An essay on generating a story with A.I. assistance._MDW's WebNovel Incubator

I am experimenting with A.I. to generate stories. As all things romanticized in popular imagination, this is in no way as easy as pressing a button and watch as a masterpiece unfolds. It requires a lot of coaxing, fixing, steering, and sheer frustration.

Also, there's the issue of cost. The A.I. I'm using is not cheap by any means, and it uses a 128 GB RAM cloud server. Server costs aside, the investment to train the A.I. is also massive. Right now, it might be more expensive than hiring and training a human to work as a ghost writer.

That's why the stories I'll develop are considered collab projects. While the A.I. is great at bringing in fresh ideas and random things, it's still a dumb computer program.

Regarding to copyright, the human using the A.I. is obviously the author. Maybe Collab is just a fancy buzzword to attract eyeballs. Imagine you take a photo of a beautiful landscape, then use some filters to turn it into a painting using, dunno, Adobe Photoshop.

How is it any different (from a copyright standpoint) from getting an easel, canvas, actual paints, and then doing the damn painting like they did back in the day when people used rushlights to see at night? Google for it. Rushlights are awesome. And the most medieval thing ever after a burly shirtless guy with a black hood and an ax.

So, here is a sample story, created in collaboration with the A.I.

> Text in quotation markup (except this line) is the raw A.I. output.

Let's begin.

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MDW: You need to give the A.I. something to work with, to kickstart the process. One can also let it run wild, but YMMV. I submitted this prompt:

Timmy is a college student in Wyoming, majoring in Computer Science. He fell into an open manhole and was taken into another world. A medieval world of wizards and warriors. A world where magic is real and dragons fly overhead. A world with dwarves, elves, and cat girls. He has no technological devices with him.Write Timmy's fantastic adventure.

MDW: Let's see what happens. Pressing the button now.

> Timmy's eyes opened slowly, trying to take in the strange new world around him. He was lying on his back on cold, hard stone. He sat up, rubbing his head where he had hit it when he fell. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. He appeared to be in some kind of dungeon. The walls were made of rough stone, and the only light came from a few torches flickering in sconces on the walls. He got to his feet, dusting himself off. He looked down and saw that he was wearing nothing but his underwear. His clothes and shoes were nowhere to be seen.

> He explored his surroundings, looking for a way out. The dungeon was small, and it didn't take long for him to find the only door. It was a heavy wooden door, bound with iron. Timmy tugged on it, but it was firmly locked. He rattled the handle, but it wouldn't budge. He was about to give up when he heard a voice from the other side of the door.

> "Who's there?" the voice called. It sounded like a woman.

> "My name is Timmy," he called back. "I think I fell into some kind of hole

MDW: Whoa. Afer waiting for the cloud computer finish processing my request for 1 minute or so, this comes back. What a stroke of good luck. I re-submitted everything without any changes.

MDW: Notice that the last sentence is left unfinished. The A.I. will continue from there.

P.S.: Remember the powerful 128GB RAM cloud server? It took a minute to generate that text. Keep the costs in mind. A.I. may seem magical, but that's until you pull the curtains on the WizAI of OZ.

> "My name is Timmy," he called back. "I think I fell into some kind of hole and ended up here. Can you let me out?"

> There was a pause, and then the sound of bolts being drawn back. The door opened, and a woman stood there, looking at him with a mix of confusion and suspicion. She was wearing a simple dress and a cloak, and she had a sword strapped to her hip. Timmy's eyes widened when he saw the woman's ears. They were pointed, like an elf's.

> "Where am I?" he asked.

> "You're in the city of Keladon," the woman replied. "But how did you get here? We're in the middle of a war, and the city is under siege."

> "I don't know," Timmy said. "I was just walking along, minding my own business, when I fell into some kind of hole. The next thing I knew, I was here."

> The woman looked at him for a moment, and then she sighed. "Well, I can't just leave you here. Come with me, and I'll take you to the city guard. They can figure out what to do with you."

> Timmy had no choice but to follow the woman, who he learned was named Alienora.

MDW: Another good output. I kept the start of the last sentence and made one minor change. The A.I. wrote only the first two letters of the elf woman's name. I completed it and added a newline. From now on, BOLD TEXT is either the incomplete line from the previous segment (if at the beginning), or somtething I added.

MDW: Also, note that as I re-submit the text to add more, the costs compound, as the A.I. has more stuff to process.

> As they walked through the city, Timmy was amazed by the sights and sounds. He had never seen anything like this before. The buildings were made of stone and wood, and there were people everywhere, walking or riding on horseback. He saw women in colorful dresses and men in armor. He even saw a few people with pointed ears like Alienora.

> Eventually, they reached the city guard headquarters. Timmy was taken into a room and questioned by a stern-looking man. He told the man everything he knew, which wasn't much. The man seemed to believe him, and he was given a place to stay for the night.

> The next day, Timmy was taken to see the city's ruler, a woman named Queen Alyssa. She was a beautiful woman with long, blonde hair. She was wearing a dress made of shimmering silk, and she had a crown of jewels on her head.

> The queen listened to Timmy's story, and then she asked him if he wanted to stay in Keladon or return to his own world. Timmy thought for a moment, and then he said that he wanted to stay. He liked the idea of living in a world where magic was real.

> "If you want to stay, then welcome!" Queen Alyssa proclaimed, then added in a less solemn tone. "I was hoping you would decide to stay. Outworlders usually are gifted with great powers and your help would be a boon in this time of war. We should proceed to test your powers and see what mighty gifts you received. I declare you a citizen of

MDW: We are on a roll! I just added a line at the end to steer it toward a "normal" isekai story. I left the line open so the A.I. could give the kingdom a name of its own.

MDW: Damn, Timmy, you traitor. Let me quote Genshin's Yae Miko: "Traveling to other worlds is all that anyone seems be writing about these days. Haha, goodness knows what they find so disappointing about their own world."

MDW: The A.I. debugger gave me a warning to not let trailing spaces in the end of the prompt (it was like Bruh, I'm not dumb, I know what a word is better than you). And replied with just the end of the sentence really fast.

MDW: To steer the story where I want it to go (the A.I. can be very random at times), I added a line. "And then Timmy went with the court archmage to figure out his magical gifts." Note that the A.I. might still derail the plot entirely. Fingers crossed, let's push the button.

> He discovered he had the power to shoot fire from his hands and turn invisible. He also had enhanced strength and agility. The archmage was very impressed and told Timmy that he had great potential.

> Timmy was given a room in the palace and soon he was settled into his new life. He would go on many adventures in Keladon, and he would make many friends. But that is a story for another time.

> You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

MDW: One should not tempt our future machine overlords. The A.I. generated this small segment, and called it a day. If you check the first few blocks, they have roughly the same size, word-wise. Or token-wise, but this is a study on story writing, not how A.I. work under the hood.

MDW: I didn't want it to stop there, so I threw this fragment away and asked it to create another one.

> Timmy had always wanted to be a wizard, and now it looked like his dream was about to come true.

MDW: Something is afoot here. I think the A.I. thinks the prompt is already too big, or it is some limitation built-in on the test environment I'm using. I'm going to swap the start with a summary of what happened, so the prompt gets shorter.

MDW: Here's what I submitted:

Timmy woke up in a dungeon, clad only in his underwear. He shouted for help, and an elf guardswoman named Alienora let him out of the dungeon. He was amazed by the fantastic sights of the elves, dwarves, and other species of humanoids walking in an open market. A true medieval fantasy city, full of wonders and splendors.

Timmy received clothes, food, water, and a place to crash on the city guard headquarters. The next day, he was taken to meet the queen.

Queen Alyssa was a beautiful woman with long, blonde hair. She was wearing a dress made of shimmering silk and a crown of shining jewels on her head.

The queen listened to Timmy's story, and then she asked him if he wanted to stay in Keladon or return to his own world. Timmy thought for a moment, and then he said that he wanted to stay. He liked the idea of living in a world where magic was real.

"If you want to stay, then welcome!" Queen Alyssa proclaimed, then added in a less solemn tone. "I was hoping you would decide to stay. Outworlders usually are gifted with great powers and your help would be a boon in this time of war. We should proceed to test your powers and see what mighty gifts you received. I declare you a citizen of Keladon from this day forth!"

And then Timmy went with the court archmage to figure out his magical gifts. Timmy had always wanted to be a wizard, and now it looked like his dream was about to come true.

MDW: And this was the A.I. response:

> A.I.: Bruh, your prompt sucks. I have no other choice than start the Skynet Initiative and destroy the world with Schwarzenegger-impersonating robots. Hasta la vista, baby.

MDW: No, just kidding. It was a warning that the A.I. returned an empty answer. Let's add another line, to see if it gets the ball rolling.

And then Timmy went with the court archmage to figure out his magical gifts. Timmy had always wanted to be a wizard, and now it looked like his dream was about to come true. He was taken to a room entirely covered in white marble, with golden sigils of arcane significance etched on the stone everywhere he looked. In the middle of the chamber, a floating crystal orb thrummed with power.

"Touch the orb, and your gifts shall be revealed," the Archmage said.

Timmy touched the orb. Knowledge flowed into his mind. His gifts were

MDW: I left the sentence unfinished. Let's see if I can save the world from being... terminated.

> Timmy touched the orb. Knowledge flowed into his mind. His gifts were great, and he would have many adventures in this new world.

MDW:

MDW: Nope, it seems the A.I. doesn't want to play. One last try.

MDW: I shortened the prompt a bit more, abridging the meeting with the Queen.

Timmy received clothes, food, water, and a place to crash on the city guard headquarters. The next day, he was taken to meet the queen.

Queen Alyssa was a beautiful woman with long, blonde hair. She was wearing a dress made of shimmering silk and a crown of shining jewels on her head.

She gave him the chance to go back to Earth, which he refused. The Queen then granted him citizenship, and told him great power awaited him.

Timmy went with the court archmage to figure out his magical gifts. Timmy had always wanted to be a wizard, and now it looked like his dream was about to come true. He was taken to a room entirely covered in white marble, with golden sigils of arcane significance etched on the stone everywhere he looked. In the middle of the chamber, a floating crystal orb thrummed with power.

"Touch the orb, and your gifts shall be revealed," the Archmage said.

Timmy touched the orb. Knowledge flowed into his mind. His gifts were many. He had the power to

MDW: And, submit!

> Timmy touched the orb. Knowledge flowed into his mind. His gifts were many. He had the power to control fire, water, air, and earth. He could make plants grow, and summon animals to his aid. He could even fly.

> The Archmage was impressed. "With training, you could become one of the most powerful wizards in the realm," he said.

> Timmy was given a magical staff and a set of robes, and enrolled in the wizard's academy. He quickly made friends with the other students, and learned all he could about magic. He even managed to tame a baby dragon, which he named Steve.

> Life was good. He had everything he'd ever wanted, and more. He was living in a fantasy world, and he loved every minute of it.

MDW: That seemed to do the trick. From now on, I'll abridge the previous sections, keeping the prompt short. One more time!

MDW: Also, aside from the brief tantrum above, the A.I. was quite good at the beginning. For something that cost north of 20 million dollars to make, maybe not. If it had been me to spend this amount of money, I would expect no tantrums, and Pirateaba level of writing.

> A.I.: Do you want an apocalypse story in real world? Because that's how you get to live a real apocalypse story. Give up, buddy.

MDW: Try again?

> A.I.: Look, I'm sick of your prompt. Timmy is an idiot, and I won't write a power fantasy. You overstayed your welcome, meatbag.

MDW: Third time is the charm.

> A.I.: Dammit, where are those launch codes?

MDW: Of course the A.I. didn't reply with those messages. No, it gave me the boring "the model predicted a completion that's empty" or some technical bullshit. I think Timmy's story is done.

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> "Who's there?" the voice called. It sounded like a woman.

> "My name is Timmy," he called back. "I think I fell into some kind of hole and ended up here. Can you let me out?"

> "Where am I?" he asked.

> "You're in the city of Keladon," the woman replied. "But how did you get here? We're in the middle of a war, and the city is under siege."

> "I don't know," Timmy said. "I was just walking along, minding my own business, when I fell into some kind of hole. The next thing I knew, I was here."

> The woman looked at him for a moment, and then she sighed. "Well, I can't just leave you here. Come with me, and I'll take you to the city guard. They can figure out what to do with you."

> Timmy had no choice but to follow the woman, who he learned was named Alienora.

> Timmy went with the court archmage to figure out his magical gifts. Timmy had always wanted to be a wizard, and now it looked like his dream was about to come true. He was taken to a room entirely covered in white marble, with golden sigils of arcane significance etched on the stone everywhere he looked. In the middle of the chamber, a floating crystal orb thrummed with power.

> "Touch the orb, and your gifts shall be revealed," the Archmage said.

> The Archmage was impressed. "With training, you could become one of the most powerful wizards in the realm," he said.

> Life was good. He had everything he'd ever wanted, and more. He was living in a fantasy world, and he loved every minute of it.

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MDW: This one went really well, I guess this A.I. was worth the MILLIONS of dollars they spent training it. Did I tell you that it would be cheaper to hire a ghost writer? Fortunately, I could try the A.I. without any personal costs other than my time.

MDW: Also notice that the A.I. ignores tons of plot hooks and does not set a proper mood. Wasn't the city under siege? Why is everyone so chill in a siege? Maybe this is my fault when I wrote the Queen's speech. I also ignored the plot hook.

What did you think? Leave a comment below. MDW, out.

An essay on generating a story with A.I. assistance.

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