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Ask HN: Why does it matter if no one reads your novel as long as the AIs do?

4 pointsby 45m ago
15 comments
AI can in principle surface content that you create that no humans consume directly. And it could even credit and financially compensate you whenever this happens.

So it seems that you can have a creator-only economy where all humans create and the AIs do most of the consuming.

And stuff that the AIs surface in their replies allows humans to indirectly consume some of your content (in which case you would be credited and financially compensated) and perhaps even lead to them directly consuming it as a result of the free advertising.

Do you think this is workable as a future model for creation and consumption (and not just for novels)?

42m agoHN ↗

Interesting concept. But who pays Ai? there has to be an ultimate consumer no matter who the creator is. Humans are the only ones that would take the credit. Can Ai say, it was my idea, nope! LOL

41m agoHN ↗

And it could even credit and financially compensate you whenever this happens.

It could, but it doesn't.

Also, have you considered that perhaps creative people who write novels actually want people to directly consume their work, and not indirectly?

38m agoHN ↗

Mathematicians seem content with having only a few people read and understand their proofs in full.

32m agoHN ↗

That sort of writing is very different, with very different motivations, than something like a novel.

29m agoHN ↗

A novel not read by humans could still influence future novels indirectly because its ideas are mentioned in AI responses. And you would get credit and financial compensation for those ideas that are mentioned.

27m agoHN ↗

I really do wonder sometimes whether these questions you post are trolling or if you truly don't understand how humans work on a fundamental level.

27m agoHN ↗

A novel not read by humans could still influence future novels

That isn't at all relevant to why I engage in creative writing.

30m agoHN ↗

Have you considered that mathematicians aren't writers?

Or that your original framing was having no one, rather than "only a few people," read your work?

Do you think mathematicians would be content with having no one but AIs read their work? I don't think so.

28m agoHN ↗

This will be the reality of math soon. Complicated proofs will only be checked completely by AI.

25m agoHN ↗

That doesn't actually answer any questions, but I doubt mathematicians are entirely thrilled about the prospect of having their field entirely automated, even if they still get paid.

35m agoHN ↗

If no human is reading what I write, then there's no point in publishing it.

33m agoHN ↗

But you could still get credit and financial compensation.

Mathematicians write proofs that only a few people read in full and understand. And yet, they are fine with that.

30m agoHN ↗

But you could still get credit and financial compensation.

Sure, but that doesn't make up for the loss of the primary reason for writing the material in the first place.

Mathematicians write proofs that only a few people read in full and understand. And yet, they are fine with that.

As I said in another comment (before I saw this), that sort of writing is very different, with different motivations and target audiences, than writing something like a novel. Apples and oranges.

10m agoHN ↗

That should have already happened. The AI companies should had first created a market where people submit there stuff to be included in the training. It would have been slower progress but it would have been better for public adoption and their own reputation. I've heard people are getting paid now, not sure, but they definitely yoinked all the content without permission, when it could have been an entire market around it.

So yeah, I think that's a good idea, and why I want AI to stay away from being used for one-shot creative output. Luckily that is still not very good, at least not for unique and creative applications.

4m agoHN ↗

If your world only revolves around money and nothing else and you have no interest in, I don't know, actual contact with your readers, then why not, I guess...

But I think even purely economically this won't work: For starters, who would set the price for your book?

Your book would become an exchangeable commodity, with the "purchase decision" done solely by AIs (and their companies), not the "readers". The financial success of your book would depend on whatever criteria AIs use to decide about including your content or not, not your (human) readers (or what's left of them). As with most commodities, this would enter a "race to the bottom" that would probably leave you with pennies - or steer your writing into a direction that you were never intending to go in.

Just a question: In such a system, why would you still write the book yourself and not have an LLM write it?