After something of a hiatus from the world of having news, I’ve been looking forward to announcing my inclusion in the upcoming anthology from Wolf Singer Publications. I was particularly excited to receive that cover art, which is absolutely gorgeous. But something about it set off an alarm bell for me. So I checked the copyright page of the e-book, which confirmed my worst suspicions: this cover art was generated using AI.
Yeah.
So, instead of doing my usual gushy post about the new anthology I get to be a part of, and how much fun I had writing The Menagerie of the Milky Way, I ended up in a massive emotional tailspin, because I am of course ethically opposed to the use of AI in creative work. At the very least, it needs a lot more regulation than it has or seems likely to have any time soon. So. What’s a person to do?
Well, what I did is discuss the situation with a friend who shares my concerns, and then contact the editor and calmly ask her some questions. And I’m glad I did, because she was able to reassure me that the use of AI in more than pre-publication placeholder covers is not usual practice for Wolf Singer: this one came about as a writing prompt that turned into more. In other words, the anthology itself came from this image, so work wasn’t taken from a human artist. The editor also assures me that she would never use AI to copy an existing artist’s style.
That’s all nice and reassuring. There are a lot of complex issues surrounding use of AI, and people feel a lot of different ways about it. However, what I’m feeling right now is that I’ve accidentally sorta-kinda endorsed something I really don’t agree with, and that makes me pretty uncomfortable. Instead of celebrating, I’m reaching for the headache tablets.
So, where do we go from here? I guess my next step is to continue as normal, but try to pay more attention in future, I guess? (Not my strong suit)
There are still many things to be happy about. There are many, many excellent stories in Menagerie and it’s an excellent anthology. Don’t judge a book by the AI that generated its cover, right?
Midnight Menagerie is out now.
Harriet Phoenix 