Second Story Up does not use AI for any part of our products or process. We don’t even use it for our marketing.
Our mission is to connect with readers in meaningful ways, to share exciting and engrossing stories with depth and nuance. Reading should be like taking an adventure with a good friend. It’s more than a moment of escape. It’s about discovering and questioning and exploring.
The only way to achieve that experience is to make a sincere commitment to the story. AI has no sincerity. Its content is without substence or meaning. The goal of AI-generated content is profit. There is no authenticity, no connection between the reader and the writer. AI takes other people’s content and re-shapes it in a way designed to please the consumer.
That’s not for us. When you read a Second Story Up book, you’re experiencing the result of a team dedicated to creating the most effective and impactful story possible.
We hear this a lot, and there’s no doubt that it’s true, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s say that AI somehow achieves sentience and becomes every bit as talented and sincere as humans are. We still wouldn’t use it. Our passion is making stories, not asking an AI to write them for us.
Every business faces two primary pressures: the desire to make something cool, and the need to make money. At Second Story Up, we err on the side of crafting great stories. Money is necessary, and we’d all like to make more, but it takes a back seat to our mission.
It is an axiomatic truth that every writer, artist, and creator has to decide for themselves how they will achieve their vision. Your decision to use AI, or not, is entirely your own.
We have decided not to use it.
