Reaction for AI tools in publishing.
Created 2026/06 – Alfred Reibenschuh – parts rewritten or translated from german into english using CoPilot and ChatGPT.
The challenges we neurodivergent people face are real.
As technology evolves, we have the opportunity to use emerging tools to reduce some of the friction that our differently wired minds can create in daily life.
That said, as with most things, there are many shades of grey. Some tools sit comfortably on the "light side" of the spectrum—advanced spellcheckers, grammar assistants, or image-editing software, for example. Generative AI tools, particularly diffusion-based image generators, tend to occupy a much greyer area and often raise more complex questions.
Personally, I can produce highly accurate technical drawings, but freehand drawing is an absolute nightmare—both for me and for anyone unfortunate enough to have to look at the result.
For indie, homebrew, and fan-publishing projects, the AI tool space presents its own set of challenges.
My view is that a reasonable compromise could be to use an eye-catching cover to attract attention while leaving placeholders for interior artwork and presenting the release as a "Bare-Bones Edition."
This allows creators to share and test their ideas without pretending to offer a fully illustrated product, while still leaving room for future collaboration with artists or later revisions.
At the same time, many of the concerns surrounding AI are not unfounded. Under the realities of modern capitalism, large companies and executives often see AI primarily as a cost-cutting measure. In some cases, the technology is used as a justification for reducing staff, consolidating power, or extracting more value while giving less back to the people who actually create that value.
Much of the backlash against AI is therefore not just about the tools themselves, but about how those tools are deployed and who ultimately benefits from their adoption.
As with any technology, context matters. A neurodivergent hobbyist using AI to overcome a personal limitation and publish a small fan project is operating in a very different space from a multinational corporation using the same technology to maximize profits at the expense of workers and creative professionals.