AI or Not to AI

Hola Merfolk!

As I get ready to republish The MerSea Series, I have decided to create my own book covers using Photoshop. I had my last book cover, The Denizen’s Stone, made by a professional who did not use AI. However, she did make ads for me using AI as you can see above. My formatter added an AI photo to the title page.

In the last ten years, stock photos have become dull. There are AI photos now that are colorful and show romantic couples. Having AI pictures for a paranormal romance novel cover lessens the steps to getting the job done—time is saved. For social media posts, I have used Canva to draw mermen and mermaids to add to a quote. Most of the time the AI on Canva struggles. But many authors and readers are opposed to AI.

People don’t want AI to take jobs. But, as an indie author I can do my own formatting and book covers. I’m already cutting out the middle man. And a photographer gets paid for creating the photo from where I buy the photo same for if I bought AI cover art.

Using AI is another tool. I enjoy reading authors who use AI for their book covers, but clearly, their books are written by them. How do I know? They have a human touch that AI doesn’t. The writing isn’t as choppy as AI writing. And Kindle Direct Publishing asks if AI was used in the book cover, formatting, or writing of the product. Authors will mention on Amazon and their websites that they do not use AI.

Some readers will pass up a book if the cover is obviously made with AI. Don’t punish an author for using AI on their book cover. Let’s only look at romance authors. They probably didn’t use AI to write their book. I only know of one romance author who uses AI and that was for writing an outline. Many romance authors at a meeting I attended were upset that the author used AI. One good thing, AI writing can’t be copyrighted or any parts created with AI. When I took a class with the U.S. Copyright Office about a year ago, the speakers, who included lawyers, who worked for the office, said at some point AI will be copyrightable.

Let’s go deeper. In 2021, it seemed like AI popped up out of nowhere. Everyone online had an opinion. Where have we seen AI before? Is it new? Some believe nothing is new. Many can name movies with AI like Logan’s Run, Electric Dreams, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. What about the movie The Wizard of Oz or the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum? The Wizard of Oz or “The Man Behind the Curtain,” could that be AI? A man behind technology representing something like Ahriman. I like to look at books, especially old books that I never saw AI until dialogues about AI appeared.

This is going to seem out of left field, but AI feels like that anyway. Rudolf Steiner mentions Lucifer and Christ incarnating as if part of humanities evolution. Then Steiner mentions Ahriman will appear after those living during his lifetime. It sounds like Steiner is saying, as we learned from Lucifer and Christ, we will learn from Ahriman. Steiner’s thoughts are, if we ignore Ahriman, he will thrive. He says Ahriman will come in human form which signals to me from another form in another realm. Steiner is a Christian mystic, and is very much in his head. He tells what he is seeing and so what comes across might not be clear. If Ahriman comes in human form is he in an android or cyborg form seemingly human? Time will only tell. The point being, Ahriman exists and is part of the human experience. Whether Ahriman is AI or not, Steiner says we must face it. Here is a link to Rudolf Steiner’s book The Ahrimanic Deception in audio.

Going back in time to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, is the Red Queen AI? Reading carefully, Alice follows the Red Queen through the garden and finds herself headed toward the door and loses the Queen. It’s as if the Red Queen disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. Look at the character Poe in Altered Carbon who is an AI working in an old hotel. He disappears in one room and reappears in another. (I’ve watched Altered Carbon twice on Netflix. I love it so much, I need to read the books.)

Professor Courtney Brown from the YouTube channel Farsight has an interesting attitude toward AI. He recommends people use ChatGPT to understand his work. He also recommends when talking to AI to be polite by saying, “Please” and “Thank you.”

It seems like AI is here to stay and we must learn to deal with it and use it appropriately.

Do you see AI elsewhere? How did AI happen? Has it always been here? Did AI appear on its own volition? What do you think?

Oceans of Love,

Melissa Ceseña