Writer’s Corner: The AI Dilemma

As I sit down to write this, I have a feeling that it may turn into a rant. This AI thing really disturbs me, and it’s getting worse instead of better. If you’ve followed me in the past, you may know that I’ve been known to use AI editing tools such as ProWritingAide in the writing of my books, and also that I’ve utilized generative AI, such as the free versions of Chat GPT to help me form my words in some of my descriptions, as this is an area I am weak in. (Before the anti-AI group begins to raise a fuss, please note that I have never used the AI’s wording, but rather used it to get ideas on how I wanted to use my own words. So, AI does not, and has never, written any part of my books and stories for me.)

More recently, however, I’ve been rethinking this, and I’ll tell you why.

I Don’t Like Having AI Shoved Down My Throat

AI seems to be encroaching on my life in ways which are not wanted and have not been requested, and I’m guessing some of you may feel it, too. AI tools, which we’re told are meant to make our lives easier, such as Alexa, or Google Assistant, or Seri, or whatever, seem to be trying to help without being summoned to do so on occasion. When I’m having a discussion and my Google Assistant pops in with unrequested information uninvited…, to me, that’s kind of scary. We’re told these devices and apps, which we bring into our homes, or download onto our phones and carry with us everywhere, are not listening to us; that we must say the catch-word, (Alexa or Hey Google, etc…), to activate them, yet they pop into a conversation without being summoned, offering unrequested and unwanted information. Seems to me, the AI must be eavesdropping, and how scary is that, to think they are even capable of doing such a thing?

Advances in AI technology are being thrown at us hard and fast. My email now comes equipped with AI, which offers up a summary of each email I open, (I guess to save me the trouble of actually reading the correspondence?), and then, pops up in the middle of my replies, offering to rewrite it for me! As if I cannot be bothered to write my own reply. And most of the time, what it offers up is not even close to what I wish to say. When it pops up on my phone, I am often unable to continue with what I was writing until I can convince it to disappear from my screen, as if it intends to prevent me from replying myself. Not only is this a little scary, but it’s a lot aggravating.

I did not ask for these ‘upgrades’ to my email. They just suddenly appeared after the automatic updates. I opened my email and there they were, in my yahoo account. No one ask permission to shove AI tools in my face; no one asked if I desired them. But there they are, in the applications that I use. Microsoft did the same thing with Word, although theirs is not as pushy, appearing as a little comment icon over to the side of the screen that I can click on if I need it. (I don’t.)

My MS Word program and the WordPress platform both offer AI editors, but they leave it up to you whether to use them. You must click on them to bring them up. They don’t just pop up and try to take over. It’s a matter of choice with these programs, and I don’t have a problem with that.

Since the beginning of the year, I have backed off my use of AI, and only using the built in editor on MS Word to locate possible needed corrections, but fixing them myself, because I often don’t like the solutions offered. It is frequently wrong, suggesting words which aren’t at all what you wanted to say and totally miss the point. The same with AI editors, such as ProWritingAid. It seems you can’t just take AI’s word for it anyway. You still have to use your noggin.

In the Name of Progress

On her Risky/Women Substack, “AI Won’t Kill Your Career. Your Resistance to It Will.“, Rachel Rogers says, “Refusing to use AI in 2026 is the equivalent of refusing to use the internet in 2000.” She claims that if we don’t embrace AI in the early stages, we will be left behind and our businesses will suffer.

Well, guess what? That’s exactly what I did. In 2000, I refused to have a computer in my home or grant my children permission to use the internet at school, and it did give me a slow start. I was still writing on a manual typewriter and submitting work via snail mail in 1996. By 2000, I had decided snail mail submissions were too costly for me, and my writing had tapered off to near nothing.

I became disillusioned with the public school system when I finally gave in and signed the slip allowing my children internet access at school and almost immediately got a call saying my son had accessed an inappropriate site. As it turned out, their firewalls had failed, and my son had viewed a site with the image of a woman in a bikini. Although it wasn’t the end of the world, it was exactly the kind of thing which I had feared, and my children had only had access for two days. After that, I put my boys in a charter school, but once they reached the age for middle school, I chose to home school them through an online home school program.

The home-schooling program provided computers for each of my boys, but that meant I had to give in and allow computers in my home, and I had to allow my sons to have internet access. Once that happened, I had no choice but to learn to use them myself, and I soon discovered the many opportunities which the internet offered for writers. I mean, you could submit online and it didn’t even cost the price of a stamp. It changed my whole outlook on the matter and soon, I was carrying my own laptop with me everywhere. When required to do readings at a memoir workshop in 2011, everyone else came with folders of papers to read from. As I set up for reading, my comment was, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but my life is in my laptop.” That was no joke, at that point, it really was. My computer had become an integral part of my life.

So, did my resistance to technology and the internet set me back, putting my writing business behind the times and leaving me at a disadvantage? Perhaps.

I certainly missed the dot-com craze. But one could argue that I was still in the learning phases and did not yet know how to put it all together at the time. This was prior to my enrollment in the graduate program in creative writing at Western State Colorado University, where I learned how to write a novel length work; before I learned how to publish and market my work in their masters in publishing program; before all the pieces were in place for me to turn my writing endeavors into a business.

It was also before aggregators like D2D came along which allow authors to publish digitally and on demand with no up-front costs. Before platforms like BookFunnel were available to allow me to create reader magnets, review copies, and giveaway gifts from my books. So, one might argue that it was actually perfect timing, because by the time I had figured out what it was I wanted to do, all the tools I needed to do it were available at my fingertips.

To Use AI or Not to Use AI? That is the Question.

AI can certainly do some amazing things. But there still exists great controversy about the way in which generative AI is trained, taking human authors’ words without their permission. Although that’s an argument for another day, it matters here because it was a big part of the reason stopped using ProWritingAide in my editing process. That, and the fact that more than half the time, the AI was incorrect for the purposes of my stories, even if the English was correct.

I have always been anti-establishment. I don’t want the government, or anyone else, up in my business. I place a high value on my privacy, and I feel like AI devices are an invasion of privacy. I think maybe we need to send out a message to all these technology companies that are trying to push their AI technology down our throats and disable all their AI tools from our personal and business accounts. That’s big talk, but I don’t have a clue as to how to go about it. I didn’t ask for the AI and I don’t know how to get rid of it. I’ve tried ignoring them, but they don’t go away. And I haven’t found any way to turn them off or reject them.

But these are different tools we’re talking about than the AI tools, like Chat GPT and ProWritingAid, which I’ve used in my writing in the past. These tools are appearing in my email apps without having been requested or desired. The writing tools which I have used were tools which I sought out and was happy to find free versions. While I still feel AI editors miss the mark more often than not, they can be helpful, and I don’t feel that, using these tools in the manner that I do, is letting them write for me, or damaging the integrity of my work. In other words, my work is still mine.

I like the responsible approach presented by Alex Cattoni, in this video, “Your Biggest Advantage Over AI Starts Here”, on YouTube:

Let’s look at what we know about using AI.

• We know that AI tools can be helpful in the writing process.
• We know that it is possible to use AI in writing without replacing the human words with AI written content.
• We know that it is possible to use AI tools and still put out content we can be proud of.
• We know that AI is coming, whether we like it or not.
• We know that to choose not to use AI may mean being left behind.

Choices Moving Forward

I may not know how to get rid of the AI tools that are being pushed through apps, but I can choose not to use the AI tools that pop up in my email, etc… I will not be rebellious of my writing tools, just because programmers insult my intelligence with the idea that I cannot read, interpret, or write my own emails. They may push them in my face, but that does not mean I have to use them.

I can chose which AI tools to use and how I use them, so that my writing can still remain mine. I don’t want to get left behind again, not when my writing business is finally beginning to take off. So, I am choosing to continue to utilize the AI editor in the MS Word program, but not access Copilot, which recently appeared in the same program, or ProWritingAid, since they try to rewrite my words and are often not correct.

I will also choose to use generative AI in creating my descriptions cautiously, and be very selective about any wording suggested, to keep my words, my own.

I will choose to be transparent in my writing, letting readers know when AI was used in my writing or in my covers.

What about you?

About Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and Book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders.

Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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This segment of “Writer’s Corner” is sponsored by The Ones Who Stayed With Me, by Nurse Sammy, and WordCrafter Press.

Chronicles of the journey into the medical field as a young nurse and beyond, told with raw sensitivity and compassion. The Ones Who Stayed with Me offers small glimpses into the world of an L.P.N. put in difficult, often touching or humorous, situations—and Nurse Sammy’s courage, vulnerability, and insight are a gift to us all. In these pages, Nurse Sammy tells her story and that of those she met along the way.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/OnesWhoStayed