It is said there are two sides to every story. Same goes for AI. There’s the mind-blowing side, where you can use it as a tool to accomplish things you never thought possible. And then there’s the side that blows your mind, leaving you in utter embarrassment that you could be so easily duped. I’ve experienced both sides and will relate them here for two reasons: To encourage you that AI could be a good – make that fantastic – thing that can help you in so many positive ways. But also to serve as a gentle warning.

What kind of fool am I? 

Well later on, going through reels,  another reel comes up. Same guy but with a different outfit. It cuts to the same audience and panel of judges going wild. And then another one  comes up: same guy, same wild audience, same performance -- but with a horse behind him!!!!! Well that much of a fool I’m not. Finally, FINALLY I had the sudden realization this was AI. Not only was the voice dubbed in, but NOTHING about it was real. And THEN I had the kind of sickening feeling that that “gorgeous guy” wasn’t even real! I bet he doesn’t even exist! Totally made up!  I started to feel like some lonely guy who falls in love with a blow-up doll! Hopefully I’m wiser now. More discerning. But this is scary. 

I love AI. I think.

Not for writing, but for illustrating. For the longest time (years) I’ve had in mind a single visual that I wanted to accompany a project I’ve been working on. Did I want to hire an illustrator? I suppose I could have, but I didn’t know who, and didn’t want to have to correct them and get into fights, the dollar signs for revisions going up up up, etc. So just the other day I thought, “I know! I’m going to try ChatGPT!”  

I enter very specific details about what I wanted, right down to the type of font. In less than a minute the visual appeared. I was incredulous. Stunned, actually. It captured everything I wanted and more. Plus, it had humor. It was funny! BUT…I did have a few changes I requested. AI made the first change. It was good! I needed another change. It came back perfect. I needed a third change – to make the title just a bit bigger. Bravo! Done! Oh, but wait: they misspelled a word. At first I thought I might have misspelled it in my directions, but no, this was on AI. They made the typo. So I asked Mr.Chat GPT to please (I’m always polite) correct the error. What was his answer? That I used up my 4 free tries. I’d have to wait 24 hours to reset, and then, says Mr. Chat GPT, “I’ll get right to it!” Ok, fine. At this time, I don’t want to upgrade since I currently don’t know how often I’ll be using it. 

 I wait the 24 hours. I ask for the word to be corrected. Mr. Chat comes back with, “Gotta wait another 24 hours” followed by some friendly emojis. Grrrr. So here I am, waiting for the 24 hours (actually 48 hours) to be up. But I got to thinking, I wonder if Mr. Chat made that typo on purpose, knowing I would need to go beyond the 4 free tries to have it corrected. And that would make me want to upgrade. Well little does he know how cheap I am! But I will tell you this: If, after 48 hours he tells me to wait another 24, I’m thinking of letting him have it. “Oh, come on! I gave you a full two days to correct this damn thing, what’s the problem? You’re supposed to be so advanced? Can’t you just correct it and make me happy? Ya know, I was thinking of upgrading, but if this is the kind of treatment I’m going to get, forget it! No sale, dude!” I might even put it all in CAPS. 

Then again I’m thinking what if I offend him? Will I be blocked? Will he sabotage my image? Screw up anything I may ask for in the future? I mean, all this time I used “please” and “thank you” and “Love it!” Won’t that matter?  Will Chat GPT go all Zombie Apocalypse on me? Like I said, this is scary. 

As it turned out, on the 49^th hour, Mr. Chat came back with everything perfect. And beautiful beyond my imagination. 

So there you have it. Two tales of AI. One pretty glorious. One not so much. But it’s there for the taking. Use it to your best advantage. But be wary. Fool me once…

  -- Laura Stigler