In the September 2025 IWSG post I put forth my opinion regarding large language models like ChatGPT.

Hello and happy post Labor Day. It is now time for another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group as it is September of 2025. In the next few paragraphs, I'll describe to you how this all works. And if you decide that you would like to sign-up for the monthly blogfest yourself, you can go HERE to do so.

What is the purpose of the IWSG?: It is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds.

When does the IWSG post?: Those who are participating publish a post on their blogs on the first Wednesday of every month. This is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Ideas on what to write include talking about your doubts and the fears you have conquered, discussing your struggles and triumphs, and offering a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

You should plan to visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writers. The rule of thumb is to aim for a dozen new people each time and to return comments. This group is all about connecting. Keeping that in mind, be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post and please be sure your avatar links back to your blog. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

The X (Twitter) handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the September 3 posting of the IWSG are Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Diedre Knight!

Every month, the IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. If you'd like, you can submit your answer to the question in your IWSG post in lieu of writing something else. But remember that the question is optional!

September 3rd question - What are your thoughts on using AI, such as ChatGPT, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines\beats?

ChatGPT in my opinion is really powerful. I recently used it to create some online fiction, and though I had to proofread it thoroughly, I was blown away by how good it was and how well it could mimic my own writing. I'm actually convinced that it is powerful enough that were George R.R. Martin to use it, he could finish the books in a Song of Ice and Fire within a year, and no one but (maybe) experts would be able to tell. So...basically I'm saying that writers are at a crossroads. I just hope that people still learn to write and learn to compose, because without the guidance of a real person to steer it along, it will go off the rails. But in order to be a guide, you need to be educated. If I had to compare it to something, I'd say that these AI large language models are like having a magic typewriter. You still have to plug the ideas and the characters in and describe them, but once you do, and give the thing some instructions, it works like sorcery. Anyway, that's just my two cents. 

Thanks for visiting.

Let's talk about A.I. for the August 2024 Insecure Writer's Support Group post.

Hello everyone. It is time once again to air the insecurities and fears that we all have that comes from writing. But first, a little housekeeping with regard to the Insecure Writer's Support Group. This is a monthly blogfest that was started by best-selling science fiction author Alex Cavanaugh over a decade ago. It is a popular touchstone with writers, and if you are interested in participating in it, you can go HERE to sign up. And now, to answer a few questions that you might have....

What is the purpose of the IWSG?: It is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance.  In other words, it’s a safe space for insecure writers of all kinds.

When do you post?: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. On this day, you should post your thoughts on your own blog. Some ideas include 1) talking about your doubts and the fears you have conquered, 2) discussing your struggles and triumphs, and 3) offering a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

To get the most out of your participation in the IWSG, you should plan on visiting others in the group so that you can connect with your fellow writer. A good rule is to aim for a dozen new people each time, and you should comment on those blogs and return any comments you get on your blog. This group is all about connecting. Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

The X (Twitter) handle that is used by the group is @TheIWSG and the hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the August 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie, and Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen!

Every month, the IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

Remember, the question is optional!

August 7 question - Do you use AI in your writing and if so how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?

I don't think that I use any a.i. in my writing. However, I'm not so sure anymore as it has infused just about everything that I research online or look at online. But I certainly don't cut and paste from one thing to another. Now, where I have used it is for short snippets that I read out loud in my D&D game that runs on Saturdays. This is not something I consider writing. One such example might be a dream sequence that one of my player's wants for their character. Usually, I'm not too interested in the weird character choices that other people make, so pretending to have interest and just have a.i. write it up so I can read it out loud is a good way to make them happy and to make me happy at the same time. For example, I have one player who is a furry in my game (she has a fursona) and wants to have a romance with another rabbit person. 

That's not my cup of tea. But a.i. doesn't care, so I prompted it to write three paragraphs of a nice clean dream of the two rabbits chasing each other and being all rabbit like. I read it out loud and she really liked it. Cost me nothing, and I moved on with the game. I could give you a dozen or more examples of this kind of thing where I'm not interested at all. But, in 2024 I don't have to be interested. It takes ten seconds through ChatGPT and it sounds "good enough." I think that this is really where a.i. shines: it allows you to generate content that you would find exceptionally boring or uninteresting that another person really wants.

Artists have always been at the whim of their patrons in many ways. I imagine that quite a few artists over the years and centuries have needed to draw and/or paint things that they didn't find interesting at all just to get the money that they needed to be able to work on the projects that they really wanted to see to fruition. This is kinda what I'm talking about here. Artists no longer have to do that. A.I. is there to pick up the slack whenever there's a need for something that no one wants to do. That is its true strength. But yeah, I have never used it for my official writing.

Thanks for visiting my blog. 

Is A.I. going to replace writers? That's the question on this month's edition of the IWSG.

Welcome to the October 2023 edition of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Here's a LINK you can click on to sign-up (if you've somehow managed to land on my blog without already following one). And if you would like to know more, just keep on reading :).

What is the purpose of the Insecure Writer's Support Group?: It's to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds, so it's perfect for a lot of people actually :).

When do y'all post?: You may be able to tell, because of the date this post was published. But, the first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. To participate, you should post your thoughts on your own blog. You might want to talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered, or you could discuss your struggles and triumphs. If you can, offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling, and visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer. As a rule of thumb, you should aim for a dozen new people each time and return comments. This group is all about connecting. Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

Here's some more housekeeping:

The X (formerly known as Twitter) handle is @TheIWSG and the relevant hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the October 4 posting of the IWSG are Natalie Aguirre, Kim Lajevardi, Debs Carey, Gwen Gardner, Patricia Josephine, and Rebecca Douglass!

Every month, the people behind the IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. If you'd rather participate in this way, you should include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

But, remember, that the question is optional :).

October 4th question: The topic of AI writing has been heavily debated across the world. According to various sources, generative AI will assist writers, not replace them. What are your thoughts?

My opinion is that generative A.I. is incredible. It can draw better than me, it can write better than me, and it never gets tired. I think that people should watch their back. Going into any liberal arts related field is probably a one way ticket into poverty unless you have some privilege (for example, you're the son of Stephen King and just want to be an author). If that's the situation, then being a nepo baby is definitely the way to go. As far as already established authors that pull down big salaries already? A.I. is a boon, because it will allow them to have a book mill without ever admitting to it. I mean...these are the times of Trump. So admitting to anything is just slitting your own throat. Even if some program came back and said that "it is 99% probable that this is a.i. written," a smart person should just say "allegedly.

Anyway, my opinions can be controversial. But a.i. has seriously blown me away on what it can do. I also wouldn't be insecure about it. As an individual person, you have no power to affect anything. The genie is out of the bottle, so you should adapt and pull on those bootstraps. And yes, I think generative A.I. will replace writers (in case I wasn't clear), and I'm saying, "Lots of writers." Unless (of course) there's legislation to force the people who have money to continue to pay people who write. If that happens, then it won't.

It's unsettling how much A.I. has grown in just a few months.

 This week's issue of Time magazine has an interesting cover. I'll post it below for your enjoyment:

It's a great cover, attention grabbing, and the graphic designer of this cover did a great job provided they were human. I'm guessing that they were. The simplicity of it kind of speaks of a human job rather than one that was created by a machine. But these days the two are indistinguishable. Of course most of my concerns (I'd say about 99% of them) aren't around A.I. somehow annihilating humans like you see in the movies. Most of my concerns are actually critiques of capitalism, because A.I. easily replaces people in their jobs.

I was talking with a person the other day. This person isn't someone I regularly associate with, and to be honest, it isn't someone I like all that much. The reason? They were really arrogant, narcissistic, and selfish but they were somewhat physically stunning on the outside. This "veneer" of beauty has given them a privileged life, even being called "the golden boy" by relatives as an "aside," maybe to hide some veiled jealousy by a sibling that didn't get the bountiful gifts their brother did. This person is notoriously lazy, does very poor work in just about everything, but works out all the time, and has easily obtainable school credentials from a family that has money. When I caught up with them, they admitted on a conference call (it was a small one) that they use ChatGPT all the time. This doesn't surprise me. He even uses it for emails. In other words, his "expertise" that he was trained in is actually useless despite the huge salary he gets paid. But his employer has not caught on, and is happy with what he does for them. In fact, his employer (which is an enormous one in Utah) actually has banned the use of A.I. So this person just surreptitiously uses it on their cell and emails it to himself and then uploads that. A full day's work can be done in under a minute so he can go work out.

His take on A.I.? "It is wonderful. My productivity is amazing. It has made me a great employee and an even better expert on things." My take on A.I. with regard to him. "You are actually useless and not worth a dime. If I was your employer, I'd fire you, use ChatGPT, and just pay someone $15 an hour to do your job that you used to do." But my take is purely because this is how capitalism works. I actually hate capitalism...so I actually would not say this if I wasn't forced to play the game. But because I am forced to play the game, I think this is how the hammer should fall. And oh...by the way...this guy that relies on A.I. now is a full on capitalist. He actually thinks that he has skills that are still valuable. I would like nothing more than for people who are full on capitalists, and who jerk off to capitalism, to find themselves out of a job because of A.I. There would be some kind of schadenfreude I would experience right before the entire country slid off into the ditch, because this whole House of Cards would come tumbling down. Do I realize that I'd be a part of that collapse? Oh definitely I do. But if this is inevitable, then bring it on I guess.

However, do I wish there was a better way? Do I think there is a better way? Yeah, I do. But I think the steps our country would have to take would include embracing socialism, admitting that people are replaceable, and deciding as humans to support other humans. And this would mean increasing the social safety net and abolishing income inequality (which also means that we would need to tax the rich heavily). We'd have to get people to treat other people like equals. We'd have to get people to stop exploiting. Companies wouldn't be able to make as much money. People wouldn't be able to get such huge houses. There wouldn't be super yachts running around on the ocean all in service to one guy. Once humanity did all of that, then A.I. would be an amazing next step. But as it stands, none of the things I mentioned above are even possible because people want to think of themselves as elite. All you have to do is follow the Midjourney (A.I.) page on Facebook, and you'll see thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people who were (essentially) talentless who are now creating art and think of themselves as "elite" to the point that they want to/are trying to sell their art on Etsy and other places.

But it isn't their art. It was created by Midjourney and they typed in the prompt. But they think it is "theirs" because they came up with the idea. Real artists who go on that FB page and complain are chased out of there with virtual pitchforks. Many of the most vocal and adamant users of Midjourney say, "This has helped so much with my mental health! I was never able to draw but now I can realize everything I have ever wanted with this tool!!!" It's such an interesting turn of phrase. The word "tool" is used when Midjourney in fact was not a "tool." It did ALL of the work. That's like saying that a "Care Provider" is your tool when in fact, they got the ingredients, prepped the meal, cooked the meal, fed it to you, and then cleaned up afterwards." Sure...that's just a...tool...I guess. But we all know it isn't. If someone else goes to work for me and does my job while I sit at home and then turns over all of the money they made...that person isn't a "tool." At least that's not the word I'd use to describe what they are. We are getting into some weird realities here with the way people are embracing a thing that literally does all of the work.

The way I see it, for now all physical labor jobs that break your back and pay badly are not in danger. So woo hoo! Yay! You can still go and clean manholes, scrub toilets, and wipe people's butts and clean up dog poop. Those jobs are not what A.I. is going for. But if your job uses a computer, it's on the chopping block. The next ten years will be telling as the job report showed just on Friday that it has started. In the month of May, 3900 people were fired/replaced with A.I. What's that number going to be in May of 2026? That's only three years away? Look at how far we've come since February.

So what say you? Anyone else out there feeling the same things?