The discussions in some book forums are truly out of this world. Sometimes I feel like the people starting these conversations have been living under a rock for decades, because the posts about AI are absolutely hilarious.
I feel the internet is stuck in a loop; like watching people in the 1980s react to mobile phones all over again. “This machine will steal my family!” Relax, Uncle. It’s just a Nokia.
Today, the same energy has shifted to AI. Except here’s the twist: half the people panicking don’t even know what AI actually is.
Let’s get one thing straight: The correct word everyone should be using is AUTOMATION.
AI is just a tiny part of the giant automation universe; like that one kid in class who gets all the attention for no reason while the rest of the class (algorithms, scripts, robotics, rule-based systems) quietly does all the boring work.
But of course, AI is the one we blame for everything; from stealing jobs to stealing creativity to stealing girlfriends (I’m sure someone has written that post by now).
AI HAS BEEN AROUND FOREVER, YOU JUST DIDN’T NOTICE
AI most definately isn’t the Enemy , Ignorance Is.
People scream “AI is taking over!” as if it was invented last Tuesday.
If anyone out there still believes that printing your manuscript and physically mailing it to a literary agent or publisher somehow still works for everyone, I’m afraid I have no advice for that kind of nostalgia. Both literary agents and publishers have evolved. Unless you’re Christopher Nolan, who famously shares his scripts only in hard copy with actors, you’re out of luck. Technology is no longer optional; it’s the only way forward.
And even if you’ve never actively used AI, you’ve likely been interacting with it for years, passively. Remember January 22, 2004, when Orkut launched? That’s right, you’ve already met a form of AI. Social media feeds, friend suggestions, and content recommendations? Early AI in action.
Yes Orkut.
It pre-dated Facebook by just a month but beat Instagram by several years. In many ways, it was the blueprint for everything I later called “social media.” Orkut was a massive hit in India and Brazil before Facebook took over and Orkut quietly withered away. Yet its recommendation engine, friend suggestions, and feed behaviour were all early versions of the same algorithms we scroll past today without even thinking.
So if you’re terrified of AI today but happily spent years on Orkut, Facebook, and Instagram… let’s just say you’ve already been dancing with AI for two decades; you just didn’t know it:
- Your Facebook feed? Algorithm.
- Your Amazon book recommendations? Algorithm.
- Your smartwatch telling you your heart is doing bhangra? AI + automation.
- Grammarly fixing your “your/you’re” crisis? Automation.
If you’ve ever used spellcheck in Microsoft Word or any other MS product, congratulations, you’ve already used a baby version of AI.
Why is AI acceptable in hospitals and aviation but not in writing?
This is where it gets hilarious.
People trust AI to:
- detect cancer,
- analyse medical reports,
- assist in surgeries,
- predict health risks,
- even fly a plane,
…but the moment someone uses AI to draft a story, suddenly the world ends.
“NOOO, this robot will steal my creativity!”
Meanwhile doctors are like,
“Bro, this thing literally saved your lungs.”
Even pilots are like:
“Buddy, if you’ve ever been on an airplane, a tiny piece of automation called autopilot has been flying you safely around the world for decades.”
We trust automation, aka AI, for some things without a second thought, yet panic when it shows up in other areas.
I’m sure audiences and theatre actors alike must have felt the same awe, and perhaps a bit of disbelief, when motion pictures were first shown in theatres.
Human priorities are absolutely wild. Because here’s the truth: Technology never stays in one lane.
What starts in one field eventually trickles into others.
Nuclear power is the perfect example: It was once built for destruction, and today it’s used to power entire cities, run submarines, and even help in medical treatments.
If that’s not proof that tools evolve, and humans evolve with them, then what is?
Writers still need to work ; AI won’t add Masala (spices) for You
Let’s be honest: an AI-generated first draft is basically boiled vegetables.
Edible? Yes.
Enjoyable? Calm down.
Any Tom, Dick, or Harry can chop vegetables and throw together a dish. But have you ever wondered why the same dish tastes completely different at different restaurants… or why it tastes one way when your mom cooks it and very differently when your sister does? (We don’t need to declare which one is better, you already know.)
And that’s the whole point when it comes to AI.
AI can give you the ingredients. It can even assemble a basic dish. But for it to actually taste like something a human would enjoy, a real person has to step in and add the soul — the creativity, the emotion, the storytelling, the masala.
Without that human touch, AI output is just chopped vegetables. With it, it becomes a meal worth serving.
Believe it or not, a real writer still has to:
- season it with emotion,
- add drama tadka (tempering),
- sprinkle humour,
- sauté the plot holes,
- and make sure characters don’t behave like confused NPCs.
Posting an AI draft as-is is like serving khichdi (the humble rice-and-lentil porridge usually reserved for the sick) at a wedding buffet: technically edible, but utterly spiritually illegal.
And please, let’s not compare the OpenAI tools we “lesser mortals” use with the hyper-advanced AI models used in major film studios. That’s like comparing your phone calculator to NASA’s mission-control computers.
Those high-end models are custom-built by specialists, designed for very specific production tasks, and cost more money than most of us will ever see in one lifetime. Not to mention they require serious technical knowledge to operate, so no, your laptop and ChatGPT are not in the same league.
“AI will steal my work!” … Only if you leave it on the road
This one cracks me up.
People scream about AI stealing their writing… while posting their entire manuscript online on unprotected sites.
My friend, if you leave your wallet on the sidewalk, don’t blame technology when someone picks it up.
If you want your content to stay protected, the best approach is to use platforms that offer subscription-based or gated content. AI models, including ChatGPT and similar tools, rely on publicly available data to “learn” and generate outputs. Content behind a paywall, subscription, or secure platform isn’t accessible to them, which means your manuscript, story, or creative work is effectively shielded.
Think of these platforms as gated communities for books. Only paying members, or authorized readers, can access the content, and scraping tools can’t bypass these protections. Services like KDP Select, Kobo Plus, and Inkitt provide this kind of secure publishing environment, allowing writers to share their work safely while still reaching an audience.
This approach also gives you control over distribution, reduces the risk of plagiarism, and ensures that your creative effort isn’t “mined” by AI for free. In short: if you want AI to stay out of your manuscript, don’t leave the gate open.
You want to be replaced by AI or by someone who uses AI better?
Let’s be real: AI isn’t here to replace you. It’s here to replace your excuses.
Every time someone uses AI and becomes 10x more efficient, productive, or creative, another human somewhere throws a tantrum online.
This isn’t about AI being powerful. It’s about humans being salty.
AI is here to stay, whether you like it or not
So you have two choices:
Option A
Learn what AI actually is, figure out how automation works, use these tools, adapt, evolve.
Option B
Sit in a corner, refuse to learn anything, and write posts about “the death of creativity” while everyone else moves on.
There is never going to be an alternate universe where humanity suddenly decides to abandon technology and go back to the old ways. That’s just not who we are. Technology will keep evolving because human beings are thinkers, tinkerers, and inventors. New tools will continue to show up in our lives, like it or not.
What is in our control is how we adapt to these changes, how we learn them, and how effectively we choose to use them.
Spoiler: The future will not slow down to match your comfort zone.
Relax, we survived calculators too
When calculators arrived, people said students would stop thinking.
When spellcheck arrived, people said grammar would die.
When mobile phones arrived, people said the world would collapse.
It didn’t. We just adapted.
Let’s get this straight: companies will use AI and AI-driven automation to cut costs, if the technology exists, businesses will use it to make more money. But will we ever see a Wall-e like scenario where humans just sit idle while robots do everything? I highly doubt it. It’s in human nature to stay engaged; physically, mentally, creatively. I can’t imagine a future where we willingly give up our ability to think, decide, and act.
Sure, some tasks may shift to machines, but the question is: to what extent? That part remains to be seen.
The truth is, AI, just a small piece of the larger automation puzzle, is simply the next step in our evolution.
You can either keep yelling at it like an angry uncle in the 80s yelling at a mobile phone…or you can learn it, use it, and maybe even enjoy the ride.
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