Publishing and/with AI - Poetry, Authorship, and Questions we need to answer

A reflection on publishing poetry before AI changed everything, and the open questions around AI-generated content, media literacy, and authorship.

Before the Algorithm#

Having mostly celebrated the advantages of AI in this blog, the productivity boost it can unleash, I want to take a look back today. During the COVID years, I published two poetry collections. The first (冬至 / Tōji) in 2020 is a compilation of older poems that had accumulated over the years, and a follow-up (霧雨 / Kirisame) the year after in 2021, also with older works but predominantly new material from 2020 and 2021. In retrospect, I'm glad I published these books before AI, recognizable - among other things, by my heavy use of stock images :), because today any publication is likely suspected of having been created at least with the help of, if not entirely by, AI.

The Question Nobody Can Answer#

That is also one of the reasons why I'm currently inclined not to continue writing my half-finished non-fiction book. Perhaps I'll repurpose excerpts here as blog posts over time, but putting time and energy into something that will then be scrutinized and will inevitably trigger a shitstorm due to its controversial nature is not something I have the inclination for right now. Which, for me, is on one hand a shame and on the other liberating. Nevertheless, writing nothing anymore is not an answer either to the newly emerging questions around our already underdeveloped media literacy. How do we recognize AI-generated content? And while I'm a big fan of AI in programming, the question arises: what about content that isn't bits and bytes? Content that depends on interpretation and understanding? Do we need mandatory labeling? Will anyone follow it anyway? Do we have to assume AI was involved in everything? So many questions for which I naturally have no simple answers. What do you think? Let someone else know.

Well, to bring my socially critical spirit of days past from paper to the internet, I'd like to round off this brain dump with a poem from the first volume, which lends itself well since I published it in German and English in the book. Written in the 2010s, published 2020.

Ignorance is Bliss#

<div class="poem"> Ignorance is bliss The sheep does not need to know   it is a sheep. As long as the pasture is green and   the grass is lush. Ignorance is bliss The sheep does not need to know,   that he, who shepherds it,   is a descendant of wolf,   that his instincts tells him   to slay me. Ignorance is bliss The sheep does not need to know,   that he, who shepherds it,   receives his instructions from someone   who is after my wool,   from someone who decides   when I will be slaughtered. Ignorance is bliss   They know everything about you,   when you have been where, and why,   who your friends, what your interest,   what your possessions, what your wishes   and dreams. They tell you what to want,   and what to fear and why,   they entertain you and feed you,   they give to you what you need and take   away what you are, they make you   their sheep. Ignorance is bliss As long as my pasture is green and   the grass is lush. </div>

Publishing and/with AI - Poetry, Authorship, and Questions we need to answer

Before the Algorithm#

The Question Nobody Can Answer#

Ignorance is Bliss#

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