I thought this line in Charles Stross’ recent blog post was worth responding to:

I refuse to create a ChatGPT account because their user database will be hacked, sooner or later, and for a novelist, to be seen using it is potential career poison.

I can certainly attest to people taking a reactionary and negative view about use of AI tools by writers. However, I’ll just come right out and say: I find it stupid.

I hold Stross in great respect as a sci fi writer & thinker, but here’s the situation as I see it on the ground:

An alien intelligence has literally landed on planet earth. Instead of being at the forefront of interrogating it, and finding out what makes it tick (and even guiding it!) – a task that they are *uniquely suited for*, sci fi writers are plugging their ears, covering their eyes and mouths, and just wishing it will go away.

I just don’t get it. This isn’t how we “future.”

If people who are creative, independent & warm-hearted thinkers categorically disavow being involved with the evolution of these technologies, then we will I think end up all the poorer for it, as the prevailing winds which control it will be people with PhD’s in math, who have far more fragile understanding of the true deep needs of the human spirit.

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