AI generated ebooks - customized for the reader

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by kandwo

Of course they'll get beaten by the real thing.

Yes, real human writers and real computers beat that junk.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by kandwo

it sounds exactly like those nonsense articles written for the sake of clicks using SEO.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Oh man, I hate that.

I don't hate that they exist, but I do hate that there is at least a dozen of them before any actually useful sites.

Originally Posted by kandwo

Of course they'll get beaten by the real thing.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, real human writers and real computers beat that junk.

In most dimensions, but they do manage to crowd out the real thing in web searches.

Search engines used to take pride in the relevance of their results, but haven't for years.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I don't hate that they exist, but I do hate that there is at least a dozen of them before any actually useful sites.

Often those sites ARE useful. they will have the information I'm looking for, after several paragraphs of padded out nonsense. As an example, I just searched "french fries in air fryer." The top result is Allrecipies and it is useful. It's just that before getting down to business, there's paragraphs of crap like "Why Make Air Fryer French Fries?" That is beside the point and just takes up space. I already clicked the link, therefore I already want to make them.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, real human writers and real computers beat that junk.

Yes, and surprisingly people seem to forget that humans also have access to the same tools that ChatGPT does. ChatGPT just takes whatever one would find doing a Google search and reading a bit on Wikipedia and presents it in a form that mimics conversation (or more often mimics however a politician would answer the question).

Any more or less decent human writer would easily outperform ChatGPT in producing insightful and interesting to read content.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by kandwo

Any more or less decent human writer would easily outperform ChatGPT in producing insightful and interesting to read content.

ChatGPT, definitely. GPT-4? Sure. GPT-5, or 6, or whatever comes next? Not so sure. And it's coming really fast; I'm quite convinced that by 2025 we won't be able to make the difference.

I have really ambivalent feelings about the whole thing. As a technology enthusiast, I think we can only marvel at the fast pace of technology and of what can be done that was unthinkable just a few years ago. On the other hand, when it comes to art, part of me just refuses to embrace those automated creations.

Somehow I can't see literature as just a means to entertain a reader, in the same way that I never was interested in games with procedurally generated content. Somehow I need to know that the story I'm reading is coming from an entity I can relate to, with whom I share the experience of actual life on this planet; that there was an actual intent to amuse, sadden, surprise, or awe the reader.

I'm currently reading through the Norwegian book clubs' list of the 100 greatest works in world literature, in chronological order of publication, and seeing how much great stuff has been written so far, I am almost tempted to set the line at December 2022 as the latest publication date of any book I'll ever read from now on.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

Somehow I need to know that the story I'm reading is coming from an entity I can relate to, with whom I share the experience of actual life on this planet; that there was an actual intent to amuse, sadden, surprise, or awe the reader.

Why? I'm genuinely curious, not just being argumentative. I ask because at this point in my life, I barely give authors a second thought when reading their works. I'm not really interested in them, or their intentions, only in their works (and whether or not they were interesting enough for me to try more of them).

[John F]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Why? I'm genuinely curious, not just being argumentative. I ask because at this point in my life, I barely give authors a second thought when reading their works. I'm not really interested in them, or their intentions, only in their works (and whether or not they were interesting enough for me to try more of them).

+1

I sometimes find it interesting to read about them, but I don't need to "relate" to them to enjoy their work. And many of the authors I read, I know next to nothing about them.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by John F

I sometimes find it interesting to read about them, but I don't need to "relate" to them to enjoy their work. And many of the authors I read, I know next to nothing about them.

Same here. I honestly don't care who the author is, just if I can connect to their
writing.

I don't follow author news very much, unless it realtes to their next book coming out. I don't care about their personal histories. I may balk at supporting an author who's acting badly, but I hear about all that from non-bookish sources. I don't go looking for any information on them.

I think it'd be like following actors around all the time, and expecting them to be perfect people. You'll always find yourself dissapointed in someone. Sometimes very sadly so.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Why? I'm genuinely curious, not just being argumentative. I ask because at this point in my life, I barely give authors a second thought when reading their works. I'm not really interested in them, or their intentions, only in their works (and whether or not they were interesting enough for me to try more of them).

It's not as much about the author themselves; I also don't care that very much about the life of authors and their whereabouts, etc. It's more about the simple fact that they are human, and therefore share with us the experience of what it feels, and likely wonder about what it means, to be alive, here.

It's hard to explain, and probably a combination of several factors. Part of it might be cultural; I come from the French-speaking world, where authors have a very high social status. Members of the "Académie Française" are basically revered as beings of higher intelligence and purpose than the plebs below. There is this omnipresent idea that there is something to be learned from reading the works of authors, that books are a gateway to something bigger than us. Of course this is not something people state that plainly, and certainly not all French authors seek (or deserve) such praise, but the whole idea of "reading just for fun", and a worldview where authors are essentially entertainers, remains more prevalent in the English-speaking world.

Then there's the question of purpose. Somehow I feel if there was no purpose in writing something, there is no purpose in reading it. Of course we can say that an AI writing a novel has a "purpose", e.g. to make the reader laugh; however the way it achieves this is by pulling the correct levers and pressing the right buttons to release the right dose of dopamine - a kind of mechanical and clinical act performed to reach the goal with the highest possible performance. Somehow I am less interested in reading a work which was written with this purpose as a driver. I think humans have the possibility to infuse their works with a higher purpose, and achieve the end objective in far more interesting ways.

Then finally the whole thing carries a risk of creating our own personal echo chambers; books written by AI specifically for someone (as per the thread title) would basically cater to this person's desires and feed them what they want to read. However what we want is not always what we need; I believe it is necessary to be periodically confronted to ideas that challenge our world view, so we get an opportunity to discover new things, explore and evolve. I trust human writers for this.

Now, all of this is likely to be moot in maybe 10 years from now, when artificial intelligence vastly outperforms our own. At that point, AI will arguably be able to deliver all of the above. Until then, I'll stick to people

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

Then there's the question of purpose. Somehow I feel if there was no purpose in writing something, there is no purpose in reading it.

According to one SF author I met a a convention decades back, the purpose in his writing was keeping food on the table and clothes on his back.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DNSB

According to one SF author I met a a convention decades back, the purpose in his writing was keeping food on the table and clothes on his back.

Yep.

I used to put authors (not the individuals themselves, but the collective) on a pedestal (or peddle-stool for those paying close attention) when I was young. But then the internet helped me learn that they're just people plying a trade like any others. Some are able to move me more than others, but that's not because they've been bestowed with some sort of mystical gift from god that needs to be poured out of their soul onto paper (or eink). They just stumbled onto a formula that works for me, and some others (for a little while). I eventually tire of all authors who put too much work out there.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by DNSB

According to one SF author I met a a convention decades back, the purpose in his writing was keeping food on the table and clothes on his back.

I guess it’s as good a purpose as any

Still I can’t help but to feel sad about this. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I get it, books are a product just like anything else and the people writing them depend on their sale for their livelihood, but there’s something profoundly sad about writing being just a job like any other.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

but there’s something profoundly sad about writing being just a job like any other.

Not to me. I found it profoundly enlightening when I figured out that it was just that (not that there's not some for whom it's a true "calling" -- just like with any other profession).

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

I guess it’s as good a purpose as any

Still I can’t help but to feel sad about this. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I get it, books are a product just like anything else and the people writing them depend on their sale for their livelihood, but there’s something profoundly sad about writing being just a job like any other.

Even for those who whom it is a 'true calling', they still live in this world so they need the income to allow them to survive. The starving writer does exist but like the starving artist, they either learn to produce marketable work or they move on to other endeavours.