A few weeks back I came across an interesting post on LinkedIn, made by a colleague about publishing his first book, a children’s adventure storybook. What I found most striking about his post was the tools he had used to write and illustrate this tome. He utilized generative AI to create the entire story from start to finish. By giving very specific prompts, which he had developed and refined over the course of a year, he was able to create a delightful, entertaining book for kids.
The book cover and its contents looked on the surface very professional, as if they had been created by a traditional author and illustrator. I could not detect immediately from the previews that were shared in the post that it was completely AI generated. Even more fascinating was that he introduced several novel concepts to the story design. The main character’s name, ethnicity (Black, Caucasian and Latino) and gender are all customizable on demand and the story is available in four different languages, which can be chosen at check out. So its like he has created twenty-four different books using a single storyline. This is truly impressive!
Imagine as an author one can now create tens or perhaps even hundreds of books with one click! The more prolific an author is the more chances they have to sell their books, get reviews and earn royalties. Provided the quality is comparable to traditionally penned and illustrated books, this would be game changing in the literary world! Yet I think therein lies the key questions that come to my mind. Is the quality currently, truly comparable to a traditionally written book? And are people willing to pay for a purely AI generated story? And would they pay the same amount as for a traditionally written book? I guess this remains to be seen. At the moment I suspect that the quality level and originality of the story may not yet be on par between AI and traditional books, especially when it comes to more complex, sophisticated stories (I’ll write another blogpost about this soon!). However, it is clear that the gap is closing.
Another tricky issue that came to mind after reading my colleague’s post related to authorship. If the generative AI tool wrote and illustrated the story, technically it is the author and illustrator. But if that is the case then what is my colleague who prompted the AI to create the story tailored to his vision. Is he the creator of the story? (This assumes that his contribution can be considered creative! But is that the case if you commission a work of art?) Or is he the publisher of the story? This raises some intriguiging questions which are worth pondering further. Regardless, the era of AI in literature is upon us and likely here to stay. We will ultimately need to find a way to coexist with it and harness it in innovative ways. Thanks for stopping by, stay safe!
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