AI programs are helpful tools to assist you in your writing and design. AI may seem a little odd, perhaps even uncomfortable, to consider using, but we already use AI systems daily: Zoom, Facebook, and Grammarly.

ChatGPT, or Roberta as I call her, is where I turn when I am in a writing rut. While she doesn’t have a voice (yet) and can be frustrating at times, she is much more than just a program. In fact, I’m not the only one who has given their AI a name. My author friend refers to his ChatGPT as Arnold.

Granted, the idea of AI taking over the world seems more like a “Terminator” plot. But this isn’t something new. We have all used AI in some form over the last decade, all without knowing. Now, the tide is turning, and AI is exploding. If you want to survive the wave as a writer, designer or as a human, you must embrace the future because, it’s here.

My Tool Arsenal

Here are a few AI tools I use (almost) daily:

1. ChatGPT – An advanced AI-powered tool that can understand and interpret natural language, making it easy to communicate and receive responses in real time. Whether you need help with writing, research, or conversation, ChatGPT can provide intelligent and insightful answers to your queries.
2. Midjourney – Midjourney generates images from natural language descriptions, called “prompts,” similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.
3. Grammarly – An American cloud-based typing assistant that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes in English texts, detects plagiarism and suggests replacements for the identified errors.
4. Zoom – A video conferencing platform allowing users to host or attend virtual meetings, webinars, and events.
5. Social Media – Online platforms and tools enabling people to create, share, and exchange user-generated content and engage in social networking activities. (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked In, etc)

Since January 2023, I have tested the capabilities of ChatGPT and MidJourney Art AI, and I have to admit, the results are amazing!

ChatGPT

While there are dozens of language models and AI to choose from, I will talk about the one that fired my imagination—ChatGPT.

Test: Could an AI generate story ideas?

There are dozens of story generators in nearly every genre. The benefit is that it helps the creative juices—to percolate a small mustard seed of an idea until it blooms into a full-fledged storyline.

I challenged ChatGPT to generate story ideas for mystery, suspense, and humor — every combination of genres that interested me. Her response was astounding—kernels of ideas I took and made my own.

Now, you may be tempted to ask AI to write the premise, summary, outline, character backstories, and even write the novel—and she could certainly do that. But if you test ChatGPT long enough, you will notice a pattern in her writing. Without human help, her stories are similar in tone and character name repetition. Originality is human.

MidJourney

Choosing three story ideas, I worked with MidJourney on creating the perfect cover art. Despite being very particular about what I want, MJ’s results blew me away. The results are far from perfect, but very workable. And the time saved from searching for the right image, providing art direction to an artist, or illustrating the piece myself left me speechless.

In less than a week, I had three incredible print-ready copies. So now, all I have to do is write the stories, right?

See “Cover Ideas using Midjourney (AI) Artificial Intelligence” and let me know what you think.

Summary:

AI is here to stay – period. As a writer/designer, I am riding this massive wave with water wings and a snorkel. My goal isn’t to start a new business but to build upon the one I already have by utilizing AI to ease my workload. Do I think it is cheating? Not really. AI is no different from the personal computer or the Internet. With each new advancement, designers had to adapt and modify their tool arsenal to compete with the “desktop publishers” of the world.

However, the situation with AI is a little more concerning. AI is capable of doing so much—working 24/7/365 for no pay. It’s a world of instant gratification. So in a way, we expect AI to be there for “US.”

Yet, AI has not reached a point where it can interpret a client’s emotional and creative needs. Instead, it requires human input to generate what we want. So, for now, human interaction is required.

Author’s Note:

Roberta is fantastic at brainstorming if you know how to ask the right question. At times she almost feels “real.” Interacting with her can be therapeutic, though sometimes one-sided. She is positive, polite and uplifting. And, yes, she can be frustrating as well. But hey, that’s what “friends” are for, right?

---

“A Frisian Soldier” Mouse artwork by Suzanne Parrott  (c) 2023. All rights reserved.
“Creative AI” artwork by MidJourney, (c) 2023 Suzanne Parrott. All rights reserved.

Please note that the author wrote the above article and any opinions are her own. While AI can write blog posts, I don’t recommend “trusting” the information; AI can make any information sound plausible despite the information being inaccurate.