AI and Writing - A Series of Looks Inside: Part One

Oh my goshness! Hello, good people of the blogosphere. I'm going to discuss something that's been discussed to death: AI and writers using AI. We're specifically talking generative AI here, but there are a ton of writing helpers that have been using one form of AI or another for a long time. We'll get into those as we go along, but today, I'll try to do some explaining on how LLMs work. If you already know, feel free to skip to the next post (if it's up). If it's not, wait two days, and I'll have moved on to examining the tools.

When AI first hit the market, I was as flummoxed as everyone else. I had trepidation, but I stood back and watched rather than freak out, and I learned as much as humanly possible about the way it works. I watched videos, did shallow dives, and did deep dives, which I emerged from in a much more confused state than when I went in.

I know, right? UGH. BUT THEN!

I was on the phone with one of my children (one that happens to be a computer genius, and I don't use that word lightly) when I lamented my lack of understanding. She proceeded to explain it to me. Only, she was using computer terminology.

Me: "Okay. You're adorable, but I can't understand a single word coming out of your mouth."

Her: "Hmmm... Well, how would you understand it?"

Me: "Pretend I'm a small child with only a basic understanding of the English language and know nothing about computers."

Her: *thinks for a minute then laughs like a loon* "I think I know how to help you understand."

Me: "Hit me with it."

And that's how I came to understand how a Large Language Model (LLM) works. Let me see if I can explain it the same way. If you're confused when I'm done, please drop me a comment below, and I'll do my level best to get you articles that might help.

Imagine you're a small child learning how to speak. You tune in to your parents, the TV, books, and every other thing that'll talk to you. As time goes on and you consume more information, you learn how to construct a basic sentence.

Example:

Mom always asks if you want more food.

Eventually, you understand to say, "I want more food." You understand this by hearing Dad say those same words in the same order. Mom rewards him with more food. However, the possessive I is something you learn from listening to TV and being corrected. Most babies would say, "Me want more food." Right? It's only through repetition of hearing it in the correct order when you begin to understand it's not me; it's I. Make sense?

Now, imagine you have a vast network of text to learn from because you can't hear (not speaking about the hearing impaired, they learn in other ways). You learn word B comes after word A in a typical sentence because after examining literally thousands of sentences, that word is the one that comes next most often. Word C comes after word B most often, so that's the one you use next. Then, you use word D, putting it all together to convey your idea.

I want more food.

On a much larger scale, this is how LLMs work. They're not smart, and they're not aware; they just have a vast amount of text that tells them what word most commonly follows the first in any conversation. Some of them pull from websites and give you a summary using the exact same method, but they're not regurgitating lines word for word, nor do they steal your words and give them to someone else.

It's highly unlikely you're constructing sentences in the exact way hundreds of other people are, so the likelihood your exact structure and prose would be used by an LLM is about a billion to one.

I can hear you being skeptical. Let's go for one more example.

I create a small language model using text from Bob, Lia, Dot, and Steve. Here's what they give me when I ask, "How do you get ready in the morning?"

Bob: I start by getting out of bed, having coffee, and taking a shower. Then, I brush my teeth and get dressed for the day.

Lia: My mornings start with me having coffee and watching TV. I tend to rush around feeding the animals and sit down to play a game or two after about half an hour. Once I'm relaxed, I get dressed and start to sort out what's for dinner.

Dot: I get up, shower, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, and get dressed.

Steve: I roll out of bed and fall into some clothes before rushing out the door and driving an hour to the office.

From those few responses, my language model would "probably" return something along the lines of: I get out of bed, brush my teeth, and get dressed.

Because those are the most common denominators in the text. Hell, it might not even be able to answer the question based on those limited responses and it not having enough reference material to use.

See how it's not the same but contains the general elements of the other items?

That is how an LLM works, folks. It's not smart enough to pull sentences out of thin air. So now, when you see people freaking out about their words being used to train an LLM, you can just smile and move on.

So, for this series! We'll be looking at the following apps/helpers, and I'll do my best to ask them all the same things/insert the same prompts to see how each one responds.

• ChatGPT
• Sudowrite
• Jasper AI (turned out to be a marketing AI - dropped from list)
  
• Grammarly (simply a word and syntax checker - dropped from list)
• Squibler
• HyperWrite
• Rytr
• Copy.ai
• Type.ai
• ProWritingAid
• Claude
• Shortly AI
• Anyword
• Quillbot
• Story Grid (just no - dropped from list - only go to this site if you want a ton of spam)
• WordGenie
• Frase
  

I'll pepper in some posts about other things as we go to break up the monotony of a series, and those programs that don't have a free test feature won't be studied. This is just what I could find when I did a quick search. These will be updated with links to the individual posts.

Anyone who uses AI to 100% write a book and does no editing is an ID10T because of the very thing I explained above. However, they can sometimes pull someone out of a funk or help with a sticky spot in a plot (which is how most authors I've interacted, who use AI, use it). 

What AI can't do is generate large amounts of text and it be original. It'll sound dull and robotic (because it is). You can't just plug in a plot and get a good book. Period. So, let's see what these programs can do. If you don't want or need to use any of these, that's fine. Please just move along. :)

One of my biggest challenges will be with the prompts. Authors I know who use AI at all spend literal hours on their prompts then edit the hell out of the text. It's a helper, and IF you're going to use it, that's how it should be used.

I hope you're all looking forward to this. I'm interested to try them! Maybe I'll be disappointed. Maybe you'll find a tool that does exactly what you're looking for (which isn't writing an entire novel for you). We'll see!

Fingers crossed you all enjoyed this post and are stoked about trying stuff.

That's all for today, folks!

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Bluesky Social

Good morning, and happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, we're talking about Bluesky, the Twitter replacement. This little app that could has over twenty-one million users as of now, probably due to the mass exodus of X (the app formerly known as Twitter). We'll dive into all the ways it's similar to the Twitter of old, and I'll show you a few things you might not have known about. Ready? Get cozy, grab a cup of coffee, and let's get going!

So, Bluesky. What is it? Where did it come from? How can you use it? What are the awesome features it has that you may not know about? How can you sign up? These are the questions we'll answer today. If you happen to have other questions, feel free to drop them in the comments, and I'll do my level best to find out for you.

What is Bluesky?

Well, it's a mobile and web app that's rather like the Twitter of old. You can post short, to-the-point sentences and use hashtags or media to enhance said post. You can create specific feeds, follow and block, and even send DMs.

Where the heck did Bluesky come from?

According to Britannica, it's actually been around a long time (since 2019), but it's only recently (2023) become available to the public. It's biggest growth happened last year when Twitter changed its name to X and the CEO changed the company's direction. X is being changed to an "everything" platform, while Bluesky will continue to be more like Twitter (but with differences). Add to that, Bluesky is open source, meaning you can tweak it. More on that later...

Is anyone else bored with these answers? I am. Let's get into the fun stuff.

Sign up by clicking here. It's super easy and only takes a few minutes. You can also download the app for iPhone or Android, so you can use it on your phone. Once you do that, you'll be able to navigate to settings:

As you can see, you have options to change quite a few things:

• Add another account
• Account
  
• Privacy and security
• Moderation
• Content and media
• Appearance
• Accessibility
• Languages

You also have the ever-needed Help and About sections.

• Add another account - This allows you to have another handle (username) with a different email address.
• Account - If you click this one, you can change your password, birthday, etc.
• Privacy and security - You can enable two-factor authentication (recommended), and prevent users of the app from seeing you when they're logged out. Because it's an open-source platform, other apps may still be able to see your profile. Just click it and do some reading/exploring.
• Moderation - This option is rather vast, so I suggest checking it out and getting into the nitty gritty, but on a basic level, you can hide nudity (artistic--other nudity isn't allowed), block, or select keywords to unsee.
• Content and media - Manage saved feeds (more in a minute), allow auto-play for other apps, and get down in the nuts and bolts of your follow feed. This app lets you create your own experience, so learning how to use all these things can only help you.
• Appearance - Choose your color mode, size of the text (yay!), theme (dark/light), and font here.
• Accessibility - Alt texts requirements. This is for folks who use a reading app for sites. It tells them what the image is as a descriptor.
• Languages - You can choose from a bajillion languages for your feed, the app, and your content.

When you click your profile from the menu on the left:

 You'll see these options:

That partially hidden one is Lists.

This is your stuff. Your posts, replies, media, etc. HOWEVER, this is where you can have some fun! If you click on Feeds, you'll see only posts from the feeds (#) you've chosen. If you'd like to add Feeds to this section, click Feeds in the menu on the left and make some choices. Just click the + icon at the left of the feed to add it to your list. Very cool, right?

Let's go a little deeper.

If I click on the Artists: Trending feed, this is the first post:

and if I click on that, I get this:

It tells you exactly how to join and participate in that feed. There's a TON more information on that page, so scroll down and read!

Now, let's go into how you start your own kind of community. If you click on Starter Pack, it allows you to either have one begun for you or for you to create one yourself. You name it, add stuff, and invite people.

Last, but certainly not least, you can make yourself Lists. This is a throwback from Twitter, and I had a ton of lists there so I could only see the people I wanted to see. To add someone to a list, first create a new list by clicking Lists on the menu on the left, then click the three dots on the person's profile page who you'd like to add, select add to Lists, and then choose which list you'd like them on.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

There are a ton of things you can do with Bluesky as a developer, but most people I know just want to see what they want to see, so this quicky walked you through that. You can add apps on the platform to do other things, and if you're into that, by all means... This is just what I could reasonably fit into a single blog post. :)

I hope this post helps you get the most out of your Bluesky experience and that you enjoyed the read! :D

Also, if you'd like to connect on Bluesky, I'm here.

That's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo