Gavin Mounsey reviews the latest offering from probably bobble-head from India via AI through Amazon.
As a writer, I decided long ago, that even if I turn out to be like one of the last survivors of the Apocalypse, in a spirit similar to the stories of PKD, I’ll still be writing my stories the old-fashioned way, that is, from my brain, not some pastiche glued together by Indians and AI in the unholy union of incompetence that such pairings inevitably form.
The extent to which I have used AI so far is simply in the production of two covers, one for the book The Crusades, and the other for my latest divertimento, my rather well-received “horror” genre, In the Shadows of Monte Castello. The Crusades was a test run, really, to see what would result. And In the Shadow of Monte Castello is a book I wrote for pure fun (and to my surprise the test readers all enjoyed it a lot, which tells me perhaps I should just write what entertains me!) and as such I just wanted a quick cover to use. There is also a partial element of AI on the cover of Caveman Theory, but again, this was mostly a test. I could have just as easily used stock images. All the other covers I have designed myself although they were at times put together by others, or by artists commissioned to do it.
I do not fear AI at all. And neither should you. Familiarise yourself with it, use it if you really want or must, but realise it is just a soulless, dead thing pretending to be human. It isn’t. And it never will be, no matter what the insane transhumanists would like you to believe.
I’ve used AI to assess student writing, but will probably not use it again as it was so unreliable. It said things like, “There may be issues with grammar”. Maybe? If that’s really the best it can do, forget it. It was even more unreliable in calculating scores. I gave it a rubric with 5 points each for 8 categories and told it to assign points for each category to each student’s essay and add them up out of 40. I assumed calculation would of all the things I was asking it to do, the least problematic. But when I did spot checks, I found frequent errors. When I told it (ChatGPT) it had made an error and to recalculate, it said, it offered a mealy-mouthed non-apology. Then of course I had to check it recalculation. If I’m going to have to check everything it does, it’s not worth using as the whole point is to save me time.
Pure speculation but I wonder if this AI does not acutally calculate anything, but searches its database for other examples of 3+4+4+5+2 (etc, etc) and then gives me the average of those other examples. It’s like, “Here! Will this do?” Then I ask it to recalculate and it finds another example and offers that: “How about this?” I mean, really!
But when they use it to make investment or industrial or medical decisions, I’m sure it’ll be fine, don’t you?
I have written on AI before. AI is not allowed to do exact calculations. Because the only purpose of AI is to further enstupidate the already idiotic vast majority of humanity. Precise answers are just the antithesis of its primary purpose.
I look forward to sequels to Monte Castello. I needed a good fast thriller of a read. Yes the character is a Mary Sue, but so what? More sacramentals and home made sacramental bullets please! And maybe we can have a priest on the front line too.
And besides the action scenes, my other main thought: That’s an interesting way to Reclaim the Catholic Church – and an interesting way of drawing good out of evil in terms of mass conversions. If enough people read it for fun and start asking questions like “why is NO holy water not potent now?” (which NO “exorcists” have noted), all the better.
Finally, my mind flashed to the thought after the dragon slaying of “Meanwhile, on Mars…”. I suppose the dragons can’t, or aren’t allowed, to go beyond Terra’s atmosphere, but what if?
Thank you. I’d appreciate a review on Amazon or my E-store, or both if you want to go above and beyond!