STRIKING WORDS
April 19, 2023
Good third Wednesday of February.
Welcome to RUPP'S NOTES & FBI SPECIAL AGENT HARTMANN SERIES posts. I'm novelist Richard V. Rupp (Dick), writing from Burbank, California.
Recently the weather has been fantastic here in Burbank. I'm looking out my window at clear blue skies. The windows are open, and I enjoy the clean air flowing through my apartment.
According to California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, the first 86 days of the year have produced less pollution than any time since fine particulate monitoring began in 1999. As a lifelong California resident, I can attest that they are correct.
Our three months of historic rainfall have caused numerous problems, but it has also been a godsend. It has filled our largest reservoirs to near capacity and begun recharging our groundwater, depleted from years of overpumping due to the extended drought that preceded the current storms.
But, here in Burbank, there is a dark cloud overhead. Over the past couple of weeks, this cloud has been on the minds of many of my local pub friends, who are members of the WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA. Or, for that matter, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)(which my dad helped form, and my son Brian is a member) and SAG-AFTRA (whose members often work as waitstaff/bartenders in the local restaurants and pubs between gigs).
The LA TIMES indicates this dark cloud is "one that neither we nor the country can stand. . . . We cannot afford a writers' strike. . .The entertainment industry can't afford it, Los Angeles can't afford it, and neither can the many parts of the country where TV and film production help fuel the local economy."
It is estimated that the last strike cost the entertainment industry $4.5 billion in today's dollars.
Streaming has transformed television and led to a surge in content, but it also has squeezed Hollywood writers. From the pervasiveness of "mini-rooms" and shorter seasons to smaller residuals and fewer script orders, the Writers Guild of America says their writers are now working more for less pay. While much of the problem involves changes in scriptwriting by the streaming services that brought new corporate participants (Netflix, Apple TV) to Hollywood, there is also the problem of AI.
In her newsletter, WAKE-UP CALL, Katie Couric indicated that "AI is threatening the livelihoods of artists, writers, and customer service reps." Generative artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT has sparked conversations about the technology's role in writing legal documents, student essays, poems, and beyond.
I am a member of the AUTHORS GUILD (they are the host for my website, www.richardvrupp.com). The Guild is actively engaged in advocacy around generative AI technologies (AI that can generate new text, visual, and audio works—e.g., ChatGPT, MidJourney, Stability—from training on existing works, such as books, photos, and visual art). They aim to ensure that appropriate guardrails are placed around the development and use of generative AI and to protect the writing profession's robustness, diversity, and future.
Recently I completed an Authors Guild member survey on AI, including a question about Grammarly, which they classify as AI-involved. I do use Grammarly. For those unfamiliar with Grammarly, it is a cloud-based typing assistance that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes. It also detects plagiarism and suggests replacements for the identified errors.
The Authors Guild is participating in a Copyright Office listening session on artificial intelligence and literary works. The questions the Copyright Office has posed for the listening session revolve around writers' use of generative AI and potential impacts on the profession and the book industry.
For my insurance/risk management industry friends from a past life, AI is going to have an effect on you. Here are some takeaways from the INSURANCE AI AND INNOVATIVE TECH USA 2023 CONFERENCE sponsored by Reuters News & Media Ltd. in Chicago last week. It was conveyed that AI such as ChatGPT will radically change insurance underwriting and claims handling. I love the statement from the conference that it will sophisticate the industry. And that the benefits will be so significant that any efforts to slow the adoption of AI are likely to fail. One cost benefit will be a reduced workforce, with jobs being replaced by technology.
Dan Abrahamsen, CEO of Cover Whale Insurance Solutions Inc., indicated that "the scariness to me is it's moving much quicker than I think most people are anticipating, and that's only going to continue. I think humans are pretty bad at understanding exponential effects as a group." He went on to say that "efforts to slow the adoption of AI, such as the recent open letter signed by several technology CEOs asking for a six-month halt in AI research to establish safety protocols for the use of the technology, are unlikely to be successful."
According to Donalee Markus, Ph.D. – "Language is a neurocognitive tool by which we can: (1) Transmit and exchange information; (2) Influence and control the behavior of others; (3) Establish and demonstrate social cohesion; and (4) Imagine and create new ways of experiencing life. To appreciate the power and majesty of words, we have to recognize that they mean more than their dictionary definitions. We understand them in relation to other words. Words require context to make them meaningful."
My question is, how will neurocognitive human language be affected by supercomputers with AI capabilities?
SKYWARD, the novel I'm working on, incorporates some of the above. It includes a master computer (SKY) which might as well be classified as a character. SKY becomes highly involved in all human functions of my stories Moon, Mars, and Space Colonies.
I'm re-reading "THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS" by Robert A. Heinlein, which includes as a character "MIKE." Quoting from the book, "Mike was a fair dinkum, thinkum, sharpest computer you'll ever meet." Then there is HAL from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, the 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. HAL is a supercomputer with a human personality whose behavior conflicts with those of the humans using it or him or her???
I note that USC has created the CENTER FOR GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND SOCIETY, designed to do research and create an assembly place for experts involved in AI. According to USC Annenberg Dean Willow Bay, "AI is poised to redefine how we communicate, create content and contemplate our world and its truths. We have an imperative to unite journalists, media makers, artists, and storytellers to design new investigative methods and technical tools that interrogate AI's transformative power."
USC is not alone in embracing AI. UCLA collaborated with Amazon in 2021 to establish the SCIENCE HUB FOR HUMANITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Finally, I love the title of this Canadian festival – WHEN WORDS COLLIDE. Their press release states, "This festival exists to provide an opportunity for the literary community, from readers to writers to publishers, to gather and share information and inspiration. With the belief that different genres have more in common than they have differences, the festival includes content for all types of literature, including mainstream, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, young adult, historical, literary, and non-fiction." For info on it, go to www.whenwordscollide.org.
For those unfamiliar with me and my writings and who want to know more, please visit my website at www.richardvrupp.com. Or check me out on Amazon.com - Amazon.com: Richard V. Rupp: books, biography, latest update
Until next month,
Cheers,
Richard V. Rupp, Author
Website – www.richardvrupp.com
Email – rupprisk@gmail.com
Copyright©2023 by Richard V. Rupp