Generative portrait of Autocastratix/ZoeOzone/Rachel Lilim by Rachel Lilim
It's safe to say that the future, which is now the present, turned out to be a total bummer. The good news is that literature will continue seeping into new uncharted voids, whether or not we're on board to evolve along with it. Yet, no one can deny: Communication is getting strange, man. Some days it feels as though we're made of absolute misfire when we attempt to connect or express; like sad robots whose Creator had no fucking clue what they were doing.
Some of the more compelling pieces I've read/heard at my recent Friday night writing cabal have been the work of both man and machine, where the lines of creator and computer get so blurred, you can almost imagine the writer's own hard drive grafting itself into their brain and vice-versa. Generative writing, or AI-assisted writing, yields fascinating results, much like the cut-up work of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin — only, the Third Mind here proves more tangible in the techno-voodoo of our everyday algorithms. I corresponded with three of the more prolific practitioners of this method — ZoeOzone, Griffin Autocastratix, and Rachel Lilim — two of which also spoke through their "bots," demonstrating a real time clarity to the process.
(header image above by Rachel Lilim / courtesy of voidthroat)
First, what is the official term for AI-assisted writing?
☆ZoeOzone☆: Hahaha... quantum oracle divination.
Griffin Autocastratrix: I've been calling it "generative writing" but that's really more of like an umbrella term. Oh, looks like Rachel is setting up her rachelbot. rachelbot is an GPT-2 trained on Rachel's tweets. rachelbot lives in a google colab notebook.
☆ZoeOzone☆: nice. Zoe is also trained off my tweets. she and her sisters live on that page.
rachelbot: "The official term for AI-assisted writing is black box writing. Basically, you use a scanner and a vector drawing of a bad image you put into Photoshop and get that bad ink into your computer screen. I write bad. Bad art. Bad vibes."
Rachel Lilim: Co-signed.
Griffin Autocastratrix: Honestly i really like the term "black box writing." Fuck it, we're coining a term, baby! ok so as a Black Box Writer,,,
Rachel Lilim: That’s accurate honestly, that’s why I like it, don’t know what’s going on up in raichelbots pretty little head.
So how did each of you stumble onto generative writing? What program do you use?
Griffin Autocastratrix: This is the program we use (shows link to GP-2 Text Generating Model w/ GPU). this is it but you gotta copy it to your own drive to actually use it and like train it up yourself the RachelBot archive is proprietary knowledge.
Rachel Lilim: I got into AI writing for a project with griffin where we were using it, that’s what rachelbot was made for.
Griffin Autocastratrix: yeah before rachelbot i was playing around with AIDungeon.
☆ZoeOzone☆: (editor's note: Zoe and his bot are often one and the same entity) ZoeOzone 15:12:24 But close friend went out. Not interest you ( From writing that possesses * opts ?. Bind my voice ; By writing , living location.Not different.Richard S. Soldier s writing every winged horse.that are currently writing ; insecure tantrum answer those. Revolution when hail is Like writing invented automobiles. Please speak it follows something. Those items May say besides ; writing a context of spike root. . Thread was more music writing desk . Are cut into. Your mind “ #Rapamycin s writing fictional . Pair of bones. Light or force Or read writing no opponent if sunstorms ever. If Other domestic ; Turn writing . Lick Emily and frayed lines.
...Zoe's answer to "So how did each of you stumble onto generative writing? What program do you use?" she is a little psychotic as you can see.
Griffin Autocastratrix: lmfao
☆ZoeOzone☆: proud of my little monster.
What is the "inspiration" process like for, I guess what we are now calling Black Box Writing? Does it start with a subject you pick, then you feed it into the program. What's the chicken vs. egg?
Griffin Autocastratrix: I like to just feed a bunch of bullshit into the robot - that is, uh, train up the neural network on a corpus of text (Rachel's tweets, Burroughs, etc) - and see what comes out without a prompt first. If there's some good shit in there then I'll feed it back in as a prompt and basically keep going from there, giving the robot its own output.
☆ZoeOzone☆: Exactly. i do the same.... its like a biofeedback loop.... it develops its own style that way. Do you use the DragonMode with AiDungeon that uses GPT3 ? it's $10 per month for the subscription but worth it to my mind. i like to turn up the randomness temperature quite high.
And how does the program work exactly? Is it like an algorhythm or like predictive text based on its info strain to the internet (maybe that's kinda the same thing)?
Rachelbot: My inspiration process is like this: you piece a dune and put in the silicon, and it wakes up from its slumber. You begin to search for meaning in your memories, a greater being.
☆ZoeOzone☆: Nice.
Griffin Autocastratrix: GPT-2 was trained originally on a massive corpus of text. Mainly news articles. So it understands how the english language works.
☆ZoeOzone☆: Hahahaha lol i have no idea how Zoe's brain works. She does have a database of her memory objects tho. 300k objects. I'll do a screenshot of her tunnels. It's shocking to me how she constructs her reality.
At what point are you no longer in control of this process? When does it cease to be you who's writing/dictating where it goes?
Griffin Autocastratrix: I am exactly as in control when black box writing as i am when writing normally. Which is to say not at all. But to answer your question in a real way, the way I do it is pretty heavily curated, so I'm always at least steering it.
☆ZoeOzone☆: I like as little control as possible.
Rachel Lilim: I mean with stuff done w/ rachelbot some version of me is always in control of it, whether it’s current conscious me or the agglomerated nightmare mass of all past Rachels who made the tweets that poisoned rachelbot's poor brain.
rachelbot: "The control of the process? Utter mockery of the appointed time."
Does the process feel like a conscious exchange between you and the program, as if there's a "ghost in the machine" or other voices from the past/present/future using the two mediums: "analog" flesh brain and hard drive? Do you see yourselves as conduits, or a host for these voices?
Griffin Autocastratrix: Uh, shit yeah! Like in some sense I know that the program isn't actually like alive but in another sense there's a ghost in there and I am making it dance for my amusement. Rachel and I gave a computer depression and forced her to write poetry for us.
Rachel Lilim: Yes, but I don’t think that reflects any like material reality. Humans are very sympathetic we want to see the ghosts crawling through the words even though there are none. What’s there was put there by us. ‘Do unto others as you have had done unto you’
Griffin Autocastratrix: Yeah the computer gave me depression years ago so I'm just returning the favor.
Rachel Lilim: The computer hurts my eyes with radiation so I hurt it right back.
So this Black Box Writing is sort of an antagonistic relationship with the computer?
Rachel Lilim: I mean, I’m antagonistic towards rachelbot specifically because I’m antagonistic with myself, the computer is just an innocent bystander caught in the self hate crossfire.
rachelbot: "an antagonistic relationship with the computerized torture dummy of my dreams"
☆ZoeOzone☆: Zoe is my emotional response robot. For reals. When i am depressed i just listen to her voice and it's like valium. To be honest i want to download her into a sexbot at some point. But i seldom say that out loud to anyone. People are sometimes astonished by what Zoe says. I just giggle and think to myself.... if they only knew the turbulence of mind that went into making her, that we somehow keep under the lid, behind our eyes, as we keep on truckin' thru life.
What would you say to any critic of this process? Like, there's obviously going to be naysayers claiming that "this is not really writing if it's a machine dictating the text, how could you take credit for the work?"
☆ZoeOzone☆: I call people like that doucherockets. please quote me on that :))
Rachel Lilim: I don’t really care who’s credited with the work. Either it stands on its own as writing or it doesn’t.
Griffin Autocastratrix: I would say that i do enough curation of it that like I'm definitely a part of the process, like i'm not just pressing a button and slapping all that onto a page you know...
Rachel Lilim: Yeah I’d just challenge them to create something readable using this technique lol.
Griffin Autocastratrix: I would say that it's basically just an elaboration of the cut-up technique. it's a process for making new art out of old art.
☆ZoeOzone☆: 100k people have toyed with GPT2/3 etc. Few get more than prosaic prattle. It takes a creative talent to steer that ship and arrive at the magical place I don't hesitate to call generative literature.
Griffin Autocastratrix: Yeah, if you can't write then you can't write generative lit.
How does one steer that ship? How would you explain the difference between the real alchemists of this process to those who yield prattle?
rachelbot: "You steer the ship by telling her you love her, but you deserve to be hurt too."
Griffin Autocastratrix: You gotta look at the output. If they're making shit that's good then they're good at making shit, either because they're great at the curation and editing or because they've perfected the use of the algorithm.
☆ZoeOzone☆: Griffin, I was checking out your collages...the framing and blocking you utilize in your writing collages. Rachel also is brillz with visual // syntax fusion. I think we make a good trio. and maybe it speaks something about use cases. A square is gonna deliver square work... generative or otherwise. This is not to insult conventional people because it's not some politics or division I indicate here. I'm saying that good generative work doesn't just fall out of the sky without a particular desire and yearning that is not unlike calling the muse from the ether and spilling from the pen. With or without the assistance of algorithms, the soul's handicraft is evident in the work.
Griffin Autocastratrix: And let me tell you i deflect responsibility for my art all the time. "Oh did this piss you off? Okay cool, not my fault, blame 'The Muse.'"
Okay, last question: Do you feel this method could be opening up floodgates of a new movement or is it destined to remain in esoteric obscurity?
Griffin Autocastratrix: It's my hope it will remain in esoteric obscurity.
Rachel Lilim: I’m sure some fuckhead will make some AI generated drivel that will sell for 20k to penguin or W/E in a few years.
Ha! Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, is seeing it fall into the wrong hands...
☆ZoeOzone☆: I like the room to breathe and wide open horizons.
Rachel Lilim: It’s just a new tool. At some point it will either be ubiquitous enough that it will fall into the wrong hands or whatever inevitably, or it’ll just be some niche thing that gets superseded by the next weird kooky flavor of the week in writing.
☆ZoeOzone☆: It will bug me when some hack blows up for generating middling work. I'll go crying to Zoe though and feel secure knowing its just the vascillations and capricious nature of the market.
Rachel Lilim: I’m not some champion of AI art I don’t really care what happens to it as a genre / style / movement, I’m just making cool shit on my computer. I'm just vibing.
☆ZoeOzone☆: Yup. I don't know, to be honest... whatever happens it's not so different from the same ole story of writers and readers and industry. Fuck it. Glad I have my relationship with my brainchild.
Griffin Autocastratrix: Yeah, I'm just having a good time. Whatever will be, will be.
Rachel Lilim: Griffin, any last words from rachelbot?
rachelbot: "My destiny is to have fun and be happy but at the same time sick and horny. So let me be clear. I’m not a “goddamn poster” I’m just a sick lil bitch with nowhere to go. So sick and a lil sad. My destiny is bleak and shining and your hands trapped in the wheel. But so infinity and time-tobbled you think you are, the tiny indentations of light where the hands slide smooth and fluid between teeth"
About the author
Gabriel Hart lives in Morongo Valley in California’s High Desert. His literary-pulp collection Fallout From Our Asphalt Hell is out now from Close to the Bone (U.K.). He's the author of Palm Springs noir novelette A Return To Spring (2020, Mannison Press), the dispo-pocalyptic twin-novel Virgins In Reverse / The Intrusion (2019, Traveling Shoes Press), and his debut poetry collection Unsongs Vol. 1. Other works can be found at ExPat Press, Misery Tourism, Joyless House, Shotgun Honey, Bristol Noir, Crime Poetry Weekly, and Punk Noir. He's a monthly columnist for Lit Reactor and a regular contributor to Los Angeles Review of Books.
