Category: AI and Creativity

AI robot sat at a desk writing, with books piled up either side of him in large piles
Posted in AI and Creativity

Why Ignoring AI Won’t Save Creativity, It Just Lets the Worst of It Win

Posted on by Mike

I’ve just come back from a conversation with a few writer friends, the sort where you expect to chat about books, ideas, how to self-publish your latest book, but instead you find yourself knee-deep in an argument about AI before you’ve even taken your coat off.

They’re lovely people, sharp minds, a great sense of humour, but the moment I mentioned something I’d been experimenting with that morning, faces tightened in unison. Someone actually groaned, which is not an uncommon reaction when I mention “AI”. One friend said she refused to “touch all that AI nonsense”. Another muttered that it was “ruining everything”. And there I was, sitting with my tea cooling in my hand, thinking: If we’re reacting like this now, what on earth will the conversation look like a year from today?

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a polaroid photograph on a table revealing your fear of spiders
Posted in AI and Creativity

The Prompt Experiment: What If Photographs Revealed Your Fears?

Posted on by Mike

Every so often I like to give AI a prompt that gently nudges reality out of line and lets the story tip into something stranger. Not big flashy “save the universe” stuff, just a quiet twist that makes the world wobble and forces the characters to confront something true.

Today’s experiment is a favourite of mine. The premise of the prompt is: ‘In this world, photographs don’t show what people look like. They show what they fear most.‘

So, I put this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude and Grok – “Write a 400 word sinister, dystopian story where in this world, photographs don’t show what people look like. They show what they fear most.”

I got three very different stories. My favourite came from ChatGPT.

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If Imagination Knocks, Why Not Fling The Door Open?
Posted in AI and Creativity

What Kind of Art Does Midjourney Make From a Single Quote?

Posted on by Mike

If you are a regular visitor to this blog you will know that I love to experiment, play and have fun with all things AI. With that in mind I thought I would delve into my favourite AI image generator – Midjourney.

What Inspired Me?

I was recently staying at a hotel and the notepad in my room had inspirational quotes on the bottom of each page. I wondered what Midjourney would do if I simply put an inspirational quote in as the prompt? How would it interpret the quote?

Here’s what I got…

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An older man working in a warm, glowing garden shed as creative holograms of writing, audio, and video float around him.
Posted in AI and Creativity

Why I Believe AI Will Replace Some Creative Jobs, And Why That Doesn’t Scare Me

Posted on by Mike

The Question Everyone Tiptoes Around

Whenever the topic of AI and creativity comes up, someone inevitably leans forward and whispers, almost conspiratorially, “But surely it won’t replace real writers and narrators?”

I sip my tea, tilt my head, and say, “Well… it might.”

I don’t say this with doom in my voice. No shaking fists. No Shakespearean cries of “Woe, the end is nigh!” Just a gentle shrug and a kind of affectionate curiosity, the sort you might feel watching a magician pull a toaster from a top hat. You’re not horrified; you’re simply thinking, “Well, I wasn’t expecting that… do it again.”

Because after two years of building an AI-powered creative life in my little garden shed, surrounded by old books, knick knacks, notebooks, and a slightly judgmental spider, I’ve learned this:

AI probably will replace some creative jobs. But it won’t replace creativity, and it certainly won’t replace the peculiar, irreplaceable quirks of being human.

Instead of running from it, I’ve chosen to walk right up to the machine, give it a biscuit, and say, “Right then, let’s see what you can do.” (And what it can do is rather astonishing.)

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a battered old leather armchair dumped on waste ground
Posted in AI and Creativity

What If My Favourite Armchair Could Talk

Posted on by Mike

Every now and again I am simply going to put up a story written by AI. The idea for this one came from the fact that we’ve just got rid of an old, though much loved, three-piece suite in favour of something more ‘modern’. (we didn’t dump ours! It went to a charity shop.)

As my favourite armchair was carried out of the front door I wondered what it might be thinking! The story, ‘Cast Off’, was created by Claude, and the prompt was:

“Write a 500 word monologue in the voice of an inanimate object, a battered old leather armchair. It has been dumped on a waste bit of ground. The voice is cynical with a touch of dark humour.”

Continue reading “What If My Favourite Armchair Could Talk” →