A.I. Pledge

Let's get things straight, right from the start

For writers and creatives alike, the rise of A.I. technologies is troubling. When generated images, music, and prose are attainable at the click of a button, they flood the system and threaten the endeavours which make us human to begin with.

Yes, they're fun. Yes, the images look cool and the music sounds great (well…I'm sure it will, soon enough). And I have no problem using some of them as the tools they're supposed to be; alongside art. I actually design my own book covers but use A.I. to add final detail, for example. I also use it in marketing materials.

But at some point that line has to be drawn, otherwise, why should we even begin down that long, difficult road of learning a craft at all?

For me, the answer is obvious. Creativity is core to the human experience. Stories in particular are how we've passed information, lessons, ideas, and culture itself down through the millenia. We centre our lives around an internal story of our own creation. We create meaning for ourselves and others through stories. Stories are, therefore, how we connect with each other and how we understand ourselves.

For these reasons, I do not believe that someone who uses Midjourney to generate images is an 'artist', any more than I believe someone who uses Sudowrite or ChatGPT to create prose is a 'writer'.

These tools are shortcuts. They bypass the hard work, the learning, the trial and error, the failures, the growth, and the human experience that goes into creating art. They produce a veneer of creativity without any of the substance.

This is why I have taken the A.I. Pledge, a commitment to my readers and fellow creatives that I will not use A.I. in any of my written works.

I want readers to know that when they pick up one of my books or read a short story, they're getting 100% human-made content. A product of human imagination and a heck of a lot of hard work.

It takes me around two years (admittedly, sometimes longer…) to write a novel. During that time, I'm hunting for perfection. I'm crafting characters I want readers to connect with and care about. I'm building worlds which, hopefully, become vehicles for excitement, intrigue, and inspiration. I'm planning plots to deliver a satisfaction and perhaps encourage others to do so, as well. I'm editing and tweaking sentences for polish, for the best 'punch', and to make the whole story enjoyable.

And I do all this because I believe writing is and always should be an exercise in personal expression and creativity, and should come from the heart and mind of a human being.

The decision for me was easy, but it goes against the current grain. I've already had people give me incredulous stares — even flak — for it, saying that A.I. is "the future" and that I'm "missing out". That other writers are going to pump out ten books a year and I'll be lost, working away as a mire of content rises up and buries me.

I don't care.

If this is the way we want content-creation to go, then so be it. There is little I can do about the rise of generated content or people using these tools to bury people like me. But I truly believe that by doing so, these people lose. We all lose.

Following the easy, automated, A.I. path will mean that our art (all of them) will shrivel, and the human spirit will follow.

I therefore encourage any other creators out there to take the pledge as well. To stand up for human creativity and take that long, hard road. Because the alternative is a world without art. Without soul. And that's a world I don't think any of us want to live in.