Tim Boucher is a prolific author. In just two years, he's written more than 120 books, completing some in a mere four hours. His secret weapon: AI.
Boucher's books have an unusual format. They include between 40 and 120 AI-generated images along with between 2,000 and 5,000 words — largely generated by chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT.
As a technologist and artist, Boucher sees the books as a way to critique technology and explore a new type of storytelling.
"My books allow AI models to speak for themselves, almost like the idea of an unreliable narrator in literature," he told Business Insider.
"It's interesting that the models get things wrong, are inconsistent, and have incomplete capacities. I'm trying to use those as a leverage point to open up a new form of storytelling."
But what Boucher sees as a creative exploration, many others see as theft.
A recent op-ed Boucher wrote for The Information has sparked the latest wave of backlash the author has been fighting since he began discussing his use of AI.
The article, titled "I'm an author who proudly uses AI to write my books," attracted over one thousand comments on Meta's Threads, including negative ones from Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon and Elon Musk's daughter.
Creative differences
Tensions between AI companies and the creative industries have been bubbling since the release of AI image generators such as Midjounrey and the rise of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT.
Authors like Chabon have taken issue with how AI models are trained, accusing tech companies of using their work to train models without their consent.
The novelist is part of an ongoing lawsuit against Meta over data used to train its Llama AI model. AI companies, including OpenAI, are facing several similar lawsuits from groups of authors and artists.
While Boucher says he understands some of the frustrations, he thinks that most of the criticism he receives is based on misconceptions about his work.
He said that people are "responding emotionally." He added, "I understand it feels frustrating, irritating, and angering to have your work taken and used in ways that you don't agree with."
"But people get very mad when I call these books, despite the fact that it's a pretty general term," he added. "They say things like 'you're not a real author. This isn't real art.'"
Online backlash
Boucher objects to the accusations that he is a plagiarist or a fraud.
He says he is transparent about the use of AI in his work and has written multiple blog posts explaining his creative process.
"People are not strictly responding to this in a technical sense," he said, adding that the future of the tech was going to come down to the courts. He said he thought the lawsuits would put a lot of pressure on how AI companies use licensed data, which he described as a "good thing."
"AI isn't perfect, and there are problems with it, but I believe that it will get ironed out over time," he said. "I don't want to wait 20 years for it to be perfected while someone else has had all of the fun, interesting time exploring it.
"I'd rather go to the Wild West early and set up a saloon than miss out on experimenting with technology."
