Ai fiction – Duggan's Dig

I don’t want to be an AI bore but it’s here isn’t it, and there are questions to be answered. While publishers launch legal battles over AI systems being trained on their intellectual property I am concerned with smaller questions. It’s no secret that AI does not create, it plagiarizes so AI work cannot be considered original and unique, so I cannot claim IP ownership of anything it produces for me.

But that got me wondering, what about the prompt it used? Let’s say that I wanted to write a short story about a man tinnitus discovering that the buzzing sound that had haunted him his entire life was actually the ghost of a bumblebee that he trapped in a draw thirty years earlier. I don’t have time to write this story myself, I’ve got washing up to do, but I could put the idea, my idea, I own the IP on the story idea, into AI. What would the legal standing be then? It’s my story. If I used AI to calculate my taxes, it’s still my taxes.

I wouldn’t do this of course. I know that even my worst output on a very bad day is still better than AI, but curiosity got the better of me at the exact moment that I needed a block text to test the twitter character limit on my verified account. I haven’t even read this myself, but if the movie rights were ever in question, they are undoubtedly mine.

Can you write a short ghost story, 3000 words, about a man suffering since childhood with tinnitus, learning to his horror that the buzzing sound he’d heard his entire life was the ghostly cries of a ghost bee that tied after being deliberately trapped in a desk drawer.
My prompt

The Buzzing of the Bumblebee

The buzzing sound had been with him for as long as he could remember. It was a high-pitched whine that never seemed to go away, no matter what he did. He had seen doctors, tried different medications, and even tried meditation, but nothing seemed to help.

The man’s name was John, and he was 35 years old. He had lived with tinnitus his entire life, and he had learned to just ignore it. But lately, it had been getting worse. The buzzing sound was louder and more persistent, and it was starting to interfere with his work and his personal life.

One day, John was working in his office when he heard a strange noise. It was a high-pitched whine, just like his tinnitus, but it was coming from somewhere outside his head. John got up and went to investigate, and he found the source of the noise in a desk drawer.

Inside the drawer was a dead bee. The bee was small and black, and it was covered in dust. John had no idea how the bee had gotten in the drawer, but he was sure that it was the source of his tinnitus.

John took the bee out of the drawer and examined it. The bee’s stinger was still intact, and John could see that it had been crushed. He realized that the bee had been trapped in the drawer and had died of starvation.

John felt a pang of guilt. He knew that he should have let the bee out of the drawer, but he had forgotten about it. Now, the bee’s ghost was haunting him.

John tried to get rid of the bee’s ghost, but it was no use. The buzzing sound continued, and it seemed to get louder and louder. John started to have trouble sleeping, and he was always on edge. He was afraid that the bee’s ghost would drive him crazy.

One night, John was so tired that he fell asleep in his office. He dreamed that he was back in his childhood home, and he was playing in the backyard. He saw the bee, and he tried to warn it not to go into the desk drawer. But the bee didn’t listen, and it was trapped.

John woke up in a cold sweat. He knew that he had to do something to stop the bee’s ghost. He went back to the desk drawer and took out the bee. He buried the bee in the backyard, and he said a prayer for the bee’s soul.

The next day, the buzzing sound was gone. John was finally able to get some peace and quiet. He knew that he would never forget the bee, but he was glad that its ghost was finally at rest.

John’s story is a reminder that even the smallest creatures can have a big impact on our lives. The bee’s ghost may have been annoying, but it was also a reminder of John’s own mortality. The bee had died, but John was still alive. He had a chance to make a difference in the world, and he was determined to do so.

John went on to live a long and happy life. He never forgot the bee, and he always made sure to let any trapped insects go free. He knew that even the smallest act of kindness could make a big difference.

Fair Cop, by AI

Arthur was a nervous wreck as he sat on the bench of the empty train station, waiting for the last train out of town. It was a bitter winter night, and the snow was falling so fast that it was difficult to see beyond the platform. Suddenly, Arthur heard a faint humming noise, which gradually got louder and louder until it morphed into a woman’s voice singing a haunting melody.

Arthur tried to ignore the eerie noise, but it was impossible to ignore the fact that the voice was coming from the abandoned train tracks. He looked over and saw a woman walking slowly towards him, her figure just visible in the blizzard. It wasn’t unusual for travelers to be stranded due to snow, but the mood of the singing woman chilled him to his bones.

As she approached the platform, Arthur noticed something unusual about her. She was transparent and appeared to glide along the ground rather than walk like a normal person. And when she spoke, her words came out slowly and distorted, as if she was speaking through water.

He tried to compose himself, but his nerves soon got the better of him, and he blurted out the question that had been gnawing at him for days. “Do you know who I am?” he said, his voice trembling with anxiety.

The strange woman stopped singing for a moment and regarded him with an enigmatic expression. “I know everything about you, Arthur,” she said in a voice that was neither human nor animal.

Arthur felt his heart pounding in his chest. He knew he had to confess his secret, the reason for his anxiety. “I’m running away from the police,” he said. “I stole a valuable coin from a wealthy man, and now they’re after me.”

The woman stared at him for a moment before the blizzard suddenly cleared, revealing a police officer heading towards them.

“Arthur Thompson, I’m placing you under arrest for the theft of the Golden Medallion,” the officer announced as he arrived.

But before Arthur could react, the woman suddenly dissolved into the air, leaving only an icy chill in her wake. Arthur looked around, confused and scared, before he realized that she was a ghost from the past, warning him of his impending capture.

He was baffled by the twist of fate, but grateful, nonetheless, as the ghost had helped him avoid the inevitable punishment that would have awaited him in the hands of the law for the rest of his life, all because of his greed. He whispered a silent thank you, even as the officer cuffed him, took him to his cell to pay his penance.

It’s not going to win any awards. I’ll say that much. Maybe it’s because it’s not the premium version, but for a minute read I was mildly entertained. I’m not sure what happened at the end though. He was grateful for the warning and avoided punishment, but was caught? I dunno.

Maybe I could have saved myself some effort if I asked the AI to write a blog post about a ghost story written by AI with a very brief critique. Content is content is it not?