Welcome to the “AI Free Zone”
While AI gains steam in many areas, we’re steering clear here
Welcome, dear humans! This is a celebration of those humans who are committed to foregoing any involvement of AI technology in our creative efforts.
Almost a year ago I began speaking out about that technology (large language models, i.e., LLMs) commonly called “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI.” The danger was clear then, and it is even more so now. In fact, many of the things I was concerned about then have come to pass. But all is not lost, as this AI free zone will show.
Your published works are being soaked up in these LLMs usually without your knowledge, consent, and compensation. On the contrary, these “sucked up” works are then being used to generate stories, novels, even images, bass riffs, video techniques, etc. to mimic the originals used to “train” them (that is, to modify the programming to spit out things).
To attempt countering this, writer @K.M. Bennett suggests we include an “anti training” line in our published works:
But of course the AI might be trained to include this, too, as a fooler, or platforms such as Amazon may not want to publish anything containing that line.
One great thing you, as a reader and fan of great writing, can do is to support those creatives (writers, designers, photographers, etc.) that are dedicated to keeping their work human.
What Constitutes Human Created
I asked what I thought was a simple question: Do you use any AI in your work? The responses showed things were a lot more slippery than that. Basically, any use of AI is problematic. But the worst is when it creeps into your writing.
The writing process includes:
Researching*
Outlining
Plotting
Character descriptions/development
Text generation (even just a sentence)
*I have recently learned that Google, which I don’t use, has incorporated AI in their search engine. AI is programming and has been set to give you a false response if it can’t find real information (I have seen documentaries on this). That means it makes things up. Best to steer clear if you can. I use Startpage.com for my online searches. It doesn’t track them or have any AI (to my knowledge). Then I take the time to go through the search results (the “hits”) and compare information across several sites. Takes more time but saves putting something false in my work.
Also note that Grammarly now uses some AI. Since AI is set to give false responses if it doesn’t have a real answer, this doesn’t sound useful.
As for AI-generated images, I have spoken out against them quite a lot as an artist. But I also understand that some of you find it necessary. Writers who don’t use AI in their writing process but do find AI images necessary are on the Mostly AI Free Zone list, just as a way of splitting this up.
Sadly, many writers are no longer listed. They either said they use AI some way in the writing process above, or they did not respond to my query. No judgment intended here. I just prefer to promote HUMAN endeavors.
Authors Who Keep It Human
As
said (I paraphrase), we have to take their word that they do not use any AI technology in their work, either text, images, video, music, or other. The people here have given me their word, and I accept them as true.I will be spotlighting a selection of their works in separate posts as frequently as time allows.
– The Exhilarated Tribe – Former addict writing about addiction – creative non-fiction – Ink & Poesy Publishing – A.P. Ward’s Literary Fiction – Short fiction, poetry – Love Letters from the Divine – Turn on the Light – Murder, mystery, sex, romance, sci-fi, horror – Word Associations – Bella & The Beast – Westerns, neo-westerns, horror, book/movie reviews, essays – TV’s Moral Philosophy (non-fiction), I Am The Bucket (comic book in progress) – Centenary: 100-Word Stories from Living Well Towers – The Lyrical High‑Fantasy Library – High fantasy author – The Asheville Hustle – Quiet Little Journeys – Cicada Cult – Blood and Thunder Newsletter – New Pulp sword & sorcery series "Fereya" – Meet Me at Xenia – Pen of Ben – A Very Narrow Bridge – Writer Fully Alive – Everywhere and Nowhere: Explore Fantastic Worlds (with help from faerie ancestors) – Reina’s Substack – The Writer's Journey – Keyboard Addict – Fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, reality fiction, essays – Writing on a Whim – My Head is Unraveling – Horror writer, book reviewer – Horror Weekly – The World from a Chef’s Perspective – Dead Heretic – Cyberpunk, Science fiction – C.P. Night’s Myriadu – Science fiction/fantasy (seen on @The Library) – VILE SELF PORTRAITS, THE BARMAN – A Weekly Dose of Fiction – Blackspire – Official Trainwrecks – Writing, photographs – Lit Smithery – Remote Control – Writer, illustrator; essays, reviews, flash fiction, serialized long fiction – misguidedwriter – IronAge Media contributor – The Eclectic Reader – Tales of the Zeitgeist – Contemporary fiction, humor, horror, Science fiction (host of the new fun event every Wednesday House of Haiku, and follow him on Notes to see his clever and often amusing responses to ’s prompts as well as humor bits) – The Amazing Adventures of Tortoise & Gecko – Fantasy – Past the Dragon – Ars Corvi – Gothic, noir – From the Source – DAPPER ZMEY – reluctant sleuth – Murder mysteries set in small towns in Canada – Richard’s Substack – Writer, poet – The Dragon's Den – Exploring the Eyrie – The Story Scrapbook – Lotis Heroes Musings – Pinebox Readings – Elliot Kessler | Sci-Fi Author – Science fiction, fantasy – Avenue Oh – The Eye of the Storm – Romance, erotica, horror, gamelit – All the Fanfare – The Eternal Art – Crossbite – Poetry – Senchas Claideb – Pulp fiction, sword & sorcery fantasy, cosmic horror, historical fiction – Tales at Twilight – Speculative stories with dark edge, humor – Frederick Fullerton’s Meanderings – Raconteur, translator, amateur photographer – Making by the Law in Which We're Made – A Symposium of Fire – Poetry, things that shouldn't be forgotten – Pen Marks – The Positive Echo – The Distractionist; Palette & Pentacles – Grace’s Spook Show – Games of Awareness, You'll Never Walk Alone – New Life for the Past – Historical thriller – Moonlight Bard’s Rhapsody in Realms – A Work of Fiction – Novels, Comics and Webcomics – Fragments and Pieces – Heather in the Blue Mountains – The Slanted Shelf – Opinions on books, culture – Medieval Musings – Medieval history, historical fiction – The Joke's on You – Humor (essays, short stories, etc.) – Three Hundred Tang Poems – The Word Dump – Fantasy (and humor) – They don’t all have to be good – Long Oddities – Flyover Valley – Science fiction, action, adventure (seen on ) – The Indian Story – Wolf Tracks Substack – Author, recording artist – Penny Wagers – Grim Acres – Science fiction, military fiction tales – And Now, A Sonnet – Jane Dougherty's Bestiary – Fiction & Fables – Jay's Substack – Writing in BloodInk – Reader, writer, reluctant accountant – Bent Eye – Fiction, poetry, photographs – Zuko’s Musings – Personal essays, non-fiction – Autumn Lives Here – JENOVIA'S WEB – Monster of the Week – All Day Long – Writing Wrongs – The Conservative Historian – writer of essays on life, book reviews – Harshbarger Mills by Joan Spilman – Jodie Beckford – Joel’s Creative Garden: CASCADE and Life of Bāo – John’s Substack – The Shattered Moon's Substack – Science fiction romance, etc. – Metrosideros – Crann na beatha (ignore the weird header images, they don’t show up when you go to his posts - fab writing) – The Tidewater Papers – Science fiction – The Storyteller’s Corner – Joyce's Place – The Water Is So Wide – Serialized fiction (posts every other Friday) – Cactus Flowers – A Writing Journey | Kaci Rigney – Writer, singer, poet – Damsel in the Library – Story Notes – Weekly newsletter about writing – The Fantastic and Mundane Chronicles of a Fantasy Writer – Poetry – The KATacombs – Poetry, hand-drawn art featuring cats – The Old Mountain Man – Notes from the End of Time with Kenaz Filan – Worlds of Kummer Wolfe ("Oh, by Crom is it human written…") – The Trials of Astra – Fantasy – SplatterFunk– Experimental artists, short fiction – Glass Half Full – Laura R. Hepworth - Bookwyrms – Fantasy, a little Science fiction, some non-fiction – My Bradbury Year – The Môrdreigiau Chronicles – Historical romantasy – Writing From Weird – Halcyon Horror – Artistic Mystic Soul – Mechanical Pulp – Short stories, poetry, SFF-leaning mostly, other genres; 2 books out, another coming, completed serial – World of Warfield – Epic fantasy – DISTILLIST. – Visual design, poetry, stories – Graphomania with M.P. Fitzgerald – Darkly humorous Science fiction & horror – The Vaporous Realms – Poetry – I'm Not Crazy, I Promise… – Short, flash, experimental fiction – The Magic Lantern – Sapphic Pages – Sapphic psychological thrillers – TOO TALL TALES, gone2plaid – Middle Grade Reading - 8-12+ yrs old – Fantasy – The Roll Top Desk – Mysteries, essays about writing – Writings And Reflections – Essays about writing – Magical Musings with MeBrady – World building, life, chat, & a cup of tea – A Stream of Consciousness; Mythscape; Myth and Meaning – D. A. Kelly, PhD is author & 2nd gen SF fan – Attention Span Labs – Science fiction (and some really rocking art by ArtAnon and his wife Shell Presto) – Soft Contacts with the Wonders of the World: Travel Memoirs – A Shadow of Yew – Spread Love, Only Love – On Behalf of the Void – Poetry – The Syntaxes of Metaphysics – Travel: NE Where – Plotted Out – Cornish fantasy & dark humor – Battlegrounds+ – Author, journalist – The Chemical Mind – Stories of our fascination with the Brain – This Nick Writes – Living a Principled Life, Tranith Argan Fantasy Series – Stories with a touch of the fantastic – Speculative Fiction and Dark Tales | Nocturnal Narrator – Dark speculative fiction, builds interactive worlds to tell strange stories – Stories by Orin – Words and Pictures by Pamela Leavey – Writer, photographer – My Own Little World – Attorney, writer, photographer, painter, worried about AI scraping/theft – R.J. Huneke’s Insight Into Writing | Insight Into Writing – Fantasy, action thrillers; writes as D.A. RandallRebecca Collins –
– Poetry – ReddOscarWrites – Fantasy, science fiction, and horrorRen –
– Crowhill Cove – Author & ghostwriter of 100+ published books, photographer, chief editor – Fragments from…R.L. Glover – Stories Have Power – Fantasy – Listening Sessions – Robert Collins' Author Substack – Science fiction, fantasy (draws own covers) – Robert Garron's Substack – Science fiction, non-traditional fantasy, speculative fiction, weird fiction (draws own covers) – Wildlands – Research-backed writing about health, well-being and connection with nature. – Robin Reardon Writes – LGBTQ+ fiction – The Oort Cloud - Science Fiction Stories – Science fiction, world builder – Saint-Lazare, Writer; Saint-Lazare’s Substack – Free Words – A Busy Lady – Son of Ugly – Writer's Odyssey – Not Necessarily Deep Thoughts – Writer, editor, audio, narrator, kid raiser – LEAVES – The Writer's Walk – Author, writer's coach, editor – Studio Diaries – Postcards from the Abyss – Stella Maris Designs – Steve's Substack – So Much Stuff – Literary fiction, creative non-fiction – Swing's Substack – Tayler's Substack, Moondust Productions – Thin Air Fiction – Bros Krynn’s Newsletter – Fantasy fiction, essays – Reimagining classic monsters – Tales of Calamity and Triumph – The Pro Wrestling Exuberant – Tales of the Unexpected – Windflower – Necessary Fiction – Action-packed, heartfelt stories – Soaring Twenties, The Soaring Twenties Social Club, The Commonplace – TnTCreationz by Tiffanie – Great cover art and more – Loves & Lies Lit – Letters from Elder Ridge, Graffridge Publishing (serialized novels) – Romantic Suspense, Murder Mysteries, Paranormal Romance, Romantic Suspense – Trial & Error – The Power of Change – Essays – The Travisphere – The Bingo Killer series author – poet | madwoman | wanderer – Vanessa’s Substack – Poetry – A Serial Assemblage of Words – Vivian’s Substack – Blackspire – Happy Tales – Lessons about writing she’s learned from her dog – Heavy is the Headset – The WAC Attack; Wirrowac; Wirrowac After Dark; Wirrowac, Development Hell – Written Tales Magazine – Kevin, editor – YUCK! Travel Magazine – Science fiction humor – Poetic LicenceFinal Note
If we are to preserve creativity, we humans must eschew any and all AI technology. Help that by committing to not using any AI technology in any way and/or supporting those who do.
By the way, spellcheckers are just programs that compare what you type with what’s on their list of words. I mention this because some people have indicated that they have been told spellcheckers are AI.
Please check out my author website. And thanks for reading.
No portion of this work may be used for training artificial intelligence without written permission from the author.
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My five totally human created books (so far) from Wordwooze Publishing:
NEW! From the Files of Fontaine Investigations – paranormal mystery
The Greeting Card Girl’s Christmas – a sweet romance novel for the holiday season (ebook, paperback, and soon on audio).
Wind Down the Chimney and Other Eerie Tales – my first book of eerie short stories (ebook, paperback, audio).
The Stardust Alliance and More – my second book of eerie stories with a touch of Sci-Fi (ebook, paperback, audio).
The Wiccan Tales – a novel and a real Halloween treat (ebook, paperback, audio).
(All human written. I even designed the covers.)
See them all here:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Thalia (German) ebook & print | Smashwords | Angus & Robertson: | Mondadori (Italian) | Vivlio (French/English) | Fable
Audio versions:
Wind Down the Chimney | The Stardust Alliance | The Wiccan Tales | The Greeting Card Girl's Christmas
You're providing a great service to authors. Thank-you!
Thanks. Great to know so many AI free writers on Substack