Do you suffer from Automation Anxiety?
(the fear that advancements in technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, will lead to widespread job losses, rendering people’s skills obsolete and potentially leaving them unemployed, causing significant worry and stress about the future of work.)
Before I dive into the post, I want to mention that the topic was suggested long before the breaking news of Meta using a pirate site to train their AI. More on that to come.
In the early 1800s, workers in England were upset by the increasing automation in wool and cotton mills, worried that the new machines would do away with their jobs. They began protesting, including destroying the new equipment, with the center of the movement being in Nottingham. (Yes, of Robin Hood fame.) Their leader was purported to be Ned Ludd.
The movement was eventually ended by the use of the legal system, which included sending protesters to Australia. But it left the legacy of the Luddites, a term applied to people opposed to new technology.
I’m surprised that the term hasn’t crept into today’s many discussions on the use of Artificial Intelligence in the areas that have long been considered part of the human fabric, the creative arts. While computers were viewed as enhancements to the fields of science and math, no one saw them as competing with most other fields. After all, their input and output could be shaved down to a string of 1s and 0s.
I was along for the ride as that changed.
I started with WordPerfect on a DOS-based personal computer and made the switch to Word on Microsoft a few years later. It’s transformation from being a fancy typewriter to a computing tool happened rapidly, faster than most users could keep up with. The addition of spell check felt revolutionary, a boon to writers at all levels.
Then came the flurry of on-line tools to assist writers. Hemingway, Grammarly, ProWritingAid and others. Now, those programs may suggest changes to not only spelling and grammar, but phrasing as well. (A simple form of AI.)
Through all of that, writers felt secure in being creators. Surely, machines would never replace the spark of creativity that was humanity’s alone. But AI didn’t remain in a static form.
I have mixed emotions about its current state. It’s gotten so much better at mimicking human creativity, but it’s still not perfect. It depends on a skilled human entering information for a computer to manipulate. Even then, the programs don’t always get it right. (Check out the problems with six fingers.)
Enter Meta’s AI
First, my thanks to Author Angel Nyx for alerting me and other authors to the information in regards to the current issues with Meta’s AI tool. Meta (Facebook) made the business decision to use a pirate website (LibGen) to train the tool. It’s an ethics issue as well as a legal one, because that means Meta used copywritten works without the author’s permission. Several law firms have already tackled the possibility of lawsuits. (FYI – I gave up pursuing pirate sites some years ago, tired of playing whack-a-mole. And yes, several of my books are on the above-mentioned site.)
Back to the original question – do I suffer from Automation Anxiety? It bothers me, not for myself, because I don’t support myself with my writing, but for other writers, I worry. Heaven knows, I don’t get enough attention on this blog to be concerned that AI is going to become my competition. However, there are fields in which it could affect jobs. (I’m thinking of technical and other non-fiction writing.)
But I don’t believe that AI is ready for prime time. I’ve read a few pieces I suspect were AI generated and found them boring, repetitive, and filled with all those phrases that an editor loves to hate. I’ve also heard the precautionary tales of AI generated legal briefs that made up the sources they sited. Not a good thing for a lawyer to present to a judge. That means AI can’t even be trusted for basic research.
How about the other authors on this hop? How do they feel about AI? Find out by following the links below.
And, as always, until next time, please stay safe.
March 24, 2025
Do you suffer from Automation anxiety? (the fear that advancements in technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, will lead to widespread job losses, rendering people’s skills obsolete and potentially leaving them unemployed, causing significant worry and stress about the future of work.)
It was George Orwell, in 1984, who suggested the “novel-writing machine.” It’s a shame that some readers didn’t realise that it was a story, not an instruction book.
“it was a story, not an instruction book.” I like that!
Orwell would have his head in his hands if only he knew.
Especially if he knew that his writings were being used to train AI.
We can’t stop progress. I hated the fact that AI took over my job, but at least it can’t write my stories if I don’t want it to.
And it’s sad that even the medical field is losing the human touch.
True, but the NHS is broken and cost cutting is rife.
Health care is broken in many places. So many advancements have been made in the field, but so many parts of patient health are neglected or ignored in favor of making money.
Agree.
Basing my analysis on history, I think cost savings results in capital (money) freed up and reinvested into new and better technologies that employ available and adaptable people. It was rough on people during the transition, but overall, the Industrial revolutions (because there was more than one and it’s still ongoing in third-world countries) resulted in a manifestly better standard of living for people than existed before.
Building computer chips with robots replaced thousands of workers building computer chips by hand, but the robots can build much smaller chips much faster, freeing the humans up to do other jobs. My son and his best friends, with their big male hands, were never going to get jobs building computer chips, but their mechanical knowledge and strong hands found work maintaining the robots making the computer chips. Now my son is a geo-tech at an Alaska mine where AI keeps the massive mining trucks from running the smaller human-operated trucks off the road, which required the mine to create new positions to monitor the AI. Meanwhile, his friend is an auto mechanic who uses AI to diagnose some of the problems with the cars, but often discovers the REAL problem behind the problem identified by the AI that would have just been a temporary bandaid fix guaranteeing future failure. That’s something he might not have had time to do if the AI weren’t pointing him in the right direction. And the dealership he works for had to create a couple of IT positions to make sure the AI continues working properly.
Meanwhile, I keep editing the AI-generated paragraphs of (something like) English that my managers send me because nobody talks like that and the goal of writing a report is for someone to read it, not to put someone to sleep.
See, already adapting!
the problem comes when companies, in order to save money, cut out the human element and rely entirely on AI. Like the letters you have to rewrite. Is it efficient for a human to intervene in the process? Would it save time to have you write them from scratch?
I’m so annoyed by yet another round of “let’s avoid paying the creatives” this time by Meta. You know, I’m not *that* expensive and those guy are rolling in it. Greedy b*stards. @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
Yes, our corporate overlords are getting greedier and greedier.
I just read Stevie’s post and she mentioned the hysterical mistakes she’s encountered in the medical field. I hear you on the long road to useful results. ChatGPT is notorious for flubbing. It’s a baby. So we shouldn’t be expecting collegiate dissertations. It’s hilarious, speaking of collegiate, that students still try to abuse it as if teachers can’t tell.
What I find funny is the tools that been developed to trach the use if AI in academic papers often give the wrong results, leaving students to try to find ways to defend their work.