Will AI replace creators? After trying NovelAI’s image generation, Utsudo found its composition skills strong, though details like limbs and fingers often went wrong. Rather than worrying about being replaced, she suggests treating AI as a tool—for example, to help with backgrounds and lighting, or to fill in the parts of writing you’re weaker at. There’s no need to reduce new technology to black and white; what matters is thinking about how to coexist with it.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

AI is disrupting every industry

At some point, the term “AI (artificial intelligence)” started appearing everywhere. In any industry, just attaching the word makes something seem trendy.

From books, newspapers and magazines to Mr. & Mrs. Gao’s videos, everyone’s saying AI will replace many jobs. Many professions may disappear in the future, replaced by more new professions that never existed before.

In other words, future technology may go far beyond what we can imagine—just as twenty years ago we couldn’t imagine everyone being glued to their phones.

I’m hopeful about that future, but I also have some worries. AI will only replace some jobs for now, but what about later? There might be fiction AI or art AI—will creators’ jobs be replaced too? Just as I was worrying, I found these already exist; they’re just in English for now.

My experience trying AI image generation

Then someone in my group happened to use an AI art tool:

Image Generation – NovelAI

This AI seems to come with a fiction tool, generating images to match a story’s plot. There are very detailed explanations online of how to use it, so I won’t go into that here.

After playing with it for a bit, I found AI art more impressive than I’d imagined. Composition rarely fails, and anything from the neck up almost never goes wrong. But details like limbs and fingers are more problematic—sometimes weird images show up with three arms XD

As for fiction AI, I haven’t tried it yet because it’s only in English for now. I’ll try it once there’s a Chinese version and share my thoughts!

Instead of worrying about being replaced, use it as a tool

Back to the topic. Some people worry illustrators will be “replaced by AI.” After trying it, I think AI is indeed powerful, but it still has plenty of bugs that need manual fixing. People who can finish a piece using only AI are probably a tiny minority.

Rather than worrying about being replaced, think about how to use it as a tool—for example, combining AI to improve backgrounds and lighting, strengthening your weak spots while you learn.

I think as AI matures, it will indeed impact some artists and designers. But in an era when everyone can be an illustrator, works by top artists may be seen as even more valuable. So what matters more is thinking about how to climb up and become irreplaceable.

Will fiction AI replace novelists?

So when people ask whether I’m worried about fiction-writing AI, I think it’s too early to worry. Maybe you could use AI for the parts you’re weaker at, like fight scenes or intimate scenes, then revise them into your own work. Isn’t that an application too?

Of course some may raise objections: does that still count as your own work?

I don’t know. But I don’t think it needs to be reduced to black and white. Facing such a powerful new technology, acceptance is still generally low, and in a panic people tend to resist it blindly.

But I think in the future there will be even more works that combine AI with creativity. Facing this trend, besides blind resistance, there are more important lessons to learn: how to use these tools and make them our right hand. It’s not about one side being eliminated or boycotted, but about complementing each other to create better works. That’s the way to survive.

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Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #163: If I Spend Less Time Writing Books, Am I Still a Novelist?
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.