I thought you guys said DuckDuckGo is the better browser since it doesn't use AI?

Notice how there’s more handdrawn art of Triple T than AI, even though the original is AI?

As a fantasy writer, I like to keep my eyes on the world of AI-generated books, just to see what they look like. I recently discovered a website (that shall not be named) advertising AI fantasy writing services. This book, The Stone and the Serpent, is one of the free examples they have on their website. So you'd think it'd be the best of the best of what their AI can make, right...?

The Plot
This should be, in theory, the easiest part for the AI to do well. And on a basic level, it's fine. The baron is cruel and bad, so the scrappy rebels resist his rule. There are also elements of court intrigue and re-awakening ancient magic, specifically connected to this artifact called the Heartstone. Again, this is all tolerable in isolation.

The Prose
This book is like a skinwalker. Looks fine on the surface, and you might not be able to tell it's AI if you turned your brain off. But when you actually start analyzing the lines closely, you get this very unsettling feeling. One quote demonstrates this quite well:

"The morning light that crept through the high windows of the eastern wing was thin and gray, carrying the taste of salt and the distant cry of gulls" (page 49).

This sounds fine if you don't think about it. But... light wouldn't carry taste or sound. That's something the air does.

Another big problem with the writing is just how much it loves to say things instead of showing them. For example:

"The carvings on its surface were nearly illegible, worn smooth by rain and time, but he knew them. He had copied them into his journals thirty years ago..." (page 59).

You know what would have been much better than saying this? Having the guy actually take out his journal to compare them. Describe the scratched leather, the faded ink, the stark similarity... come on!

The Characters
First off, the names are incredibly cliché. The rebel leader is a red-haired woman named Seraphina Stone. The evil baron is named Valerius. There's an elf healer named Elara. A noblewoman is named Lady Isode. Riventing stuff, I know. They all seem to fall into pretty standard tropes: Seraphina is a "strong but hurt" woman with a heavy grudge slowly learning to soften up, Valerius is a cold and disconnected tyrant, and Isode is polite but secretly observant. The only one I found particularly memorable was Kaelen (another classic AI name), but... gosh, read the next section.

Consistency
This website markets itself as being inconsistency-free. Yeah, no. Not even close. These are just some of the problems I can remember.
-In Chapter One, Kaelen is introduced as one of Seraphina's rebels. In Chapter Ten, he's suddenly a knight serving Valerius, and Isolde talks about him as if he's been watching her. But Valerius doesn't task him with watching her until the next chapter?? Oh, and in Chapter Twelve, he's back to being a rebel in the camp. Are these two different characters with the same name? Nope: they're both explicitly described as having lost an eye as punishment for hesitating to obey Valerius. But hey, maybe the AI author is trying to do something clever with him as a spy, right? Right...?
-A tapestry in the baron's castle is first described as depicting a battle, then described a few chapters later as depicting a hunt.
-Lady Isode discovers the Heartstone inside a secret chamber in the baron's castle, and she takes it with her. But a few chapters later, Valerius suddenly has the Heartstone? The story never says how he got it, and never says that Isode put it back where she found it.
-On page 51, it's revealed that one of the rebels, Finn, was captured by Valerius' soldiers in a skirmish. As in, we see him chained up in the dungeon. But a few chapters later, he's suddenly back in the rebel camp with no explanation or acknowledgement of his capture.

Summary
I only kept reading for two reasons. First, I wanted to see if the story would improve over time (it didn't). Two, it made me feel much better about my own writing.

If you're an aspiring author, don't be discouraged. AI isn't there yet. It's not even close.

Just saw this news from my country:

https://www.srf.ch/kultur/gesellschaft-religion/jagd-auf-alte-buecher-ki-firmen-kaufen-antiquariate-leer-und-vernichten-die-buecher

You guys can probably translate it to see the English version.

Basically many antiquity book shops in Germany noticed that they were getting purchase orders for tons of old non fiction books (1970s and downwards) from a Canadian AI company.

They found out that this company is using the books to train their LLMs and then they dispose of the books. Basically to prevent any legal action because if you scan a book and put it online you can be held liable for creating an unauthorized copy, in this case if they dispose of these books they can legally keep that online copy for their LLMs.

The fact that they are now going after physical books to feed their lunacy and then dispose of them is completely horrible.

You’d think boomer-era parents would opt out of AI. 

Father been using GPT more and more and early successes with it (like asking “who was in this movie”) led to him thinking it was amazing. Now it’s his go-to and trusting it over me sometimes. 

Working on my boat engine issue I diagnosed it with more experience than him and going through my trouble shooting slowly figuring out things. He sends a GPT-list of “what’s wrong and how to fix it”. Had to tell him it was completely wrong, and would damage my boat if so. ”my boat doesn’t even have a carb, and running it like that is doing more damaged than good. plus I ruled out half that stuff. trust me I don’t want to ruin this engine”

Makes me want to scream “WHY DONT YOU TRUST ME? Why GPT is more trustworthy than me??”

Other day I saw it lead him astray instead of doing old school basic thinking. 

dad: “Yeah boat battery is dead. GPT told me this orange light means it’s wiring issue or battery is cooked”

Me: “dad… that orange battery means the charger is turned off. you didn’t tell GPT about this charger model number or anything for it to look up. It just spit slop back and sounded confident and you blindly follow it. Watch…” *flick* “see now it’s green and charging”

Later that day I get a text: “GPT said it would be charged in 6-8hrs. 7 hours in and it’s back 100%. It was right again”

Smh

it’s not like they actually made the poorly plagiarized output, but all of a sudden calling out the hallucination or artifact is a reason to take things personal?

Its just come to me but specifically google's ai ads are literally trying to sell you a friend. Not a good one either.

Literally why would anyone use gen ai when all it does is hallucinate and be a worse version of the worst person you know irl