National Summit on Artificial Intelligence

I'm about to hop into my car and drive five hours southwest to the lovely town of Banff. I'm one of the invited attendees to the National Summit on Artificial Intelligence, and I'm excited to be part of this important discussion when it comes to AI and how it's being used in the creative industries.

From the government website: "The National Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Culture, presented in partnership with the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, will convene leaders from the cultural, government, technology, academic, and civil society sectors to shape a shared vision for the future of culture in the age of artificial intelligence."

Here's the initial question that usually gets asked: does AI have benefits? And the answer seems to be a resounding yes when viewed across multiple industries - it's had positive results in the medicine, scientific research, agriculture, and other fields. But I'm one of a growing number of creatives who are questioning its validity when it comes to our own work, which, in essence, is meant to capture the human experience. Can a non-human program do so, and do it for the benefit of those who consume the content we produce? That's a more complicated question.

Now, it's no secret that I've been against using AI in the creative sphere ever since it first appeared. My Author Versus AI project in 2024, where I wrote a book a week for 34 weeks using NO AI at all, was essentially a way to open up the conversation about how creatives don't have to turn to this shiny new thing and incorporate it into their writing process. Human ingenuity, to me at least, will always be more desirable than something produced without effort on the "author's" part by using a program to write instead of drawing on their own lived experience.

And I'm not alone. Many authors haven't used AI and don't plan to - there's been a growing backlash against AI in the the creative arts, including thousands of authors publishing empty books in protest to AI using their copyrighted works without permission to build LLCs to Amazon being kicked out as a sponsor for a Paris book festival due to protests against the company allowing the market to be flooded by AI-generated works to the UK Society of Authors launching a logo to identify solely human-created books.

In the rush to stay "cutting edge," some authors ARE using AI, and that's their choice - I'm not evangelical in my approach to AI, although I will often advise against its use, especially to new writers. But I'm hoping to see a balanced discussion at the Summit about both the benefits - and pitfalls - to the merging of creativity with the so-called "slop" that AI is producing en masse. I don't think the answer is better AI - I think the answer is a separation between what creatives do because they love it, and what programs do because someone wants to benefit in what they see as the next get-rich-quick scheme.

What's the answer? I'm not the only voice chiming in on the debate, but my grand hope is that we'll see a way to both ethically protect creatives and appreciate their original, human-created work for many years to come.