Saturday’s Use Your Voice Indie Book Fair in Chelmsford was marketed by host Emily Andrews as ‘an anti-generative AI event’
If you value human connection in what you read and write, it’s probably best if you avoid generative AI writing.
So described local author Emily Andrews during a brief break from her booth at the inaugural Use Your Voice Indie Book Fair at the Chelmsford Community Centre and Arena on Saturday.
Andrews hosted the event, cautioning attendees prior, “This is an anti-generative AI event.”
AI, or artificial intelligence, can be used to have a computer write entire novels within seconds.
A simple prompt, such as, “Write a western about monsters,” can be enough to automatically produce a book without any additional thought (though additional prompts can be used).
But, what would be the point?
“I’m looking for a connection with the reader, and the readers and anyone who consumes any kind of art is looking for that connection with another human being,” Andrews said.
“That’s why people feel cheated when they learn something is generative AI, because the thread they had to unite them as a community has been lost. … It’s disappointing and disgusting in a way.”
There were 25 vendors at Saturday’s event, including 21 authors who echoed Andrews’ sentiment.
Local author Matthew Del Papa is pictured at his booth during the Use Your Voice Indie Book Fair at the Chelmsford Community Centre and Arena on Sept. 5. Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com
“For creative purposes, it’s bad, for editing purposes it’s not so bad, though I wouldn’t use it myself,” local author Matthew Del Papa said, adding, “The problem is when you’re taking a job that someone else could be doing.”
Del Papa hires people to produce cover art for his books, and considers the use of generative AI to be “A crutch.”
“It’s too easy,” he said, adding that after someone has used AI to create a book, “What have you accomplished?”
Writing, he said, is “a creative effort that’s improving your skills, and AI isn’t improving your creative process at all. It’s a shortcut.”
Chelmsford-based author Kelsey Elizabeth Wood is pictured next to her booth with her latest book in her hands, at the Chelmsford Community Centre and Arena on Sept. 5. Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com
Fellow local author Kelsey Elizabeth Wood takes a similar hardline anti-AI stance in her writing.
“It steals from authors,” she said. “It uses our work we poured our souls into to train its robots.”
Wood specializes in romance books through which she strives to build strong female characters she uses “to express different stages of how women grow into themselves.”
She does her own marketing, hires human beta readers and editors, and uses her writing as a means of expression which AI would only dilute in her self-published works.
“I have people who help contribute to my story, and I don’t want to change it because it’s not marketable according to a publisher,” she said.
Commercial animator and marketer Greg Liko attended Saturday’s event to market his services, which include creating teaser trailers for books, similar to those most commonly associated with movies.
He does not use AI.
“I like what I do, I like doing the animation and the creative aspect of it,” he said. “I like seeing something I made with my hands, and I think it comes out better.”
When it comes to what he described as “AI slop,” he said, “it lacks a point of view,” and is employed by people who are “not bringing new creative ideas to the table.”
“Highly derivative of other people’s work,” he said it comes across poorly when used in marketing campaigns.
“It just looks cheap and doesn’t look like you have skin in the game or that you worked for it,” he said. “It’s not selling well.”
Keen to help promote local authors, Andrews said Saturday’s book fair would hopefully become an annual event for creative people to share their art.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.