The image below is the Back Porch Writer’s feline muse. She wandered up to say hello, and perhaps beg a treat.
This baffled me for a bit, because I have no idea where that picture came from. It literally appeared here when I pasted in some text I copied from my previous post. She just showed up… which is pretty typical cat behavior, when you think about it. Apparently the cat distribution system has gone digital? Who knows? I guess I have another cat now.
As it turns out, this isn’t some sort of AI hallucination. I managed to accidentally copied a link that somehow provided a path to the image. So I did copy an image, but in a way that completely surprised me. I had to go back and check to make sure that I wasn’t hallucinating.
Which brings up a current conversation over in the Ark Press Discord server, about AI in general and how trustworthy it is. It’s rapidly becoming clear to anyone paying attention that various AI models can have certain biases baked in. Not surprising, really; what they learn depends on what they’re taught (input data).
The strange thing about that is that it means that the AIs are actually more human, not less. If you’re going to chat with Grok or see what ChatGPT understands, you’re going to not just take what they say at face value. You’re going to ask them for sources, and explanations, and do a little bit of checking up to make sure that they’re not handing you a load of malarkey.
In other words, you need to treat AIs as if they were Some Random Dude on the internet.
I’m not sure how that’s going to work out, really. We’ve had a couple of generations grow up in the digital wasteland that is the internet, but the prognosis is mixed. There’s still too many people out there (old and young) who are inclined to accept confirming information at face value without taking the time to make sure it’s correct.
The Business of Writing
I’ve pushed out two (TWO!) short stories this month. “Paladins for Hire” went to Three Ravens Publishing for their Brave Knights: Heroic Courage anthology. “Footprints in the Sand” went to Cannon Publishing for their upcoming Cannon Fodder anthology. I’m hoping they both will be accepted, but we’ll see. I had the bones of both of those done when we rolled into March, but getting each beaten into shape in a week took a leeeeetle bit of effort, you know?
So now I’m back to edits on Blue as Sky, digging through comments and doing my bet to resolve all the issues my publisher and First Reader have pointed out. Oh, and it may or may not keep that title. Names are hard. To paraphrase Phil Karlton: “There are only two hard things in publishing, editing and naming things.”
Back problems seem to be mostly resolved after the round of steroids and, um. Changing my posture. It would seem that sitting hunched over in a kitchen chair for extended periods of time is Not A Good Thing. Who knew? I’ve brought my office chair downstairs and adjusted it properly, and would you look at that - a lot of my back pain has disappeared. Not all of it, but some exercises from a PT specialist should help minimize what’s left.
Speaking of exercise! As the temperature improves, and my back hurts less, I’ve made a solid effort to get back to walking more. Yay! Good for my heart, good for my weight, and good for my attitude. Gotta love that. I hope you’re enjoying good weather as well; but if you’re not, here’s a picture of some red maple buds to help hold you over until next time you hear from me.
Where does Cannon have their open calls posted? I'm not seeing anything on the page.
Way to go! We're rooting for you!