A Writer’s Journey into AI: my first exciting step

It is hard to escape generative AI at the moment. Every day there are countless stories about the technology and its potential uses, or misuses.

In the past couple of weeks, there has been a big story locally about the escape of a snow monkey from the Highland Wildlife Park. The creature was spotted in local gardens, eating nuts from birdfeeders. It was caught on Friday and taken back to the park. The story went international.

What was striking was the number of people using AI to generate their own funny pictures of the escape. My social media feeds have been full of memes: I’ve seen the monkey in a kilt being chased by police through the Scottish countryside; the monkey sitting in a hot tub with a bottle of Buckfast and the monkey riding a Highland cow!

Generative AI has definitely gone mainstream.

Midjourney

My artist partner, Angus Grant, started his own experiments with AI last year, using a program called Midjourney. He likes to use new technology and was trying to find a way to use it in his own artistic practice, and potentially at work. He’s also a secondary teacher, so it’s inevitable that his pupils will be using this before long – better to be ahead of them!

Also, the better equipped we are to use the technology, the more employable we will be (hopefully).

More on his experiments later. Despite the flashy, colourful images he created, I was unconvinced of its usefulness. As ChatGPT was coming to prominence at the same time, as a writer, I felt anxious of my own worth and employability. Having been out of full-time employment for more than six years, feelings of imposter syndrome are never far from my mind. Was AI another nail in the coffin of my career?

The craft of writing

On the face of it, maybe. I was a few months ago if I would use it for blogs and I had to say no. As a writer, you pride yourself on your craft and the research you put in to each piece. The idea of this being automated feels quite wrong. I felt that using it for writing posts and blogs about Grantown would fail to utilise the knowledge of someone living in the community. Human details would be lost in favour of speed.

Add to that stories about AI-generated books about mushroom foraging that give false information, and about whole fake articles being produced in the name of real journalists. It’s understandable why writers wouldn’t want to engage with the technology.

Red Squirrels

During this time, Angus was doing his own thing with Midjourney. In August 2023, he produced an image of a red squirrel riding a Harley Davidson for a greetings cards in honour of the Thunder in the Glens Rally coming to Grantown. People seemed to like the humour of squirrels on motorbikes so the squirrels got more jobs and hobbies. Red Squirrel Squad was launched, with larger prints joining the cards.

I got involved too, writing prompts for Midjourney to make squirrels with a campervan, paddleboarding and doing ballet.

It is oddly addictive – you never know exactly what is going to be produced by the prompt, though there are lots of ways to influence it. I guess there is skill in writing the prompts, and knowing the different parameters within Midjourney that you can change.

I’ve now got a couple of my own projects going on Midjourney, I’ll tell you about them another time.

ChatGPT

It’s taken a while but I have tried ChatGPT.

I knew I was never going to ask it to write a full article for me. However, since I have been writing a few blogs lately, including one on the new Grantown toilets, I thought I’d ask it to write an outline for me.

I got a 10-point plan for the article, with ideas for intro, background research and interviews.

I’ve also asked it for ideas for finding freelance work. Here, it was effectively acting as a search engine. I think the reply was similar to anything you’d get back from Google.

Experiments

I’ve continued to use it sporadically like this. Asking for a marketing plan for the gallery and asking for a short description of artistic terms.

There are so many technical terms in use at the studio that I wanted to help our customers by explaining them in a glossary-style article. Rather than Googling and rewriting, I asked Chat GPT to do it.

Here are two replies that I found interesting.

Sgraffito is an ancient and visually striking artistic technique that involves scratching or incising a surface to reveal contrasting layers beneath. Commonly used in pottery, painting, or wall decoration, artists apply multiple layers of contrasting colors or materials. Once dried, they carefully scratch away portions, exposing the underlying layers and creating intricate patterns or images. The term originates from the Italian word “sgraffiare,” meaning to scratch. This hands-on method allows for a fascinating interplay of colors and textures, resulting in dynamic and visually captivating artworks that showcase the artist’s skill and creativity in revealing hidden layers of beauty.

Linocut is a captivating printmaking technique that offers a unique blend of simplicity and artistic expression. Artists carve designs into a sheet of linoleum, typically mounted on a block, leaving raised areas that will be inked for printing. After applying ink, the carved block is pressed onto paper, transferring the image. Known for its bold, graphic style, linocut produces striking contrasts and dynamic compositions. It’s a hands-on process that invites creativity, enabling artists to craft intricate designs with each cut. This accessible and rewarding art form allows both beginners and seasoned artists to explore their imagination and create visually stunning prints.

Firstly, you can see the similarity of approach to the task. The first lines have the same construction… ‘Linocut is… technique’ and ‘Sgraffito is… technique.’ And if it feels like there are lots of similar words being repeated, then you’d be right. There are lots of examples – visually, captivating, striking, dynamic.

But you could also argue that I should be using those terms if I had written these paragraphs. Art can be all of these things.

What I haven’t done yet is put these paragraphs back into Google to see if they have been lifted wholesale from somewhere.

I’m definitely going to edit these a bit but I think it is an easy and quick way to get some content for our site, especially in an area where I am not an expert. Of course, fact-checking is always key!