""" Another prediction is that MOST readers will care about machine-vs-meat as much as they currently care about publishing imprints, which is to say almost none. """
This does not align with what I see in the fiction book space at all. At least in the communities that I frequent (fantasy, sci-fi, horror) there is no AI publication that I am aware of that is good. And readers react allergically to any notion of AI involvement be it for covers or the actual writing. I think people will gladly pay a premium for human written texts just like people gladly play chess in fact the number of chess enthusiasts has drastically increased despite engines being able to crush the best players in the world. Writing is art and art requires a human soul for lack of a better word.
As for proving that you wrote it...yeah that could be tricky. I do all my writing in Latex tracked in git. I guess if the AI accusations get really wild one could add some sort of proctoring for the writing process (film yourself while writing).
> there is no AI publication that I am aware of that is good
I think you're right that there isn't any that's any good right now, but that's beside the point that if that changes (or if that's wrong) then people mostly won't care.
> At least in the communities that I frequent (fantasy, sci-fi, horror)
I think if you are part of a "community" surrounding some genre, then you are probably exposed to an extremely non-representative subset of the population that consumes that genre.
Honestly I feel like I've already lived this when CGI began eating practical effects in movies. Lots of people hated CGI. then it got better, then it got worse again but by then it was the norm and people's complaints don't have much teeth.
Of course the best CGI back in the day was the CGI you didn't even notice was there. same with AI. when it's bad (and these days it's often bad) you notice, but then you don't notice all the places that. well you don't notice. And you didn't notice because there was nothing to notice.
I think this blog is pretty spot on, it's coming, people will seek out AI novels for, well their novelty (at least for a while), some will demand provenance regardless of quality, and everyone whether they like it or not will be consuming it and in many cases be none the wiser. eventually it will just be how things are.
> Lots of people hated CGI. then it got better, then it got worse again
What do you mean by "it got worse again"? Why did CGI tech get worse?
I agree about the writing. As for the cover art though: I'm indifferent. It's not an important part of the book.
In the literary world, I would call using AI sentences in your novel a felony, but I'm not sure using it in a cover would even qualify as a misdemeanor.
> Writing is art and art requires a human soul for lack of a better word.
I think it's the other way around. The human soul requires the art. Or rather it craves the process of creating art, more than art-the-trade-item. When image generation was new, someone raged: "They want to build a genie to grant them wishes, and their wish is that nobody ever has to make art again."
> As for proving that you wrote it...yeah that could be tricky.
On social media, when people share their drawings they often share a photo with their tools visible (pencil, eraser) instead of a clean scan. It sends a message like "Look! I made this!". Or they post a time-lapse. Or details about their process, like here: https://www.viruscomix.com/makingofpartfive.html
The point of this is not mainly to "proof" anything, I think, but more a community signal that they care about their craft and are curious how others work. You can probably generate a convincing fake process with AI now, but... I wonder if anyone is willing to go that far.
It's both; humans and human activity are immanently mutual; humans are for humans.
Look at Chinese AI Dramas, this is completely taking over this space.
https://news.mydramalist.com/article/ai-dramas-and-movies-ta...
People watch them and they look for more AI dramas, it’s exactly what’s being predicted for books in films. Now maybe novels are deeper than Chinese dramas, but how much fantasy writing and fanfic gets formulaic?
You're definitely in a certain environment of readers. There are populations living on this Earth reading AI-generated books that are available on Amazon, an AI-generated TV shows. I am not recommending you try to engage and consume that content, just saying that it exists and there are people that either don't notice or don't mind.
If those readers were always your target, you were always writing slop.
People are largely fools who don't understand the (extreme) limitations of their own perception.
To offer a useful analogy: we only notice the bad lip filler jobs.
AI is all over the place and becoming more undetectable by the day. Detectability also relates to the proficiency of the person using it. There are many highly intelligent people using AI surreptitiously and to great effect. Few understand this.
No, we now assume naturally full lips might be a lip job, too, and the naturally positive reaction is delayed or not forthcoming at all. That is all that achieved.
I hate being a counterpoint poster on hn but here goes: derivative country and other boring music was already always popular before generative ai. The broad population listens to boring derivative music and don't give a shit. Never have, never will. It's the same with all art.
EDIT: before someone interjects saying "not all country is bad" I ask you to please notice that I did not imply that. Only the bad country music is bad mmkay.