Me and AI

[Molyfar]

There have been some comments made here and elsewhere about my excessive use of AI in my messages and many of my stories.

Guilty as charged

I’m 73, deaf, mildly autistic, and a full-time professional dreamer. My brain is like Ten Forward at happy hour — packed, noisy, and full of interesting ideas all talking at once.

Getting all that into a sentence that makes sense is the tricky bit, so I use AI as my personal Universal Translator. I supply the prime directive; it just makes sure the grammar isn’t in Klingon.

Rest assured — no tribbles, no Borg, and no AI were harmed in the invention of my stories. The plots are mine. The AI stops me boldly splitting more infinitives than Kirk.

If you prefer your stories 100% hand-typed and full of typos, I can do that too. But I thought you’d prefer the translated version.

Yes, this message was helped with AI.

 

[Molyfar]

Also, if you are wondering how I am churning out so many posts all at once, many of my stories and ideas have been sitting idle on my laptop for years. For example, my In Defence of Science Fiction post was written by me in 2002.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Hi @Molyfar , and welcome to the board. It's good to have you here, I hope you're enjoying your time on our little corner of the internet!

If you prefer your stories 100% hand-typed and full of typos, I can do that too. But I thought you’d prefer the translated version.

This is just my personal opinion, and obviously I can't speak for anyone but myself. But since you brought it up... I, personally, almost always prefer someone's own thoughts, directly from them, without going through any kind of AI "enhancement". AI writing always has that air of artificiality around it, and, to me anyway, it just screams inauthenticity. I would rather have to read some typos and grammatical errors and know that it's your own authentic self going into the words, than read some inauthentic-sounding text polished by AI.

It's like at work, if someone sends me an email that is obviously AI-generated... well, it goes to the bottom of the pile. If they can't be bothered to put in the minimal effort to communicate themselves, then I'm certainly not going to put in the effort of prioritizing their request.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that using AI contributes to environmental issues. As well, there is the whole moral issue around LLMs stealing peoples' writing and art. Not to mention lining the pockets of the billionaire class. So if you don't actually need it to communicate, then choosing not to use AI is probably more helpful to the world overall. I know each of us are just a drop in the ocean, but every little bit helps.

Now, that being said, if you truly feel you need the AI to communicate effectively, then by all means, go ahead. I believe we have members here who use AI to translate their posts into English, because it isn't their first language, and they feel they can get their points across better with a more robust translation. If you truly need it as a communication tool, then it's better to use it and have you here engaging, then to not use it and feeling like you can't speak up. I guess if it were me, I'd probably mention it in my sig that I was using it, and why I felt it was necessary. AI usage is a very controversial subject, and if people notice you're using it, a lot of times the discussion is going to veer into commenting on the AI usage itself, not the actual topic you want to discuss. So having it mentioned in your sig that you're using it as an accommodation might help in that regard. (Not that everyone's going to read the sig, but it's probably better than nothing.)

With all that said... I haven't actually seen the myriad of posts you are referring to. (Not everyone visits every forum here.) So I'm just responding generally, rather than based on any observations of your specific stories.

Please note, although I have the green banner, I just want to make sure it's understood that I'm just speaking as a poster here, and my opinions in this post do not necessarily reflect anything about board policy. Although I personally don't like reading AI-generated posts, there is nothing in the board rules at this present time that would prevent its use.

However you decide to proceed, I do hope you continue to be part of our community!

 

[Molyfar]

Hi @Molyfar , and welcome to the board. It's good to have you here, I hope you're enjoying your time on our little corner of the internet!



This is just my personal opinion, and obviously I can't speak for anyone but myself. But since you brought it up... I, personally, almost always prefer someone's own thoughts, directly from them, without going through any kind of AI "enhancement". AI writing always has that air of artificiality around it, and, to me anyway, it just screams inauthenticity. I would rather have to read some typos and grammatical errors and know that it's your own authentic self going into the words, than read some inauthentic-sounding text polished by AI.

It's like at work, if someone sends me an email that is obviously AI-generated... well, it goes to the bottom of the pile. If they can't be bothered to put in the minimal effort to communicate themselves, then I'm certainly not going to put in the effort of prioritizing their request.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that using AI contributes to environmental issues. As well, there is the whole moral issue around LLMs stealing peoples' writing and art. Not to mention lining the pockets of the billionaire class. So if you don't actually need it to communicate, then choosing not to use AI is probably more helpful to the world overall. I know each of us are just a drop in the ocean, but every little bit helps.

Now, that being said, if you truly feel you need the AI to communicate effectively, then by all means, go ahead. I believe we have members here who use AI to translate their posts into English, because it isn't their first language, and they feel they can get their points across better with a more robust translation. If you truly need it as a communication tool, then it's better to use it and have you here engaging, then to not use it and feeling like you can't speak up. I guess if it were me, I'd probably mention it in my sig that I was using it, and why I felt it was necessary. AI usage is a very controversial subject, and if people notice you're using it, a lot of times the discussion is going to veer into commenting on the AI usage itself, not the actual topic you want to discuss. So having it mentioned in your sig that you're using it as an accommodation might help in that regard. (Not that everyone's going to read the sig, but it's probably better than nothing.)

With all that said... I haven't actually seen the myriad of posts you are referring to. (Not everyone visits every forum here.) So I'm just responding generally, rather than based on any observations of your specific stories.

Please note, although I have the green banner, I just want to make sure it's understood that I'm just speaking as a poster here, and my opinions in this post do not necessarily reflect anything about board policy. Although I personally don't like reading AI-generated posts, there is nothing in the board rules at this present time that would prevent its use.

However you decide to proceed, I do hope you continue to be part of our co

 

[Molyfar]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply; I appreciate it.

I understand the concern about authenticity — I prefer real thoughts too.

For me, using AI isn't about avoiding effort. I'm 73, deaf and mildly autistic, so turning the ideas in my head into clear English is very hard work. I use AI as an assistive tool, like a translator, to format my own thoughts so I can actually join in.

The ideas and stories are 100% mine — AI just helps with the wording.

I'll add a note to my signature explaining that, as you suggested.

Thanks for understanding,
Clive

 

[Molyfar]

There have been some comments made here and elsewhere about my excessive use of AI in my messages and many of my stories.

Guilty as charged

I’m 73, deaf, mildly autistic, and a full-time professional dreamer. My brain is like Ten Forward at happy hour — packed, noisy, and full of interesting ideas all talking at once.

Getting all that into a sentence that makes sense is the tricky bit, so I use AI as my personal Universal Translator. I supply the prime directive; it just makes sure the grammar isn’t in Klingon.

Rest assured — no tribbles, no Borg, and no AI were harmed in the invention of my stories. The plots are mine. The AI stops me boldly splitting more infinitives than Kirk.

If you prefer your stories 100% hand-typed and full of typos, I can do that too. But I thought you’d prefer the translated version.

Yes, this message was helped with AISinece

 

[Molyfar]

While we are on the subject of AI, I would appreciate any advice on better AI than the ones I am currently using. At the moment, I use Grammarly and Meta AI. Because of my communication difficulties, I need it to be as accurate as possible, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Molyfar]

While we are on the subject of AI, I would appreciate any advice on better AI than the ones I am currently using. At the moment, I use Grammarly and Meta AI. Because of my communication difficulties, I need it to be as accurate as possible, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I use Grammarly to check the spelling, format, and structure of what I am trying to say, and Meta to check the accuracy of what I am trying to say. This way, I can fully engage with this wonderful community.

And Grammarly has just corrected this for me wonderfully lol

 

[publiusr]

It is popular to hate on A.I. these days…but I never did care what was popular

You deserve help.

Don’t let anyone steal your joy