Daddy, Please ask Chat GPT to tell me a story

Confused about why all the actors, writers, and other entertainment creatives have chosen this moment to strike? Let me tell you a story.

An artist friend, Josef Kelly, and I were discussing the strike recently when Josef showed me something startling on his cellphone.

Josef said that as an experiment, he prompted Chat GPT to write a short story using this description: “Sam the Penguin travels from Antarctica and brings his red Cowabunga berries to make blue Cowabunga juice.” That was his only instruction. Sam the Penguin is based on a tale Josef made up to tell his small children at bedtime. Chat GPT created the following story within seconds. Then, Josef asked the graphic AI web site Dall-E2 to create an image of Sam based on the Chat GPT story. Here’s the result:

Once upon a time, in the cold and snowy land of Antarctica, there lived a penguin named Sam. Sam was just like all the other penguins, except for one thing: he loved Cowabunga berries. These special berries were bright red, and when they were squeezed, they turned into a delicious blue juice.

One day, Sam decided that he wanted to share his love of Cowabunga berries with the world. So, he packed a bag with a bunch of the berries and set off on a journey. He waddled through the frozen tundra,

He waddled through over glaciers, and across the frozen sea.

After many days of traveling, Sam finally reached a warm and tropical island. He was greeted by a group of friendly monkeys who were curious about the strange penguin and the bag of red berries he was carrying.

Sam explained to the monkeys about the Cowabunga berries and how they turned into delicious blue juice. The monkeys were excited to try the juice and asked Sam to make some for them.

Sam took out his special squeezer and started squeezing the berries. The juice flowed out and turned a bright blue color. The monkeys took a sip and their faces lit up with surprise and delight. "Cowabunga!" they exclaimed.

From then on, Sam traveled to different islands and shared his Cowabunga juice with all the animals he met. He became known as the "Cowabunga Penguin" and made many friends along the way.

Years later, Sam returned to his home in Antarctica, but he never forgot the friends he made and the joy he shared with Cowabunga juice. And he always carried a bag of red Cowabunga berries with him, ready for the next adventure.

With AI tools like this at his fingertips, Josef, or you, or I, could spend a few hours feeding chat boxes story and art ideas and create libraries of books and galleries of art work. And we can specify that the writing or painting be “in the style of.”

People already are doing it. For example, Jane Friedman, a publishing authority who has written a number of excellent books about publishing this week discovered seven books on Amazon in her writing style on Amazon, books with her name listed as the author, books she didn’t write, but someone using AI did. Suddenly, her career is at risk of being upended. Just like the careers of the writers, artists, graphic designers and other creatives on strike.

I write books and would rather not have others publishing AI books in my name or stealing my work. Josef Kelly is an excellent artist. Will he start seeing paintings duplicating his style of painting showing up for sale on internet sites?

AI is an incredibly productive new tool. Unfortunately, it’s also an incredibly creative one, too. And that’s not the only AI problem. More about that next time.