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Last month at the Realm Makers Expo, we met many skilled Christian creators who are making amazing stories in books, games, and the visual arts. Yet some people believe all this stuff is pointless or outdated and will soon be replaced by so-called “AI art.” Are they right? Will computer-generated content outpace art made by humans? And is such a belief even biblically defensible?

Episode sponsors

1. Enclave Publishing: Winter’s Chill by Morgan L. Busse
2. The Waymaker’s Foresight by Dan Megill
3. Above the Circle of Earth by E. Stephen Burnett

Mission update

• New at Lorehaven: reviews of Winter’s Chill, upcoming Unfixed
• Also new at the site: Josiah DeGraaf’s take on the recent Superman movie
• Subscribe free to get updates and join the Lorehaven Guild

Quotes and notes

“When you meet anything that’s going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.”
—Mr. Beaver from C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“Ginny! … Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain?”
—Arthur Weasley from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

… Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.
—The Bible, Joshua 8:26 (ESV)

• Ep 170. Will Artificial Intelligence Destroy Human Creativity?
• Showrunner: the “Netflix of AI” that would let people make their own TV shows
• Build AI or Be Buried By Those Who Do

Concession stand

• This is a conversation for story fans, yet with some application for creators.
• Stephen has and will use AI for databases and limited nonfiction research.
• However, he still insists this “search engine” give reliable primary sources.
• We at Lorehaven promote stories #MadeByHumans, covers and content.
• We may debate using AI generations in marketing for novels and movies.
• Stephen opposes this; we already have anti-human marketing now, thanks!
• AI can shape directions of outreach, yet fans want personal connections.
• Any justifications for generated marketing can easily apply to the stories.
• We’ll particularly speak below to critiques of “AI will level the playing field.”

1. AI ‘art’ dishonors popular creators

• Fans, authors, and publishers are debating how/whether to use AI tools.
• Some take some anti “big corporation” postures against Hollywood, etc.
• This frankly ignores the common grace in big companies across the world.
• It promotes a false notion of “democracy” that ignores wisdom and skill,
• This is the exact notion promoted by Screwtape with “I’m as good as you.”
• It’s more famously promoted by Syndrome from The Incredibles (2004):

“Oh, I’m real. Real enough to defeat you! And I did it without your precious gifts, your oh-so-special powers. I’ll give them heroics. I’ll give them the most spectacular heroics anyone’s ever seen! And when I’m old and I’ve had my fun, I’ll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super! And when everyone’s super (evil laugh) no one will be.”

2. AI ‘art’ dishonors faithful Christian artists

• For years we at Lorehaven have extolled God’s gift of human imagination.
• We’ve carefully critiqued stories that exchange realism with sentimentality.
• And we find top storytellers, including last week’s guests, the Bancroft Bros.
• AI-generated “replacements” will make a mockery of human imagination.
• If we accept them, we may as well accept “generated” morals and themes.
• Haven’t we already rejected imposter realities from bad Christian movies?

3. AI ‘art’ can involve sins like lies and theft

• Big companies let their databases “scrape” creative works under copyright.
• Now we’ve seen that studios like Disney and Universal are filing lawsuits.
• Stephen says: good, we need ways to show our societies value imagination.
• Meanwhile, we go back to biblical ethical views of credit for creative works.
• Do we believe in books that don’t credit ghostwriters, human or computer?
• Yes, AI is here to stay, but will likely serve as a novelty, mostly for memes.
• Clearly some creators will incorporate AI into animation and other films.
• And for Stephen’s part, if a Christian story did this, he will avoid that work.
• It’s bad enough out there with bad human-made stuff. Time is too short.

Com station

Top question for listeners

• Would you enjoy a full-length AI-generated book or movie?

Next on Fantastical Truth

We’ve just seen the end of this year’s summer blockbuster movie season, such as it was. Most of the drama was about the movies rather than in the movies. Fans debate whether stories should focus on “fun” stories with simple virtues as opposed to “serious” stories based on “aura” and myth. Right now it seems Team Fun is winning over Team Serious, but also, nobody is really winning the box office. How can Christian fans engage stories that are fun versus serious?