The Book Thread: August 30th, 2026 [MP4]

Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes. It’s time once again for the monthly MP4-hosted Sunday Book Thread. Dress for men, as always, is country club casual. Women, however, are encouraged to cater to my own particular tastes:

So ask the barman for a cocktail, covfefe or tea and let’s get started!
‘AI, ay, ay!’

A while back, an offer popped up on my Facebook feed.* It was an AI program that, if you gave it some prompts, would shoot you back a plot for a book. I was curious, so offered it a basic line of ‘what would happen if a 1915 NJ movie studio had a murder to keep it from moving to Hollywood?’

A few minutes later, the program gave me a full plotline. As one might expect from this woke age, the main character was a spunky female reporter trying to make her way in a male-dominated world. I liked what I saw, but decided that I didn’t need it and wiped it out.

But, having thought about it, I wondered why I shouldn’t use it for my next book? After all, the late Clive Cussler paid people to come up with plots for his Dirk Pitt novels. And James Patterson ‘collaborates’ with unknown authors, takes their plots, adds his ‘unique viewpoint’ and pushes them out on the marketplace.

So let’s presume I asked an AI program for a plot. Am I cheating? Suppose I didn’t follow it slavishly, but used the plot as a jumping off point for my own thoughts. Is my book compromised because I began with an AI plot?
Incidentally, the same program would, if you asked it, take the plot it generated and then spit out an entire book. But why would anyone even within whispering distance of calling themselves an author do such a thing? Oh, I know it happens (and, as I joke, because Amazon will print just about anything up to and including Bigfoot-themed erotica, ‘author’ is practically a worthless word), but beyond the lure of money and the simple ease of the shortcut, why do such a thing to yourself?

This is a subject more for the authors of the Horde, but what about you? If you knew that an author used AI to create a plot, but not the content of the book itself, would that drive you away?

*I hate Facebook. I am only there to be part of the ‘Theda Bara Fan Club.’ I hate the rest of it.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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