AI In The Writing World by E. B. Davis

 

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s and Beyond the Page’s

exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative

artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited.

The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI

training and development of machine learning language models.

Beyond the Page Books Copyright Content

 

Recently, I downloaded several books published by Beyond the Page Books and noticed that they had added this paragraph on their copyright pages. It is an attempt to prohibit AI companies from using copyrighted material for their databases from which AI models learn. I like this approach and yet, the reality is that the wave has already broken. Books have already been fed to AI.

 

The Authors Guild is trying to lobby for laws that will force AI companies to get:

·      Permission for use of copyrighted works, if permission is granted—get compensation for their use,

·      Disclosure by AI companies as to what works they have used for training, and to require AI generated work be labeled as such.

 

Further, for those authors who don’t care if AI companies use their work, The Authors Guild proposes a “collective management organization” through which companies would compensate authors via collective licensing. All authors who register would be compensated collectively rather than each AI company having to contact each individual author for consent and compensation. This approach seems like capitulation to me, making it too easy for AI companies. And yet, since theft is rampant, perhaps it is realistic. And the one thing I’ve learned from reading about these issues—once AI trains from a work, there is no taking back that learning. Read about The Authors Guild’s efforts here: https://authorsguild.org/advocacy/artificial-intelligence/faq/

 

Last year, The Authors Guild and many best-selling authors filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft’s Azure project for copyright infringement. It appears that the case is ongoing so there is no disposition to report at this time.

 

Hal 9000: Hello Dave https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/movies/hal-2001-a-space-odyssey-voice-douglas-rain.html

 

What prompted me to write and read about this issue? In one week, I read three books having a character named “Maya.” I realize after reading the literature that the president of The Authors Guild’s name happens to be Maya Shanbhag Lang. But the name wasn’t common to me. And then after additional research I realized that Maya is a big name in the AI world. There is an AI program for media and entertainment called Autodesk Maya. Their advertising says:  “Create expansive worlds, complex characters, and dazzling effects.” The product is mainly used for creating 3d animation (Barbie). There’s an AI Maya that tracks workflow in businesses, which is applied in everything from travel itinerary, doctor’s patient scheduling, real estate transactions to selling lemonade (no kidding).

My speculation is that the ChatGPT for authors may be on a head trip and decided it was the most fascinating and quirky personality—so it generated its own name to wow readers—Maya! After the second book with the name “Maya” as one of the characters, I was suspicious, but after the third time in the same week—I decided my reading material wasn’t up to par. Don’t even think of creating an animi for your Internet picture. I will not buy your book. And yes, two of the three books I downloaded via Kindle Unlimited.

I have turned off Siri on my iPhone and MacBook Pro and individually on every app. If Siri learns about me, it will limit my search results, second guessing me and filtering true results. By putting this program on my devices, Apple controls my access to knowledge. Browsers themselves, such as Google’s Gemini, have built in learning that limits results. For now, I can at least turn Siri off, but there are programs or apps that you buy, such as MS Word 365 in which Copilot is an integral component, which can’t be turned off. This is where the big power-shift of the future will occur, if it hasn’t already. Those in control of the IT world will have ways to bypass the filters. Our freedoms are eroding by these hidden AI programs. Tomorrow is the US’s Independence Day. We need to do more to make sure we remain independent. AI will erode our freedom. Our access to knowledge has been fundamental in equality. AI limits our access. Laws such as labeling what is AI generated will help. Educating our populace about the AI invasion and giving us fundamental rights to combat it will be our only way to fight it. 

I have a piece of painting tape over my laptop’s camera eye. It works. On Zoom I was just a blue blur. I’ve turned off my laptop’s camera and microphone. I also have my laptop on mute. Is anyone else scared?

See: https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2024/02/artificial-intelligence-have-we-created.html