Generative AI: The Author’s Ally

We are a fiction writing community, not an artistic community. Some of our members are artists, and we celebrate that. We encourage our members to collab with them, or hire them, if it fits their interest or project goals.

Most authors cannot hire an artist to create the concept art and cover design of their dreams. Generative art can be a huge help for small creators. Larger companies should always prioritize real artists.

Human-crafted art is always superior (in principle) to generated art. In practice, artists can't demand attention, especially early on in their journey.

LegendFiction encourages artists to create boldly and frequently, and not to see AI as competition. It is another tool available to us all. Artists will be the ones who can use it best. Our artist members may or may not choose to use AI in their workflow, and that's up to them.

First of all, most people actually don't care. AI art is a tool of delight and creativity.

For those who think all AI art is morally wrong, here's my point of view, and why I believe it can be good:

For the first time ever, every human can create and imagine visually, without having to spend 10K hours (or 3) learning how to be an artist.

As an artist myself with decades in music, theater, design, writing. film making, painting, and whatever else my ADD self got up to… I see my skills as an artist differently. First, I can copyright an output, not my style. No one can do that. And if my work has made it into an LLM, I could not care less. An artist develops a talent and a skill that can be passed to a machine, so that someone without that skill can finally, blessedly, scratch the surface of communication. A true artist (I know… Scotsman fallacy) can never be threatened by anything, not machines or competition or outright theft, because creativity is its own reason and reward. So no, I don't want to be compensated for my art in any LLM. It is my gift and contribution to the human family. And in a 100 years, when most of the art around us passes out of copyright, everyone's will too. Like an art director, non-artists can commission a machine to imagine with them. (Of course, that will never make them an artist.) But thanks to the pioneering skills of artists across time and borders, every plumber, student, or grandmother with a dream or an idea can contribute to the human family. Think of the incredible gift and generosity of a ghostwriter. A supremely thankless job, I suppose, beyond a paycheck. Some other person with a fascinating life borrows your skills, commissions a book that takes hundreds of hours, and no one ever knows your name.

Setting aside the stupid use of generative AI art, where people deliberately try to profit off of copyrighted IP, or the unending slopshipping. We all can't wait for that to clear out of the culture. Most of humanity, then and now, have never had a chance to earn attention like talented artists can. The mere fact of being a human artist does not entitle you to attention, especially when many artists waste their talent or platform, or hog the limelight for ludicrous and soul-sucking vapidity. And meanwhile, good people with good ideas to share are sidelined, shut down, and ignored. They have stories, proposals, projects they've mulled on for years. But they have been hamstrung from age, trauma, life conditions, and endless reasons. Most of humanity is the meme of the drowning hand grasping up for help, only we're grasping up for a chance to communicate our inner worlds and ideas. The entitled elitism of the artistic classes wants them in their place, and tells them they should take classes and learn a skill. Some of us can retire where that's an option. Most of us never will. Am I to accept that I should leave this life without ever sharing things that truly matter to me, that could help my friends, my community, my fans, my world? No. I reject that. (Maybe the real issue isn't about unearned compensation, but the reality that most artists have a hard time with business. And that's a different question about playing market games.) I'm not only grateful that I get to benefit from generative AI, but penniless teens and broke grandparents and struggling families can dream and imagine like never before. (Yes, anything can be abused, but that doesn't negate the good use.) I accept that how AI was scraped and handled was done badly, but we can't put that genie back in the bottle. It's here to stay, like it or not. Otherwise, no one would use highways, tour the Wall of China, or buy smartphones to complain on. All of which could be legitimately demonized for how they were supplied. So instead, I prefer to get ahead, and realise that this is actually a gift for all, and I am glad of it, just like driving a car. Cars create as many problems as they solve, but the good it allows far outweighs the bad, as long as we strive for good. So no, I won't stop enjoying and supporting AI art for myself and my community, because it can be good.