3 ms·
Ask HN: Why don't novelists want to achieve immortality via AI writing as them?
By this, I don’t just mean that AI would write novels in their style, but that it would also take into account all their novels, life experiences, interests, knowledge, and current events.
- talldayo 2y agoWhy would they want that?
- amichail 2y agoWouldn't you want people to eagerly anticipate new novels from "you" every year, long after you've died?
- wryoak 2y agoI don’t want for anything after death save peace.
- amichail 2y agoWhat about seeing more novels written in your name by an AI as you get older and don’t write as frequently?
- krapp 2y agoIf your only concern is making money, maybe. Some authors do that, but an AI isn't necessary. If anything, using a ghostwriter and not an AI is a better guarantee of quality. However I would assume many if not most authors actually care that the words attached to their name are their own.
- JohnFen 2y agoNot really. Besides, those new novels wouldn't be from me. Why would I care about them?
- puttycat 2y agoIt will simply not be as good.
- JSDevOps 2y agoIt’s not them. It’ll be diluted over time and abstracted from the original creator and also take away revenue form their estate.
- amichail 2y agoMaybe money from these AI novels would go to their estate.
- krapp 2y agoAI afficionados don't seem to appreciate that the creative process has intrinsic value for creative people. That authors enjoy the process of writing, artists enjoy the process of art, that the journey means something to people, rather than just the destination. Not everyone is like programmers or entrepreneurs whose only goal is getting to MVP as quickly and with as few LOC as possible. FWIW here is Steven King's opinion on the matter[0]. [0]https://mashable.com/article/stephen-king-ai-fiction https://mashable.com/article/stephen-king-ai-fiction
- JohnFen 2y agoAnd, I argue, the creative process has intrinsic value for everyone, not just for the artist going through it. > Not everyone is like programmers or entrepreneurs whose only goal is getting to MVP as quickly and with as few LOC as possible. Not all programmers and entrepreneurs are like that, either. There's a higher concentration of that sort here on HN than in the general population of programmers and entrepreneurs.
- bell-cot 2y agoAre you interested in the "immortality" of being replaced by a AI-version of yourself? There is no magical guarantee that the AI's novels will keep selling well enough to pay the AI's hosting bills & other overheard. And how warm & fuzzy would this "immortality" be, if the consensus emerged that the AI was a considerably better author than the original? Many online reviews are already nasty enough - just imagine being on the receiving end of comments such as [trigger warning] "I just trained an AI on his books, and it's already a better author than he is. The best thing he could do for his poor readers is hurry up and die."
- gregjor 2y agoSo-called AI (LLMs) can’t incorporate life experiences, interests, knowledge, etc. They tokenize strings of words then produce more strings of words by prediction. Having software, or a ghost writer, continue to churn out novels similar in style does not make the novelist immortal. If anything it makes them a hack. Their actual work will exist in a growing pool of imitation and repetition. Why without a sane person care about this kind of fake immortality? After they die it can makes no difference to them, and can only serve to fleece their readers.
- JohnFen 2y agoThat's not immortality in any meaningful sense of the word. The output of the LLM would not be from them, so it's not like they'd be "living on" through it. It would be a ghost writer.
- rsynnott 2y agoHave you seen stuff written by LLMs? Particularly _fiction_ written by LLMs? It’s, well, a bit shit. You’re not honouring anyone’s memory with that nonsense.