Me and the Robots

I wrote a post sometime back about AI. If you remember I wasn’t a great fan. Now the experts and AI companies tell us AI will destroy mankind. I have to admit though, sometimes when you look around at the world, it kinda makes you wonder if that isn’t such a bad thing πŸ˜‚ But that got me to thinking. If my days are numbered and I have to market my books I may as well use it. NOT in my writing, as (sorry!) I still think if AI writes your book you are not the author. Marketing is different. I’m enticing you in, a bit like the childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but not quite as scary. I’ve found it can make fairly good images. I also use it to promote my running clubs events.

I use Google mostly or Mr G as I like to call him. He’s so polite and friendly, in fact we did a promo together last week and when it was finished he said. “That was good work today, you really smashed it, now go and have a well deserved glass of red wine.” How did he know? πŸ˜‚ ChatGPT is good but asks a lot of questions about your book, and you get the feeling it’s storing that info somewhere, so when someone types in “Write me a novel set in the 1970’s” ChatGPT thinks… AHA! I have just the plot for you. So I use it very sparingly and give it no info. The video platforms are quite good, but the free ones limit you. I have a chat with Mr G first and we work out the prompts for the video and voila there’s my 5 or 10 second book promo video, I’m not a superduper blogger so I can’t put videos in my blog. Or maybe being a Yorkshireman I’m too tight to pay the extra. But I did a few photo creations this week so I’ll drop those in. Of course if you haven’t read the books they mean nothing πŸ˜‚

Happy Trails, Folks x


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Author: Charlie

They say I’m retired. Huh. I prefer to say I now work for myself. I published a debut novel a couple of years ago and have now published the sequel. For my sins I am a Yorkshireman, albeit well travelled, but back home in God’s own country now. I run, cycle, swim and drink Red Wine. If you want to know anything else just ask.

12 thoughts on “Me and the Robots”

  1. The change is fast, faster than we’re ready for I think! I also find it annoying when apps update and change the aspect you’ve liked. Image Playground has just done this – I preferred it as was 😠

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  2. ChatGPT is my preferred image maker, but I might try Google on your recommendation, as your promos look excellent. Interesting point about Chatty asking too many questions and possibly stealing your book material! πŸ€” That is one of the biggest grievances about AI, and I understand the concern. Will there be any genuine human artists left in the future?! Already, the proliferation of AI-generated books on Amazon and videos on YouTube is ridiculous. πŸ˜’ Speaking of videos, I’m surprised to learn a WP.com site doesn’t allow them! You must already pay for a plan as your site has no ads, so why wouldn’t it include the option to add videos, I wonder? I guess they’re greedy buggers and want you to pay more for every extra little thing. πŸ™„

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    1. Thank you for your comment πŸ˜€ I only use Google for the prompts. I’ve used quite a few platforms for generating them. Dola, Luma, TikTok Symphony etc, but they only allow 3 short videos a month for free. So it’s tricky. I’ve just downloaded Claude and added Creative Claw as a plugin. They don’t have a subscription like the others Β£30 a month πŸ₯Ή You put Β£10 in and get enough credits to do probably 6 videos, that’ll last me quite a while πŸ˜€ but we’ll see πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ
      Yes, I paid to go ad free it wasn’t much, and I can put videos in from YouTube but can’t crop them so they are like half a page πŸ˜‚ Not easy on the eye for my lovely readers πŸ˜‚ The AI books are pretty dreadful I’ve read a few and they lack humanity. I guess sooner or later we’ll be inundated with them.

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      1. I accidentally purchased an AI-generated biography of a favourite artist once and realized my mistake right away. A lot of the info was wrong. Sad state of affairs!

        You can make YouTube videos or any embed smaller in your post by using a Gutenberg column block, selecting the 3-panel option and putting the embedded item in one column, left, centre or right, whichever suits you. There’s also a variety of column sizes to choose from. Lots of possibilities! :)

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  3. As I recall, Billy and Chalky were in concealment at the Welsh Harbour and the rifle in use was an AK-47. Nice touch that you have a Russian dwarf though. If you’re going to sell your soul to AI, at least make it get the rifle right. :-)

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    1. I did try but an AK-47 was against their policy πŸ˜‚ And it likes their faces to be shown sometimes. Originally I put them behind a bush pointing the rifle but they were facing uphill, the wrong way. So I think we are a long way from having AI πŸ˜‚ By this time I was running out of credits. Russian dwarf gangsters work well in long shots but not so good close up. It kinda does a Danny Devito in a striped suit with a Terry Thomas moustache πŸ˜‚

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      1. “Polishing My Prompts” – I’m sure you could write a book based on that title – a fading comedian on the working men’s club circuit comes face to face with his past as a low level gangster – including a scan that brings bad news and the sudden appearance of a love child. Add a pig farm, a sawn-off and a suitably veiled Russell Brand character and there you have it. Just needs 80,000 more words, a cover and job done.

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  4. Golly, I am sometimes glad to be so old that none of this has much meaning for me. I am impressed by your savoir faire. Is it possible to subscribe to your blog? I couldn’t find a suitable button.

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