The document discusses the public perceptions and implications of AI in authorship, highlighting concerns regarding algorithmic transparency and the potential impact on contemporary book culture. It examines how AI-generated content, particularly through models like GPT-3, challenges traditional notions of writing and authorship. The author raises questions about the influence of AI on self-identity, communication, and the future of literary creativity.

1. Writing AI:
Public (Mis)Perceptions
of Algorithmic Authorship
Leah Henrickson
University of Leeds
L.R.Henrickson@leeds.ac.uk
All background images from Pexels.com, with search term ‘artificial intelligence’.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/cold-space-abstract-blur-8386364; https://www.pexels.com/photo/clear-glass-bottle-with-white-background-8386367
@leahhenrickson

2. https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-and-red-light-from-computer-1933900
@leahhenrickson

3. https://www.pexels.com/photo/robot-pointing-on-a-wall-8386440/
unsupervised machine learning
surprise conclusions
(with no explanation)
humans are responsible
@leahhenrickson

4. This inscrutable character of algorithms
presents book historians with significant
practical problems of transparency in
attempting to account for software's impact
on contemporary book culture.
Simone Murray, ‘Secret agents: Algorithmic culture, Goodreads and datafication of the contemporary book world’,
European Journal of Cultural Studies, OnlineFirst (2019), p. 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549419886026
https://www.pexels.com/photo/time-lapse-photography-of-blue-lights-373543
@leahhenrickson

5. The mission for this op-ed is perfectly
clear. I am to convince as many
human beings as possible not to be
afraid of me. Stephen Hawking has
warned that AI could ‘spell the end of
the human race’. I am here to
convince you not to worry. Artificial
intelligence will not destroy humans.
Believe me.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/display-coding-programming-development-1921326
@leahhenrickson

6. https://www.pexels.com/photo/text-2061168
@leahhenrickson

7. https://www.pexels.com/photo/turned-on-computer-monitor-displaying-text-270360
@leahhenrickson

8. https://www.pexels.com/photo/2-person-holding-wine-glasses-8439085
@leahhenrickson

9. I Got an Artificial Intelligence
to Write My Novel
And it didn’t do a
better job than me –
but we should maybe be worried
that it didn’t do much worse
https://www.pexels.com/photo/persons-hand-with-white-manicure-8386422
@leahhenrickson

10. GPT-3 is a natural language processor, which means it’s
trained to try to complete any prompt that it’s given. Its
training data is basically the entire internet, so given a
prompt, like a few paragraphs of text, it will make a guess
as to what comes next. These guesses show that GPT-3 can
really write. It can write in all sorts of styles, oftentimes as
convincingly as a real human author. Like a medium, it can
even channel the dead. The anxiety I feel toward it is
different than toward any writer that once lived and
breathed. I think it represents the first warning shots of
an impending man vs. machine agon of language.
Erik Hoel, ‘I Got an Artificial Intelligence to Write My Novel’, Electric Literature (10 June 2021). https://electricliterature.com/i-got-an-artificial-intelligence-to-
write-my-novel
https://www.pexels.com/photo/industry-internet-writing-technology-4604607
@leahhenrickson

11. Maybe, hopefully, GPT-3 is as good as natural language
processors get. Maybe it will always need
micromanagement. Maybe maybe maybe. Maybe not. The
situation for poets is already far worse. Oh, poor poets. All
the things GPT-3 struggles with, like long-term coherency,
causality, common sense knowledge, character
development, etc, are all things that rarely matter in
poems.
Erik Hoel, ‘I Got an Artificial Intelligence to Write My Novel’, Electric Literature (10 June 2021). https://electricliterature.com/i-got-an-artificial-intelligence-to-
write-my-novel
https://www.pexels.com/photo/industry-internet-writing-technology-4604607
@leahhenrickson

12. https://www.pexels.com/video/video-of-a-robot-dance-8084496
print and digital
comfortably familiar
encroachingly alien
ongoing negotiation
shapes
informs
mechanic muses
heterogeneous
insight
understanding
@leahhenrickson

13. That’s all well and good, but…
• How do people perceive AI systems
using natural language?
• How might these technologies influence
our senses of self and others?
• How might these technologies alter
the ways we communicate?
• What do authorship and reading mean
in AI contexts?
https://www.pexels.com/photo/landscape-man-people-street-8439174
@leahhenrickson

14. Want to try it for yourself?
https://talktotransformer.com
https://transformer.huggingface.co
https://www.essaybot.com
https://www.pexels.com/photo/high-angle-photo-of-robot-2599244
@leahhenrickson

15. Danke!
Leah Henrickson
University of Leeds
L.R.Henrickson@leeds.ac.uk
https://www.pexels.com/photo/cold-space-abstract-blur-8386364; https://www.pexels.com/photo/clear-glass-bottle-with-white-background-8386367
@leahhenrickson