4 ms·

I'm a software engineer and I also write fiction. (90+% of my income for SE, as you might guess). For the fiction, editors are getting flooded with submissions

I'm a software engineer and I also write fiction. (90+% of my income for SE, as you might guess). For the fiction, editors are getting flooded with submissions written or assisted by LLMs, so the competition has increased and editors have less time to evaluate submissions. It's all the way up and down the chain: online magazines, small press, agents, big publishers. Not life-changing for me. I think it has been for some of them. At work, one of the non-technical managers is writing code with ChatGPT. It's a little like working with a junior developer who doesn't know that they are junior. I don't mind that he's writing code, but he's only taking the interesting and low hanging fruit. The difficult and tedious work is still left to the engineers. I wish he would manage instead, because my team and the project we're on has little oversight or guidance. And we're not likely to get it because the lead manager is now a prompt-engineer. Not life-changing for me, again.

oriel 4y ago
> because the lead manager is now a prompt-engineer This is actually one of my bigger short-term concerns, where someone who doesnt have any real understanding or good intuition is given the illusion of competence, while only creating more problems and work for those who have actual competence. Referencing the four stages of competence[1], this set of persons being Unconsciously Incompetent, are more likely to cause far more harm than good in the medium term, in the name of efficiency or such. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence
logicalmonster 4y ago
> editors have less time to evaluate submissions If AI is increasing the flow of stories coming in, then shouldn't it also increase the rate of categorizing and rating stories by human editors? I realize that an AI can't make a business decision, but maybe it can whittle down the pile of books for human editors to review from say 1000 submissions to maybe the 25 most promising ones
- polishdude20 4y ago
  It's not increasing the appetite or demand for them though. Reviewers increase as demand increases, not supply.
  - logicalmonster 4y ago
    I'm just asking if technology lets content be created faster, then maybe technology similarly allows content to be reviewed faster.
- ironlake 4y ago
  I think there's a very real opportunity for an AI manuscript evaluator. I don't think there's a solution that does this now.

oriel 4y ago

> because the lead manager is now a prompt-engineer This is actually one of my bigger short-term concerns, where someone who doesnt have any real understanding or good intuition is given the illusion of competence, while only creating more problems and work for those who have actual competence. Referencing the four stages of competence[1], this set of persons being Unconsciously Incompetent, are more likely to cause far more harm than good in the medium term, in the name of efficiency or such. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence

logicalmonster 4y ago

> editors have less time to evaluate submissions If AI is increasing the flow of stories coming in, then shouldn't it also increase the rate of categorizing and rating stories by human editors? I realize that an AI can't make a business decision, but maybe it can whittle down the pile of books for human editors to review from say 1000 submissions to maybe the 25 most promising ones

polishdude20 4y ago
It's not increasing the appetite or demand for them though. Reviewers increase as demand increases, not supply.
- logicalmonster 4y ago
  I'm just asking if technology lets content be created faster, then maybe technology similarly allows content to be reviewed faster.
ironlake 4y ago
I think there's a very real opportunity for an AI manuscript evaluator. I don't think there's a solution that does this now.