He’s Cool With AI Training on His Prose

AI writers like ChatGPT regularly use writing like Stephen King’s fiction to get better at autowriting.

And King is perfectly fine with that.

Observes writer Jordan Hart: “King said that forbidding programmers from using his (writing) to teach AI is essentially pointless.”

Adds King: “I might as well be King Canute, forbidding the tide to come in.

“Or a Luddite — trying to stop industrial progress by hammering a steam loom to pieces.”

King’s laissez-faire reaction to AI writing differs markedly from that of many of his brethren.

A stark example: A mounting wave of writers are currently admonishing the maker of ChatGPT and other AI writing tools for using their written work.

They believe the maker should have asked their their permission — and should have compensated them for using their writing.

In other analysis of AI-generated writing news:

*In-Depth Guide: Look Ma, No Hands! — Automating ChatGPT: Well-known digital promoter Neil Patel offers an easy-to-follow, extremely thorough primer in this post on how to automate the use of ChatGPT.

Patel’s secret: Auto-GPT, a tool that can auto-generate its own prompts that ChatGPT can use to complete a task — without human supervision.

Observes Patel: “Instead of spending hours fine-tuning models for different tasks, Auto-GPT uses smart, automated techniques.

“Tell it what you want to achieve — it does the rest for you.”

One caveat: Given that Auto-GPT is designed to make multiple — perhaps nearly endless independent decisions — to complete a task, it could run-up an extremely expensive bill if allowed to run unmonitored.

Bottom line: Auto-GPT can be an extremely powerful tool for expert users of ChatGPT, as long as you keep an eye on it.

And this guide on Auto-GPT from Patel is one of the most thorough, insightful and easy-to-understand that you can find on the Web right now.

*Custom Fit: Another Option for Made-to-Order ChatGPT: Companies looking to customize ChatGPT tech to write in their brand voice, act as an answer chatbot about their products and services — and more — now have a new alternative.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is partnering with a computer programming firm to help companies easily customize the AI tech for their needs.

Companies looking for customization also have the option to contract with other computer programming companies.

Interestingly, OpenAI and its partner Scale AI will be collaborating on the customizations using GPT-3.5 instead of GPT-4.

GPT-4 is OpenAI’s most advanced version of its generative AI tech. GPT-3.5 is a generation older.

So far, there’s no word as to when firms will be able to use Scale AI or a similar programming company to customize GPT-4, according to writer Kyle Wiggers.

*Just the Gist, Please: Article Summaries Coming to Google Chrome Browser: Web surfers who want a quick summary of an article or text they’ve come across on the Web will often be able to get one with a mouse-click.

Google has announced that its Chrome browser is being updated with an AI-powered summary feature that enables surfers to tap a button to see a list of key points in an article.

The new tool — which so far only works on some Web pages — will also enable users to click on one or more links generated to go straight to the insights they’re looking to glean from the Web page or article.

*Who’s the Real College Whiz Now? — ChatGPT Better at Writing Than College Kids: New research finds that on average, ChatGPT is better at writing college essays than college students.

Observes writer Harry Stedman: “The research — published in Scientific Reports — found ChatGPT matched or exceeded the efforts of students when answering assessment questions in subjects including computer science, political studies, engineering and psychology.

“It also found almost three-quarters of students surveyed (74%) would use ChatGPT to help with their assignments — despite 70% of educators viewing it as plagiarism.”

*Once Upon a Time, When Thinking Mattered: Widespread student use of AI essay writers is destroying the development of critical thinking skills in young minds, according to a college English professor.

In fact, college student preference for cheating over critical thinking has become so sophisticated, some students are running AI-generated essays through ‘rephrasing generators’ to partially reword the writing with synonyms.

The goal: Mask the computerized origin of the text — rather than write their own text, according to the professor.

Observes Mark Massar, English professor, Florida SouthWestern State College: “This next step of an over-reliance on technology will further sever the American public from determining truth from lies, information from propaganda.”

That’s “a critical skill that is slowly becoming a lost art — leaving the population willfully ignorant and intellectually lazy,” Massar adds.

*Fundraising Facelift: An AI Wingman That Triggers Campaign Donations: Some political campaigns looking to crank-out a first-draft of a fundraising letter are turning to a new autowriter dedicated to the task: Quiller.

Essentially, Quiller spits-out a first-draft of a plea for donations that’s generally 70% ready-to-send, according to writer Brett Samuels.

The technology can be particularly helpful for local and down-ballot candidates who may not be able to afford to hire an independent fundraising agency, according to Hillary Leher, Quiller CEO.

*Not the Sharpest Tool in the Toolbox?: Black & Decker Looking for ChatGPT Alternatives: In a move that rubs-up against the prevailing ‘AI solves all problems’ narrative, toolmaker Black & Decker has decided to seek AI writers not based on ChatGPT tech.

The problem: ChatGPT-based AI writers too often generated errors in brand voice and brand style, according to Dean McElwee, director, global ecommerce collaboration, Black & Decker.

The upshot: Black & Decker has decided to experiment with other AI writing tools based on alternative autowriting engines, according to writer April Berthene.

*Cliff Notes for Shoppers: Amazon Experimenting with Review Summaries: Shoppers looking for a quick take-away from reviews on any product on Amazon may soon be able to use a new tool that offers quick summaries of those consumer take-aways.

The retail goliath is currently experimenting with the new summary tool among a subset of its shoppers, according to writer Brek Dumas.

Observes Dumas: Amazon’s new feature uses AI “to scan existing customer reviews for common themes and provide a short paragraph on a product’s detail page summarizing that feedback.”

*AI Big Picture: Hunting AI’s Elite — The Skills That Employers Want Most: From the Department of ‘If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em:’

A new study finds that employers are ‘increasingly on the hunt’ for workers familiar with AI autowriting and AI auto-imaging tools, according to writer Eric Revell.

The research — drawn from freelance worker site Upwork — found that ChatGPT was the most popular search on the site for employers searching for workers experienced in generative AI, according to Revell.

Nearly as popular among employers was the search term in the “BERT.”

It’s an open-source language model that can be used to auto-produce writing, images, computer code and more.

And coming in third among the most popular AI search terms was Stable Diffusion.

That’s an AI auto-image generator that produces images based on text input from a user.

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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.