This quote from Georgina Cromarty’s post about writing and artificial intelligence practically blew my mind.
“Some writers will see AI manuscript evaluations as a blessing since it takes the subjective human out the loop.
…And some may see it as a threat.”
Yes, I’ve worked in the IT field for 20+ years. Yes, I understand what the ones and zeros are all about, and the inner workings of software and hardware. Yes, I know technology brings about modern convenience, and can spout an answer to the hardest equations with speed and ease. But with all of that, do I trust it wholly? No! Here’s why.
Mankind believes computers are smart. The reality is that technology is only as great as the humans that make it. And of course we know that humans are bound to mistakes. So, technology is too. Nothing is perfect.
So when I think about artificial intelligence playing a role in evaluating manuscripts, a smile crosses my face because it means the process of submitting and getting a response will be shortened. But then my smile fades, and my head cocks to one side like a questioning puppy. What algorithm is used to decide what’s publish-worthy and what’s not? How often is the artificial intelligence maintained and updated for optimal performance?
I get it from a productivity perspective. There’s a lot of reading and publishers want to watch their bottom line. Technology can help, but in the end will it really? When people read, they have the ability to experience feeling and emotion. Can technology do that? Of course not. It can only do what it is told (and even then it’s not the real thing). So an award-winning manuscript may never see the light of day because it didn’t meet the criteria of a computer. Not sure I like that. What are your thoughts?
Check out the rest of Georgina Cromarty’s post on other interesting takes on artificial intelligence and it’s place in various industries.
Melanie V. Logan 
Reblogged this on Melanie V. Logan.
Oh, I agree! With the “So an award-winning manuscript may never see the light of day because it didn’t meet the criteria of a computer.”
I believe that computers can’t replace psychology, romance, and many other human emotions and knowledge. Humans want connection and some are afraid to meet their soulmates the old fashioned way – at a coffee shop or a dance class. Some use online dating, thinking that questionnaires that have been prepared by ‘people’ can give them a good possible mate. Actually, many forget that those websites are created by humans.
Book manuscripts are blood and tears of authors. Many of those authors have never been published, not including indie and indie didn’t have to go through someone to read their book to get published. Authors expect a real human being to read their manuscript or at least know that that a real person has given their book a chance. A computer sounds horrible to my ears. A computer doesn’t read, it scans. It may look for perfect sentences and keywords in that genre but it won’t look for how the relationships are organic or can it? I don’t think so. I don’t think a computer knows what’s an organic relationship is. I’ve had an editor question the way I used paranormal creatures. He told me that it didn’t make sense for a dragon to act the way I wrote him. I told him that since its my world that I created, a dragon CAN act like that. I believe a computer may do something similar, except, authors wouldn’t be able to defend themselves. A reader will understand that its the world that I created by MY rules. If the reader doesn’t agree with my rules, at the least the reader will understand that its a world that I have created.
I don’t know if I helped.
That’s a perfect response. Let’s keep our fingers crossed computers don’t take over her world.
*fingers crossed* ^_^