AI can help enhance your writing.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, I don't want a prompt or an app that is just gonna write the book for me.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And well, and I think a lot of readers probably agree with that from the reading side, right?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: That they don't want to read a book that's just been written by AI.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: There are people who are gonna be okay with that.
• 5:11
  unknown: Wow.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: And and and that's great.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're they're you know, cons like consumers of content, so they're going to be okay with reading something that had no human interaction.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: But I look at it as just as being like with art, there there is always, always going to be a market for people who want human-created content.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um there and there are going to be levels, and we'll get into that, like you said.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but I think just setting the tone early on for anyone listening, that don't like just because AI can write a book doesn't mean that writers are going extinct in the next year.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think that's the message or takeaway at all.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think that there is going to be like there, there will probably be these two paths in which there's going to be um an influx, I would say, in the market.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was just talking to my editor in the UK about this a couple of weeks ago on our call, um, where you're gonna see a lot of AI books on the market.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the interesting thing is publishers, Amazon, like they're they're not, I don't want to say flagging, but like that all is um being labeled as AI generated.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you will know what you're getting in terms of a book.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a reader looking for that, you'll be able to go into it aware that it was written by AI versus an author.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um for me too, like just this last week, I'll have to share pictures on social, but like I was out here in the backyard and I was creating new character collages for a project that I'm working on.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many other layers of creativity that go into storytelling.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I also don't want the takeaway to be that you should be afraid of AI because I think it's it's here, right?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: We are living in the age of AI.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's also going to be a matter of for writers, how can you then use it?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are there ways?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first question that you can use it and what might those be.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and it it's I think for a lot of people it's it's like all or nothing, right?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: The the in terms of the fear of it.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's like, you know, the first of all, educate yourself about AI and what it can and can't do, because I think there's a lot of misinformation out there about it, but um, but it does like it can be extremely helpful.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, one of the the uh uh I think biggest downsides or complaints about it is that it people are worried it's gonna replace every job.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like just they're gonna be gone.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I I don't think that's true.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we could talk about some ways that AI can help with writing them.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You'll see that like it's it's just not gonna be the case.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think, but I do think there's potential that like um as it infiltrates more and more professions that they're that you could be left behind if you're not um utilizing it potentially too.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that maybe not better.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: That that is the thing, is like AI is not going to replace everybody's job, but people who know how to use AI and who use AI to enhance their skill set or their efficiency or whatever, those people are going to replace people's jobs because they will be able to do more.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they'll be able to, you know, create more, they'll be able to whatever it is.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So um every time I start a new project, and this isn't true so much for uh my long running series because I'm deep into those and um I'm familiar with those characters.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Those characters are like family and friends now, but um, I've been working on a new spy thriller that's gonna come out in 2026, and this is a touch of a new genre because it's sort of blending a cozy with my mission impossible.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's blending a cozy with spy.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I sent out a draft to beta readers.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in the past, when I have received beta reader feedback, I have spent a good week combing over all of that feedback and creating spreadsheets.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, like I would go line by line and put everything into an Excel spreadsheet and try to see like what themes are coming up with readers, where are they feeling like there's more character enhancement?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the plot dropping off, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this time I took that beta reader feedback and I created a prompt in AI, and I had AI then create these gorgeous tables for me in like five minutes of all of that feedback, and it was it literally saved me a week of work.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same work.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's all just work that I would have done before.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not work that I enjoy.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a fan of Expel of Excel, like you know.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you love Excel.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: You could spend an hour, you do.
• 10:09
  unknown: I do.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: I hate it.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you uh yeah, no, I mean it saved you a ton of time.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh reduced the chance of errors or missing anything.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or missing content, yeah, because I had you know 15 beta readers, so I want to make sure that I get all of that feedback and it's concise and I'm seeing those themes and patterns and everything.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and then we were talking about how now that you have that content in there, you can actually use AI, in this case Chat GPT, as a um uh sounding board and uh like maybe even like a uh discussion partner.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you could ask it things like what are common themes across all of the, you know, or are there any common themes across the all the feedback and not um not have to go through and you could do that yourself, of course.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I used to do that.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm saying it would take me a week in highlighters and like you know, yeah, exactly.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, you know, at what point are readers saying the plot needs help?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then this beautiful table with all that content that I did not have to create in an Excel spreadsheet.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me as a writer, that's a fantastic use of my time because we're not talking about something that is involving any of my creative energy.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is just sort of a slob, not that I don't appreciate the beta reader feedback, but taking 15 individual pieces and figuring out like how to understand themes throughout it is it's a process and it's in and of itself.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so there's a case where it can be time-saving for sure and and uh help with uh you know, maybe missing content or errors or whatever it is.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um what else would a writer use it for?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, historically I have had multiple thesauruses.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'd have to ask AI.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thesaurus I?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would have a stack of thesauruses and dictionary.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I have physical copies of these books.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I would also, when I was writing, I would have like dictionary.com and thesaurus.com open so that as I'm writing andor editing, a writer always needs a better choice of word, right?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or like access to that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I now use AI as my thesaurus.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I have that open.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have a window and chat open as I'm writing or editing.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I've written the prompt in in such a way that I am able to have it return words that might not have even shown up in a regular, a regular thesaurus, because there's kind of like a finite number that show up, or there's like a word around a word that you're looking for.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that has saved me, again, so much time because before I'd be like leafing through a book and read through the 10 entries and be like, no, no, it's not that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I might try the next one.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'd go online, look there, like genius.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're not talking about like a lot of my creative energy that is being poured into that.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that I know a word in my head or a similar word that I want to use and it's just not coming to me.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and so this is a case where you've got um, you know, uh AI is not only saving you time, but actually providing more.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So like because if you have a thesaurus or even if you go to one online, you're limited by only what you searched for and then whatever they have in their particular edition.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So this this gives you a broader spectrum, I guess, of choices for words and stuff you're looking for.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And such ease.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other thing that I have found it super helpful for is um as a research partner, especially if I am looking into, let's say, like I for this new project, I wanted to know like stats about um Santa Clara County that I'm writing in, like how many people and just like all these facts that probably aren't going to make it into the book, but I'm using Santa, not Santa Clara, sorry, um, Santa Cruz as kind of my, I don't know, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, they're all Santa's.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm using Santa Cruz as kind of loosely my setting for um the series.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to know just some demographic facts.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so again, before I might have gone to four or five different websites looking for that information, I put it in chat, get the return right away, and then I can take that and decide like, all right, does that work for this fictional world that I'm creating or like some semblance of that?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or do I need to like go dive deeper?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And usually I don't have to go dive deeper because we're talking about a mystery, right?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I were writing nonfiction or, you know, an essay for the New York Times, it might be different.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: But because I'm writing cozy mysteries or a spy thriller, it works in this instance.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I just want a quick hit and I don't want to have to spend 20 minutes that's gonna take me out of my creative writing brain to go find out like what is the population of Santa Cruz?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's just it's like instead of just searching for something, it's more like having a conversation with somebody about it, somebody who is an expert who can also be wrong about things too.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: So keep that in mind.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So for for those who are well versed in AI out there, all of the chat bots, so like Chat GPT, Claude, like any any of them that you use, have uh they can have a tendency to um do what's called hallucinate.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it's basically like if you ask it a question of like, you know, what's the what's the population of uh San Francisco, California?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it says 142 million.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, that doesn't seem like now.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I saw a great example uh uh just the other day on uh Blue Sky, which is somebody somebody posted uh a conversation, it the the GPT wasn't named, but it was like um, you know, they said will water freeze at 27 degrees, and the answer was no, because water freezes at 32 degrees, so at 27 degrees uh it hasn't reached the proper temperature to freeze.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And while that's true, it's like anything below 32 will freeze water, so um, yeah, so you gotta be careful.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but um awesome, I hadn't seen that.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe don't use it for baking advice.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: The thing is, so that that brings that brings up another thing, is where people are just quick to be like, oh, you know, this is all like uh Wikipedia is a great example.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: AI is like the 21st century version of Wikipedia.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because when Wikipedia first came out, it people railed against it because it was like full of misinformation and everything.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Still true today, but there is far more factual information there than people give it credit for.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: And there are an army of people who spend their time correcting all that information uh and trying to make it valid and and factual and everything.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the same is true of the AI uh of the large language models, these like Chat GPT and Claude and others, is that they will get better over time.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, but you you can't take everything at face value.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, except and that's why I'm saying, you know, you you need to know going into it, like, okay, like, do I need to do a deeper dive in terms of this particular like, you know, research point or whatever it is.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but as you know, a partner in that process, that's great because one of the pitfalls sometimes that I talk about with my new writers when I'm coaching writers is that you can go down some deep, deep rabbit holes of research um that really pull you out of getting that story out.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's like too much.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's way too much information.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can, you know, searching for some minuscule detail could take you an hour and a half, and you might find yourself on 15 websites.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or in this instance, you might be able to put that into AI and get a return instantly.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and I mean, I think it's important to mention uh in in case it hasn't become clear yet, like this isn't replacing your research process.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's just enhancing it.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because you would still visit.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we go to Santa Cruz all the time, but you would still visit Santa Cruz for the uh for the book, um, for the research and you know, to to actually experience the places and stuff before writing about them.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then getting more of that, I mean, obviously we we could live in Santa Cruz for a year or two and still not know everything about it.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's where the enhancement piece comes in.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know, one of the themes that came up um at the conference that I hadn't really thought about before was like there is this level of accessibility then for writers who previously might not have been able to travel to a place they wanted to go to, or you know, like there there is um a whole discussion that could be had around accessibility in AI, and um that's probably its own podcast.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, for sure.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's been interesting to have conversations with my writer friends in terms of how they're using it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have a writer friend who is putting in um their entire manuscript and using it as editorial support.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have a writer friend who's using it as a brainstorming partner in the early phases of putting a story together and using it as a creative partner in that way.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think it's gonna be fascinating to see how it plays out.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And on that same note, I, as a writer who has been published for, you know, 15 years now, I have a whole body of work out there.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And there's real truth to the fact that like there are legal cases right now about AI being trained on writers' previous works, and I don't feel good about that at all.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh that's why I'm saying it's it's like uh it's a bit of a murky issue right now.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think it's going away.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, we are reliving, we're gonna date ourselves as real gen X or Cerpit.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is like what was happening in the 90s when the internet was first coming into fab.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna go away, right?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think the, and this will really date me, but I think the last class I took uh while getting my degree in copyright and advertising um was how internet advertising is this new thing and it's kind of it's kind of fun, you know.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the ad agencies might dabble in it and everything, but not it's not it's not gonna change anything.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing else.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's there that's the prevailing thought at the time.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And like I think within two years it had become it had already moved into the top five ad revenue generating vehicles.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh just so yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: So the same is true of AI.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you're being like, you know, companies, publishing houses, like uh they're all building out their own internal AI tools.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: So um again, if you are in the world of publishing, regardless of whether you're indie or traditional, like I don't think there's escaping finding uh yourself bumping up against AI in any way, shape, or form in the next few years.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and you just have to look at it as like it's another tool in the toolbox, right, for writing for For anything, for creatives, for for anything.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: I follow a lot of creatives on because of the work that I do.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I follow a lot of creatives on social media.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it is interesting to see, like, you know, because there are there are many creatives who are very, very worried about um AI and and what it's going to mean for their jobs in the future.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then there are people who, like you were talking about earlier, just about what AI is trained on, and and you know, uh like some artist friends who've had their work used without their permission, and that's not cool.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but there are a tremendous number of creatives who have added it to their toolbox and use it to automate things that they used to have to do, you know, manually.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they use it to uh help with um resizing and and all sorts of steps that used to just take a lot of time.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: And now because they they're able to use this tool to shorten that process, they're able to create more content.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been for me, that's been the exciting thing about all the AI advancements over the last two years.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and we're just like at the tip of the expert right now.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 23:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: What's coming?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna, yeah, it is it is going to like it's gonna be fun to watch.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: My only question to you is are we like on the cusp of the robot apocalypse?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sir, I mean there's two there.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's the thing.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: There are two different two different things.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's AI and there's AGI, which is artificial general intelligence.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's the the form of AI that we have now are is based on large language models and and uh graphic engines like things like Mid Journey and uh Dolly and and um and others, even Canva has AI built into it now.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: None of that stuff can think for itself.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's all this is this is a whole like you look it up, uh like just ask Google how do LLMs work?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, it is it's fascinating stuff, but it's all math.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: AGI, on the other hand, that's where Skynet comes into play, and that's where you do like we're not there yet.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think, I mean, he knows.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because obviously what we're using from a consumer basis is probably at at the at a minimum a year or two behind what's being developed in the lab, usually more like five, but I just don't know anymore because things are just changing over like so quickly.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: But AGI, yeah, that can it can get bad.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I like I look at uh like just w everything that's been happening in the world, and like I could see a computer intelligence being like no kind of annoying.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're done.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Reset human whoa.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe we should write that book with AI, right?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: AGI.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, write it, I get it.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh serious.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, come on, come on.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um what I guess I I I do have a question though.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: What do you um uh like what are what were your how would you have a conversation with a writer that would be like, I am never using AI?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I think you might be using AI and not know it because to your point, um, grammarly, word, like any document, unless you are physically writing by hand, all of that is built in.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can turn it off, but um, it's built in and regardless of your route to publication, you're probably gonna bump into it with the editorials, opening and ending process, like all of those things.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So um I wouldn't force AI on a new writer at all.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I can understand the trepidation, but I do think it's um trying to figure out how you can balance it and think about it as a tool and figuring out like those places in your writing process that it might be able to help and enhance.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me, the the few examples that I've given today, it's a dream.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't have to create my own Excel spreadsheet.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Check.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Fine.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let it let it enhance the things that you don't necessarily like doing, or you're not quite as good.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that you have time to do this stuff that you do love to do.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then also use it to make that stuff even better.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's gonna be interesting to watch because uh I think we're gonna be seeing a lot of it.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, my parting question for you, darlings, is will you and or have you read an AI book yet?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, one that's written completely by AI.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because they are already out there.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh tell us in the comments, report back.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, is right more than half the content you see on social media is generated by AI too.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast was not televised.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: So share this podcast, create a friend or family, because we're real backward.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Bringing you real content.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, seriously.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we should wrap this podcast up, but I just did see a stat that said something like 47% right now of what we're seeing on social media is AI created, and that number is gonna skyrocket in the next few years.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or the amount of bots that are following.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, that's a that's another topic for a future episode of Reality Riots.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, with that, until next time.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time,