The fiction published in Dargonzine is set in a medieval world, without wide-scale mechanization or labor-saving devices or much in the way of technology. It is, instead, a world of magic, of sorcery, of mystery. Our world, on the other hand, is filled with technology, the likes of which would seem like magic to the denizens of our fictional world. The very publishing of the e-zine requires a degree of technological prowess, and involves the use of software and network broadcasting. One sort of technology that has been hitting the headlines of late, particularly in regard to the creation of works of fiction, is generative A.I. software. There is a lot of controversy swirling in the online forums, and hardly a day goes by without another dire headline about the havoc this software seems sure to create. As such, I decided to try an experiment.
I made a summary of an unwritten Dargon story and used it as a prompt for a generative A.I., asking it to write a story. I also prompted a different, image-generating A.I. to create illustrations for the story. I then took that same prompt and wrote a short story myself.
In Dargon lives a middle-aged con man, Nessis Romen. He works as a warehouse attendant for Arbogast the old wealthy magician. Nessis is clumsy and thinks too well of himself. One day while Nessis is dusting the bottles of magic portion he finds an old automaton and starts it up. Nessis laughs at how clumsy the automaton is and secretly marvels at how the automaton can almost imitate human speech. Nessis goes back to dusting, and accidentally knocks over a bottle of magic potion. The bottle breaks, splattering magic potion all over the old automaton. The automaton comes to life, reproving Nessis for waking it up from a restful slumber, taunting him for his lowly position. It teases Nessis about Nessis’s young and beautiful girlfriend, telling Nessis that the girlfriend is worth more than Nessis. Nessis finally hits the automaton with his dusting mop, silencing it. Nessis later tells Arbogast that the bottle fell on the automaton and broke it. Arbogast is gentle and says that it is OK because the automaton was cursed and never worked correctly in the first place.
In this first posting, I will publish the A.I. results, unedited save for an A.I.-generated and human-annotated title. In the second I will publish my own version, entirely written by a human mind. You be the judge.
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