AI simply cannot surpass human writing today, states content responsible Helena Gustafsson, ahead of Storytel's release of a "completely AI-produced audiobook", featuring four short stories.
However, the fact that it is completely AI-produced is a truth with modifications. The task assigned to AI was indeed to write, translate, read, and illustrate a complete work – Storytel's team created Rosy Lett, a 22-year-old AI author, who was supposed to write her debut novel in the spring of 2024. But it is human creativity that has guided her.
There has been a large team involved, and it is their creativity and experience that have created the project, since there has been a lot of human intervention, says Helena Gustafsson.
Inconsistent and Gender-Stereotypical
Lett was supposed to write a futuristic novel about love and relationships in an AI world, but spat out a generic science fiction that was both inconsistent and had gender-stereotypical plot. After weeks of fine-tuning, corrections, and restarts, Storytel decided to scrap the manuscript and instead instruct Rosy to write four short stories.
The greatest insight from the work is that AI today is not progressive or inclusive. Unintentionally, it often creates and preserves stereotypes, says Helena Gustafsson.
But did they expect a masterpiece? No, Storytel went in with the main goal of learning the tool better, explains Gustafsson. She emphasizes that they collaborate with 1,600 publishers, many of which also experiment with AI. She sees it as a "responsibility" to familiarize themselves with the tool.
But this shows that AI cannot replace human creativity in the foreseeable future, she says.
"A Tool"
AI can, however, support the creative process, emphasizes Helena Gustafsson.
AI is a tool, and even if it's not good at creating new stories, there are incredibly many areas of use – such as AI voices and AI assistance in translations, which enables faster publication of a book.
Are there not corresponding flaws in the translation?
Yes, it's incredibly important to work ethically and responsibly when using generative AI. And that's to ultimately ensure quality.
The anthology "New Horizon", by digital debutant Rosy Lett, is now being released on Storytel – in English, Swedish, Finnish, and Danish, on January 23.
The four stories that AI debutant ultimately created highlight the problem of blurring the boundaries between humans and machines.
One of the short stories is about an AI assistant working with a researcher and developing feelings for them, another about a person who has suffered from memory loss and gets help to feel secure through AI recreating memories and events from the person's life, which doesn't quite succeed.
