You're A Scab, AM
Or: Generative AI, Harlan Ellison, and paying the artist
There is a clip of Harlan Ellison in the documentary Dreams with Sharp Teeth, where, as was his wont, he races to have an aneurysm, yells “motherfucker!” and makes me feel like he is mad at me, specifically. This clip is exactly like most of his short stories in that way, except not award-winning.
If you are not aware of Harlan Ellison I will not shame you but know that he wrote a short story titled I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream— and if these titles about/by him frighten you, well, they should, and there is no other possible title for that story. Briefly, and understatedly; I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is a story about a super-intelligent, self-aware Artificial Intelligence named AM that has become the globe. It then dedicates the rest of its massive powers to putting the last five living humans through a literal Hell. The humans cannot die; AM won’t let them. They are perpetually starving; AM laughs at them. They spend a year blown about like ragdolls through industrial corridors by hurricane winds without letting up. An entire year. I am, again, understating how terrible all of this is. Reading it I felt like he was mad at me, specifically, and it is award-winning.
The “AI” we have today is banal compared to that of AM. Where AM was conscious, insane, and actively evil, ChatGPT (and other generative AIs) are passive unaware tools. AM was a consequence of our poorly spent time.
I never met Harlan Ellison, I was 31 years old and just about to publish my first book when he died, but I can say, without a picometer of doubt, that he would have hated ChatGPT just as powerfully as AM hated its human playthings—had he lived to see the damned thing.
In that clip I mentioned at the top, Harlan, “I don’t take a piss without being paid for it” Ellison recalls a time that the studio called him for permission to use an interview of him speaking about Babylon 5 (a show he consulted for and contributed to) to be used as a “special feature” for the upcoming DVD release, pro-bono. Ellison took exception to that…
Ellison, you see, was a guild member who once successfully sued ABC and Paramount for plagiarism. In a different instance, he also sued said Guild for not going to war for him. If you wanted his time or a single written word he insisted that you pay him. Why do anything pro-bono for Warner Bros? Surely they could pay for it! Their executives insisted on being paid, why shouldn’t he? Harlan Ellison was an asshole but he very passionately believed that he had to be one to get his rightful pay. His writing had won him more awards than I have the patience to list; he knew what it was worth. Just as the cameraman, the actor, and the executive get paid for their work, so too must the writer.
AM was a monstrosity of wires that wrought death on our planet and became Satan, custodian of Hell because humankind had the audacity to give it the ability to think. It, a soulless machine, resented itself, yet resented us more. Throughout the story, it dangles the promise of food over its starved playthings. Eventually, in an ice cave, those playthings find canned food. AM does not give them a can opener.
The narrator, in a moment too quick for AM to intervene, kills his “companions”. It is, yes, a mercy kill, but more importantly it spites AM.
AM no longer has his toys.
In turn, AM transforms the narrator into “…a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be.”
When the short story made it to paperback (along with some other of Ellison’s stories) this is the cover that sold it:
Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (they were married), the cover is as haunting as the story. Only something that looked like it would be right at home with Huroninous Botch’s madness could dare to match the venomous tone of the I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Leo and Diane Dillon knew the assignment for which they were paid and they knocked it out of the park.
Remember that bit when I said I felt that Ellison was specifically mad at me? In that clip, Ellison certainly hates being asked to give something away for free to a company that should pay for it, but he is seemingly more angry that other, more amateurish writers, had given in to such demands. The amateur, in falling for the con of “being paid in publicity” had given the rich corporation an expectation that the service that they provided was, in fact, worthless.
Though it may not be the amateur’s intention, they had effectively undercut the professional—and thus had made it harder for him to be paid. Frankly, Ellison was being a dick about it. But he’s right. Further, Ellison was no scab. He’s yelling because a monolithic company dangled the promise of food over its starved writers, and now that they’ve danced for free the company withholds the can opener. Just like AM. The naive amateur does not eat, Ellison does not eat.
It is understandable, hell, even relatable, that the amateur works for the promise of “making it” later. I think, as writers, we have all been there. Writing as a profession for many, myself included, is a childhood dream. The ultimate aspiration. Having that novel or screenplay picked up, read, seen, loved, or hated… and then to make a living off of it? No more tossing pizza, no more soul-killing sales work, no more shitty phone centers or office meetings— and all due to creativity? Shit, that’s something to feel desperate for. Harlan yells because “they” know you are desperate. You’ll walk a thousand kilometers to the ice caves for those cans. You’re starving.
Undervalue the price of your own art and you undervalue all art.
This is the part where I now yell at you.
You know who else shares your goal to live off of creativity? Artists, illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, and all of the other dreamers who dare to dream; every time you use a generative AI service to create a book cover or a thumbnail for your writing instead of paying or trading a starved artist to do so your actions demonstrate that their services are worthless—and you hurt yourself in the process. Why should I, or any other reader, take your writing seriously or even begin to think about paying for it when the cover was generated for free? Those images, like the Illustration by Leo and Diane Dillon above, are the faces of your work. Not only do people judge a book by its cover, but they judge the cover by its quality.
Your writing is also now suspect, at best, when paired with a generated thumbnail. You could not be bothered to hire a friend or a professional to make you a thumbnail? Could not barter? You could not be bothered to learn the skills necessary to do it yourself? Why am I to believe then, that the content within, the very writing that you wish to make your dream possible, is not generated by ChatGPT itself? You hit one “free button”, after all…
Sure, that last point may be rendered moot very soon. Generated images will get better. Their telltale signs will disappear. We’ll accept them, if only bitterly. However, this will not change: you are undercutting the artist by using one.
Like Ellison, Leo and Dianne were award-winning. They made Children’s book illustrations and covers for books and magazines. Their art, and success, were just as dependent on the publishing world as Ellison’s and as such their own success was just as at risk as Ellison’s if undercut “by the amateur”.
If you are the proverbial struggling writer aspiring for your own success wouldn’t you want to help the next Dianne and Leo with their own dreams and rise together?
I won’t pretend that the landscape or economy we live in now is the same as that which Ellison and the Dillions worked in. The publishing world is not the grand monolith it once was, doing things “the traditional way” works only for a lucky few. Video killed the radio star, “content” killed the video jockey, and thus AI will soon kill the content creator. The business of media and its consumption is an entirely different beast than it once was.
I also won’t pretend that companies have changed their attitudes.
The studios, the publishing houses, social media giants, and all of their ilk no longer have to ask you, the writer or illustrator, to undercut the professional in exchange for exposure. With LLM’s they can undercut your peers faster than you ever could. I’m willing to bet that they want you to think that they don’t need you anymore to make you more desperate, and thus ever more grateful when they offer you that canned food. That, I think, is the point. Not to replace writers as readers still want human art, but to make the writer know they are easily replaceable. Better still to let the creatives cheapen their brothers and sisters with the same tools. There is still space to insist on making money on your writing, however, If you insist on being paid (like Ellison) but use generative AI for a thumbnail or cover, what you are doing is undercutting another creative. And that’s some amateur shit.
M.P. Fitzgerald is the author of A Happy Bureaucracy, a post-apocalyptic parody novel. He writes darkly humorous sci-fi.
The story was also made into a point and click adventure game, which is awesome, but it was hard and I never got past the first chapter.
i wasn't convinced when i read the title, but this was such an amazing way to put it into perspective!