Don’t get bot hurt. Get bot even.

I met a bestselling author in New Orleans last week.

Eventually, because apparently I can no longer have a normal conversation without asking about artificial intelligence, I asked what she thought about it.

She had been worried.

Then she saw what AI could actually write.

As someone who already knew how to write, she was considerably less worried.

That conversation stuck with me.

Publishing meets the bot

The publishing industry isn't quite as relaxed.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that publishers, authors, agents and editors are wrestling with where AI assistance ends and AI authorship begins.

Book deals have fallen apart over suspected AI use. Publishers, agents and editors are sorting through disclosure and contract language.

In other words, the bot has discovered publishing, and publishing would like to see some identification.

But using AI doesn't necessarily mean asking it to write the book.

Publishing expert Jane Friedman notes that using AI for research, brainstorming, outlining or editing does not affect a writer's copyright. Wholly AI-generated material is another matter. Under current U.S. Copyright Office guidance, copyright protects human-authored expression, not material generated entirely by AI.

And then there are the editors.

The bot still needs one

Book editor Mary Kole recently wrote on Friedman's website about editing two novels created with significant AI assistance.

It wasn't exactly a shortcut.

Kole said the manuscripts required substantially more work, including addressing repetition, inconsistencies and other problems. The experience led her to change her client agreement to require disclosure of AI use and allow additional fees for AI-generated material.

The bot can apparently write a book. It can also create more work for the editor.

Which brings me back to New Orleans.

AI can generate a paragraph.

A writer knows whether it's any good.

An editor knows why it isn't.

Yes, the bot helps make Bot Hurt

Full disclosure: We use AI to produce a newsletter about AI.

The bot helps with research, challenges ideas, finds holes, tightens copy and occasionally tells me a joke isn't as funny as I think it is.

Rude.

But it doesn't decide what Bot Hurt says.

That's the part of the AI-and-creativity debate that can get lost when everything gets reduced to made by humans or made by AI.

Increasingly, it can be both.

The better question may be who is making the decisions.

Final Bot Thought

AI has made it remarkably easy to make something.

Making something good remains annoyingly complicated.

For now, the bot still needs someone who knows the difference.