AI in Publishing with Liss Caldwell
One drizzly winter afternoon, members of the writing community teetered on the precipice waiting to hear if creatives have a future or if Artificial Intelligence (AI) would take over the world.
On Saturday 3rd June 2023, many Writelink attendees looked anxiously to the guidance of Liss Caldwell to learn about “AI in Publishing – for writers, authors and illustrators”. From the outset there were many questions and concerns brought forward from the audience about what impact AI would have in the creative space and what we humans could do to survive.
Throughout the eighty-minute session some of the many international cases involving AI and Intellectual Property (IP) were discussed and the importance of copyright. With the rules and regulations changing daily, Liss urged us to check the fine print of the platforms and programs if we decide to incorporate AI into our work as terms and conditions can vary between companies and countries. Also, she said to check that our published works have not been recreated by others (for example a written/printed work turned into a digital e-book or an audiobook). It was on this note that Liss directed us to keep all planning and drafts of our works with our name and date in hard copy (notebook written by hand) and digital formats (on computer with multiple backups including emailing ourselves the files in progress for them to be timestamped) to futureproof ourselves in case we need to provide evidence that a publication is actually our work.
If we were considering accessing artificial intelligence (other than the current use of Google and Facebook), Liss recommended to use AI as a foundation first not the polished product. She suggested AI can be used to help ideation, developing alternative ways of phrasing, assist world building, research and to save time with social media posts; being sure to work through what AI has produced to check it aligns with our brand and reflects our voice. Her top tips were: creating a concise command prompt is the key and to ask the software multiple times so it can learn from you.
“The more you work with it the more the algorithm and AI will adjust to you so it will get better the more you train it.”
~ Liss Caldwell.
To research the AI mentioned for the creation of content phase, please see:
ChatGTP for text.
https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt
DALL-E2 and Midjourney for images.
https://www.midjourney.com/home/
MURFAI for text to speech.
https://murf.ai/
To investigate the AI mentioned for the editing of written content phase, please see:
AutoCrit
Fictionary
Grammarly
ProWritingAid
Liss advised us that many free online software websites own the copyright to our work even if we’ve used the paid versions (including Canva elements as they put coding behind to check). She recommended to only use them for the mock up phase before finalising products in alternative programs or external producers (for example a professional cover designer). Liss also mentioned that editing AI software tools aren’t consistent or completely accurate across proof, copy or structural edits, so do not rely on them entirely.
The overall thought Liss wanted us to consider was our WHY. Why do we create? As it is our why that can guide if, when and how we use artificial intelligence in our work.
With a mix of relief and a touch of apprehension the Writelinkers felt more stable in their roles after learning that creatives will still have a place in the future, that AI can be used to assist the process and it is not likely to take over the world…yet…
