Recently, I was curious what AI would say about my first novel, so I wrote something like “Huguette Clark novel” in Google search. In seconds, an AI synopsis answered with a negative. On that day (because it was over a week ago and AI morphs, so who knows if I will see it again?), AI immediately reported: There is no novel about Huguette Clark, only biographies about her life.

It listed several top biographies plus my novel, specifically indicating Bellosguardo was not a novel but a biography.

I laughed out loud (I was alone in my day job office), and scoffed, “What a load of crap! Where did they come up with this??”

It was upsetting that AI would ignore the repeated use of the word “novel” that I list in every single online reference for my book: Amazon, Goodreads, Apple, Barnes & Noble, all the dozens of digital outlets around the world, my website, my blog, etc. ALL THOSE SITES use the term “novel” when describing Bellosguardo: The Lives of Anna & Huguette Clark, yet AI (on that day) answered no, there is no novel.

For a fiction writer, it felt like a slap in the face. And one I could not control. First, I have no idea how that AI synopsis was generated. Second, if a reader were looking for a novel about the Clark family, they probably wouldn’t be directed to my book! That’s bad info for the consumer…

To be clear, I absolutely did not write a factual account of the Clark family. I used umpteen factual sources and the published outlines of their lives, of course, but my book Bellosguardo is one hundred percent a novel. Pure fiction. Made it up in my noggin. I NEVER use AI for writing novels. Researching on Google, sure, but not writing a manuscript. I’m almost done with my second manuscript and it holds true for that one as well.

Just wanted to make this AI cataloging/comprehending problem very clear in case anyone else thinks Bellosguardo is a biography because AI said so. (AI definitely has way more clout than I do.)

Not a biography at all. It’s a novel.

Big difference.