A New Year: One Week In
A New Year: One Week In
A mini-evaluation of the first week of the year, written by a human
The ability of machine learning tools—A.I.—to create images, music, video, and text is amazing. It’s really incredible what it can produce. I’m sure someone could put a description into one of these tools and come up with something like the illustration I created above. And I can get how someone, writing a post like this, might find that incredibly useful to instantly produce a cover image.
It’s all been on my mind the first week of the new year. A.I. tools are great as long as you don’t look too closely at how the artwork (images, text, music, etc.,) used to create the tool was collected, without the permission of the artists, or the toxic culture that has risen to attack artists who complain, or how for-profit corporations are “data laundering” by funding a ‘non-profit’ to do ‘research’ in creating the data sets used. Then turning around and using the data set created for profit. It’s a complex and unresolved legal issue around fair use, copyright, derivative use, and use of artist and creator’s names, trademarks, and brands.
I talked about this a couple issues ago in READINARY. Even though visual art is very much the focus right now, this also applies to written content.
As incredible as these tools made be, this is definitely a situation where technology has progressed and the law isn’t settled. Likely won’t be settled any time soon.
Rather than worry about the legal issues or protesting the technology, there’s a simple thing we can all do—insist that we want to see #humanmadeart. Art, stories, posts, videos—made by humans, whether digital or physical. Art made by feeling humans. Acts of expression. We can insist that’s what we want to see and tell platforms like ArtStation, Etsy, Kickstarter, YouTube, Instagram, or Amazon, that we don’t want A.I. creations. Or if they allow A.I. creations, that they are clearly labeled as such, so people can decide for themselves. We can tell creators that we want to see their creations, not the work of an A.I. tool. I’ve seen YouTube videos talking about how to use A.I. tools to automate producing content for YouTube. I’d hate to see the platform inundated with that sort of content—worse than it already is now.
That isn’t to say that A.I. tools don’t have their place. Text-to-speech or speech-to-text, for example. Or tools that improve accessibility and access. I’ve used auto-narration to create an audiobook of one of my stories—so that it’s more accessible to those who can use it. And in that case it is clear that it is using auto-narration. Right now it doesn’t come close to what a professional human narrator can do with a story. Granted, that’ll change in the future. In that case, I’m still going to want to hear talented people narrate the stories and books I listen to, even if an A.I. can produce something superficially similar.
Other tools help creators in their process, such as being able to edit the text transcript of your video and have the A.I. fill in the corrected words using your own voice. As a tool, there are amazing applications. It crosses a line when the images and text used was collected without consent and when A.I. creations are passed off as something created by the person who typed a prompt into the software.
WEEK ONE REVIEW
Enough about A.I., I’ve got other things to focus on in the weeks ahead. First, a look back at the first week of 2023.
I spent time writing, passing my goal of 4,000 words (of new fiction) written for the week.
I wrote this newsletter.
I edited my new YouTube video. Not done yet, but it should be up next week.
I enjoyed working on artwork for my current publishing projects.
I continued my learning journey with my current course.
I read Daggerspell by Katherine Kerr.
I watched Black Phone starring Ethan Hawke, based on a story by Joe Hill. Creepy, loved it.
And more, but that hits the highlights.
All while working fulltime and taking care of family as we navigate health issues. Like many creators with jobs that occupy 40+ hours of our week, it usually means that I’m up early in the morning (like 5:30 AM) and get to pursue my artistic activities before work, on my breaks, or after work if I get some time. I was going to say creative activities, but changed it because my daily work is creative. I’m a librarian who, after decades in public frontline, supervisory, and management positions, moved into an IT position where I do data analytics, coding, and software administration. Because it is a creative position and often taxes my brain cells, sometimes after work I don’t have a whole lot left for artistic pursuits.
Getting Things Published
My publishing imprint is Glittering Throng Press—the “Glittering Throng” a reference both to fantasies and the Galactics of the Moreau Society series of books—GTP, which also stands for Getting Things Published. That’s the key focus for this year.
Publish new titles, novels and stories, each month.
Publish YouTube videos showing my book cover creation process, character models, and other videos related to the books.
Publish a variety of merch featuring artworks created.
I have a large backlist of titles to release and plan to do so this year. Likely won’t get through them all, but we’ll see.
I shared some details of my plan using Notion to create an annual calendar to track my progress. I’ve adjusted a bit, added a few more icons to my key and I think it’s going pretty well a week in.
Underneath each month, I added a monthly focus section to list specific monthly goals and deadlines. When I took this screenshot last week, I’d already met my weekly fiction writing goal. I like being able to see my targets and progress easily at a glance. It’s only one way I’m using Notion, if you’d like to see more about how I use Notion, let me know.
This is only the first week. I know how hard it can be to keep up that initial new year enthusiasm. I’m lucky enough to meet regularly with a group of professional writers. We share our progress and challenges. It’s great to have that kind of support—especially when stretching to meet new goals.
That’s it for this issue of READINARY. I hope your new year is going well, that you’re taking care and being kind to yourself. One of the best things about a READINARY life is curling up with a good book, so I encourage you to access your library’s digital collection (or if you like print, visit your library in person, wearing a mask). If you’re interested in supporting my work, you can become a paid READINARY subscriber, or pick up copies of my books. If you want, no problem if you don’t. I appreciate the heck out of you. I’ll be back in a couple weeks with another issue.
Best wishes, always—Ryan