A couple of years ago, I decided to play with ChatGPT and have it write a blog post for me. The results, I wrote, were believable but super generic and cliched. They reminded me of like a blowhard who is good at showing off but not actually very smart.

Now we know that, despite all the computing power required, AI really isn’t that smart; this is why it requires way more training than a person does.

Although it can be a useful aid.

In that frame, it made me reflect in ways that AI has actually become useful while writing a novel.

And no, it’s not actually writing any of the book for me. I tried that today as a fun experiment, and it was still just… amusing. Here’s a sample, but it’s basically all like this.

Lena was gone. And with her, the version of James that believed love could be mapped, managed, or mutually agreed upon.

And so began that particular summer, where the tequila was cheap, the dreams were rented, and every good story started with a woman who left before the music stopped

Has AI gotten worse? 😆

Also note that ChatGPT somehow (by coincidence?) used the same protagonist name that I’m using in my book, although I did not give that name in the prompt. Interesting… 😤

Still, AI is actually amazing at a couple of things.

AI can read my book aloud back to me

After writing a chapter of the book, I can feed the text into Speechify and instantly turn it into a really good audiobook. This is not just a basic Siri-style reading but a realistic voice with feeling. You can pick from a bunch of voices voice, including a few celebrities, although the founder “Cliff” is my favorite. It’s fun to listen to, and hearing your story interpreted in someone else’s voice is both instructive and fascinating.

AI can interpret my book for me

I also like to use the summarize tool. Even the much maligned Apple Intelligence is helpful for simply summarizing a few paragraphs I just wrote. It’s a useful check to tell me if I’m getting the intended idea across, like, “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” or “Ohh, this needs work.” Like Speechify, it’s also just kind of fun to see what “someone” else thinks of your story.