A novelist accused of using AI. Why the literary world still grapples with guardrails

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I hate to rain on your parade but outside the USA, per cent is the more common usage.

Dialecticon suggests that percent is more common everywhere except in Australia.

In the UK I'd certainly expect to see 'percent' not 'per cent' — unless we were talking about the price of a very cheap substance in the USA.

[Quoth]

I've only seen percent for %. A cent is 1/100th of a currency unit.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I hate to rain on your parade but outside the USA, per cent is the more common usage.

Never heard of it, and in school we learned British English.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Today on the CBC program "The Current" they had a segment "Could readers like AI books more than ones written by humans?"

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio...written-humans

That episode of The Current is probably AI.
Apache

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Today on the CBC program "The Current" they had a segment "Could readers like AI books more than ones written by humans?"

Do these readers have to be human or could they be LLMs as well? "AI books" for me are books about AI just like "cook books" are books about cooking. So "AI books" can also be written by humans. Or do they mean books written by LLMs. Then why don't they say so?
For some obscure reasons these so called journalists label LLMs as artifical intelligence. Well, if one has no natural intelligence like journalists usually do then almost everything looks in some way intelligent even a silverfish in the bathroom.
I hate it when these journalists try to explain something other people. It always goes wrong. I truly loathe this profession.

[Quoth]

There are hugely different computer programs, many unrelated, with the AI label. So they should write "output of LLM /Generative computer systems". There are no actually intelligent computer or other artificial systems. Passing the Touring Test (even if really true for a trained person) doesn't count. Like chess, it was never a seriously claimed measure of AI.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the character Data does stuff either impossible for some one his size and weight (like sic million dollar man) or impossible for a computer. Conversely he's unable to do things a computer program could do 60 years ago. Of course perhaps he's really a genetically engineered "android" not running a computer program at all. The original robots of fiction in the RUR play were actually androids.

The AIs in Iain M. Banks Culture Universe are more like fairies or genies. The uploading and resurrections are Transhumanism and also might as well be magic. It could all be automatically edited to be high fantasy instead of SF.

Our expectations are too much influenced by popular media and PR/ Hype from the sellers. It may be that a true AI really is fantasy. We won't know unless someone builds one. Despite what the LLM based AI companies and Transhumanists claim we don't even know how to start. A two year old or an adult rook can do stuff we have no idea how to program.

If real aliens turn up they are unlikely to have the same motivations or rules as any book, TV show or movie. They might even take advantage of or media & popular culture preconceptions.

Edit note:
Forget IQ tests. The person that invented them insisted they only compared abilities of people with the same ethnic / culture / upbringing & Education. The USA use on Army recruits from diverse backgrounds gives meaningless results. He insisted they did not measure actual intelligence. Like porn, mostly we recognise intelligence, but a useful definition is illusive.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the character Data does stuff either impossible for some one his size and weight (like sic million dollar man) or impossible for a computer. Conversely he's unable to do things a computer program could do 60 years ago. Of course perhaps he's really a genetically engineered "android" not running a computer program at all. The original robots of fiction in the RUR play were actually androids.

Data's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positronic_brain is the typical hand-wave to explain away all the implausibilities of his abilities. It goes back to Asimov trying to be as unspecific as possible to explain intelligent machines.

[DiapDealer]

Are you (@Quoth) ever going to get tired of telling people that AI is not actually intelligent? It's not like people don't know this already. Branding terms rarely match real world definitions. We're used to these discrepancies. Let's move on. Please.

Or maybe we should all start referring to AI as: the technology which will cause Quoth to once again techsplain in excruciating detail to us morons why we shouldn't use the term(s) that the rest of the world has already fully adopted/embraced.

AI seems much simpler (not to mention quicker), though.

[DNSB]

Oddly, when I did a check, most of the sites showed either per cent or percent as being acceptable as long as used cosistently.

Locally, in a quick scan of various publications, per cent is used about 80 per cent of the time though many of those publications were on .gov.ca sites and their style manual recommends per cent.

See Percent vs. per cent or per cent—adverb & noun.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the character Data does stuff either impossible for some one his size and weight (like sic million dollar man) or impossible for a computer. Conversely he's unable to do things a computer program could do 60 years ago. Of course perhaps he's really a genetically engineered "android" not running a computer program at all. The original robots of fiction in the RUR play were actually androids.

No, I think Data is entirely mechanical: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Soong-type_android

Though on topic, in one of the (not-so-canon) novels, there was a plotline where Data tries to write fiction. The best he can do is basically rip off other authors to point where another character thought it was supposed to be a parody.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

No, I think Data is entirely mechanical: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Soong-type_android

I had thought that's supposed to be the case, but really he's a fantasy mech and more characteristic of a cyborg or android

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Though on topic, in one of the (not-so-canon) novels, there was a plotline where Data tries to write fiction. The best he can do is basically rip off other authors to point where another character thought it was supposed to be a parody.

There isn't much consistency in ST and some pre AI era Fan fiction is like that too. I agree that's more characteristic of a computer system.
LLMs are Plagiarism machines. They usually can't even summarise but simply shorten the source.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Are you (@Quoth) ever going to get tired of telling people that AI is not actually intelligent? It's not like people don't know this already. Branding terms rarely match real world definitions. We're used to these discrepancies. Let's move on. Please.

Or maybe we should all start referring to AI as: the technology which will cause Quoth to once again techsplain in excruciating detail to us morons why we shouldn't use the term(s) that the rest of the world has already fully adopted/embraced.

AI seems much simpler (not to mention quicker), though.

Will you get tired of bullying people that upset your fixed opinions on so called AI?

You are like a shill for Anthropic.

Many people believe the hype and the claims made of intelligence.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Oddly, when I did a check, most of the sites showed either per cent or percent as being acceptable as long as used cosistently.
…

See "percentage".

I agree, that for any publication or document that consistency is very important.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I hate to rain on your parade but outside the USA, per cent is the more common usage.

I always have used percent except when buying items N piece per cent. Unfortunately, those days are so long gon, the USA has even stopped making the COIN.

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Or maybe we should all start referring to AI as: the technology which will cause Quoth to once again techsplain in excruciating detail to us morons why we shouldn't use the term(s) that the rest of the world has already fully adopted/embraced.

That's not a bad definition of AI, more convincing than others I've seen. We should adopt it.