Troy.......This question is not aimed at you in a "picking" sort of manner but moreover just a question in general about authors of books. If a person uses AI to help them in their story writing, do they give credit to AI as a sort of co-author in the credits/reference part of their book? Just curious.
that's the dilemma currently facing any creative endeavour.
It's a grey area, but getting through the courts. Let's take a look at a non-AI example.
When I was designing book covers using stock graphics from one of the stock photo sites, I was combining the graphics in ways the various artists had not set out to create. One book cover used an illustration (vector graphic - think "cartoon") of a woman in a business outfit. I found another graphic from the same artist with several different heads I could swap in, so I grabbed one and did the swap.
Then I found some gossamer butterfly/pixie wings. I altered the color of those, shrunk one and gave it a bit of a warp, because my character in the book had a gimpy wing. I then put those on the woman's back (as an underlay in photoshop). She also had a gimpy leg, so she used a cane for balance. Found a green and white striped candy cane vector, and added it. Found a good seaside vector graphic scene, added her (with wings and cane). Added the tubby grey cat. Added another vector of a pier silhouette. Added another vector graphic of an amusement park silhouette and set it atop the pier.
You know who was legally entitled to the copyright of that conglomeration? Me. I couldn't claim copyright of any individual piece, but I can claim copyright on the end result.
That's how courts are treating AI usage. Some European and Asian ones are granting copyright to even the person who prompts the AI for a single output. Others, like here in the US, seem to be heading toward (if not already there) that a derivitive work partially relying on work from AI can be copyrighted the human who put it all together.
Now, when I used AI to actually word the words in a book, this was right after my mother died in fall of 2024. I wasn't in the mood for any writing, but I needed to get back on the horse.
So I'd start a chapter and prompt the AI to generate words. They took a lot of editing. The more I had it write at once, the more it repeated itself. So I'd edit the AI words, turning it into my style, and that would get me going for at least double what it produced. 250 words become 750, and I heavily edited the AI's words. Then another 250 AI words, heavy editing, and continue my own words until I got stuck. rinse and repeat.
That was the only book I used AI to help write.
How do I credit the AI in that type of endeavor?
Right now, if a platform like Amazon asks if AI was used to generate words or artwork, I tell the truth on those forms. That was a "AI generated some words, heavily modified/expanded by the human" or whatever is closest to that.
I do use AI images in my book covers and marketing.
But, as for words generated by AI... only if I need a description that I can't quite get? What is the smell of a rowboat freshly pulled from an inland lake in the early fall? I don't need the sentence, just the descriptors. That sort of thing. Again, I'll heavily edit if I do have to turn to the machine to generate a description, or piece of dialogue.
For me, I use the AI as a girl/guy Friday. My own organizational skills and attention to detail can be very lacking. So I brainstorm and dump the puddles of good ideas into the AI. We converse about the book.
Today, I didn't feel like looking up what the character names for the book I was revising the plot on. I've written 1.5 books since I abandoned that work. I don't remember their names, and roles, and how I set up the bad guy's grand finale. Half that stuff would change while I write the book. But the AI remembers, and helps me fine tune my new ideas by asking questions, and forcing me to think through the plot and characters.
Again... how do I credit that? For the book I just brainstormed, I doubt that AI will write a single word.
