Amidst rising contentions with the use of generative technology, Japanese author Rie Kudan has recently admitted she got "help" from AI, specifically ChatGPT, after winning the country's top literary award, the Akutagawa Prize.
Rie Kudan's 'The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy' and AI
According to the Japanese publication Asahi Shimbun, the 33-year-old writer was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for her work "The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy," dubbing it the best fictional work by an up-and-coming writer last Wednesday, Jan. 17.
In a press conference that followed the awarding ceremony, Kudan confirmed that 5% of her new book was completely generated by AI.
"I plan to continue to profit from the use of AI in the writing of my novels while letting my creativity express itself to the fullest," said the author.
The novel, which prize committee members praised for its "practically flawless" writing, is about the worries and predicament that an architect is facing after being entrusted with the duty of building a high-rise prison in Tokyo for the rehabilitation of would-be prisoners.
Fittingly, the book itself is centered around the theme of AI.
Kudan shared that her usage of ChatGPT would extend beyond writing, as she detailed instances where she would "talk" to the AI program about life problems she cannot divulge to other people.
She added that the AI would sometimes say something she did not expect and that would prompt her to self-reflect. This is something she did with her novel's main character in mind, she said.
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AI, Creation, and the Controversies That Surround Them
Recent events, like the leaks surrounding Midjourney's alleged usage of over 16,000 artists in training its AI-generated art program, have only contributed to the rising disdain towards the usage of the generative tech.
However, more and more creatives are acknowledging the innovation's use, proposing a "tempered" utilization of it. For one, there's Ai Weiwei's new CIRCA-commissioned public art exhibition where he asks AI a series of hard-hitting questions, among others.
This is a stance that the former Akutagawa Prize committee member and literary author Keiichiro Hirano echoes, as he weighed in on the issue regarding Kudan's admittance to the usage of AI for her book.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Hirano wrote: "It seems that the story that Rie Kudan's award-winning work was written using generative AI is misunderstood... If you read it, you will see that the generative AI was mentioned in the work."
"There will be problems with that kind of usage in the future, but that is not the case with 'Tokyo Sympathy Tower," he added.
Even though many others held the same opinions on Kudan's new work, there are still critics who called it and the author's utilization of AI "disrespectful," especially in consideration of the authors who don't employ the help of AI generative technology.
