Copyright law has been a mess for a long time, in part due to corporations like Disney that want to extend it for millennia. The idea of content produced by AI is bad enough, but if it is being trained by scanning content, then the accuracy of the published "works" is going to reflect the accuracy of what's on the Internet. It's also going to be tainted by stuff that's posted as informational that is in reality advertising. It may help to convince the reading public that content behind a paywall is far better than "free" content stuffed with advertising and nonsense. Bill Gates has already bought up massive amounts of farmland, perhaps hoping to control the food supply. This would seem to fit his seeming agenda to make us all serfs with him as our lord.
You nailed it, Jim. It really makes me consider putting all my writing behind a paywall and not into the internet at large. And being fussy about that paywall, too. Because we all know plagiarists are already grabbing entire publications at Medium. So their paywall is no barrier. But I do have an idea I'm pondering on. Will share it once I start. And yes -- billionaires seem to get off on the idea of having serfs. They might not get to be kings, but they can at least have serfs.
I've never used an AI writer, but I use ProWritingAid and I've played a little with Midjourney.
I have no problem with ProWritingAid and Grammarly's use of AI machine learning. They aren't claiming credit for someone else's content. They are proofreaders, but because they aren't perfect, there's still a market for professional human proofreaders to check the output.
Midjourney and the other AI Art generators, on the other hand, are running into the same problem with using other people's content without credit, let alone compensation. I've read that Shutterstock is starting a fund to pay contributors whose work is used to train AIs, I'm curious how that will go down.
I also read about an indie novelist who used an AI writer to help her write novels faster (I wish I remembered where I saw the article so I could link it, or the novelist's name so I could search for it). She trained it on her own fiction, so she clearly owned the copyrights. It did help her write faster, but after a while, it also caused her to be creatively disconnected from her fiction in a way she was not when she did all the writing herself.
Someone has been adding my writing to a list on Medium. The list is named something like "For My AI" -- that's not verbatim, but it's along that line. So I went to the list. It's more than half my writing with a few others sprinkled in. All my pieces on writing. Not a thing I can do about it.
There's another list on Medium that's called something along the lines of "History AI" -- that's not it exactly, but the list has over 1000 history posts. My measly 34 are in the list. Nothing I can do about that, either.
But for that reason, I'm very interested in the Shutterstock topic you mention. I'm going to look that up. Words would be much harder to track and compensate, of course. But they might set some kind of precedent.
P.S. If you remember the author or run across it again, think of me, k?
Such good analogies and explanations! Thanks for all your digging and deciphering. The clips are great, too :)
As a writer, a composer, a painter - yeah, it sucks that AI may "replace" me. But then, long-haul truck drivers face the same thing. Grocery clerks, receptionist-schedulers, you name it. Why not me, after all?
Personally, I think all profits above a certain (high) level should be mandated to be distributed across the populace so no one has to be dependent on a "job". What would you write if you could have housing, food, and clothing automatically provided? And would you only circulate it on paper (leather? stone?) through underground (non-computer accessible) channels?
Yes, I totally agree with what you say about basically a minimum viable income. If the government is going to let corporations indulge in the practices they do, they should make sure everyone is taken care of via that same system. And glad you enjoyed the clips. :)
It certainly sets up a dystopian prospect for the future, Linda. I believe most billionaires are sociopaths. They have way too much power and an insatiable need for more and they don't care who gets thrown under the bus.
Yup, I agree. When people hoard things with no regard to health or safety, we call them mentally ill. When it's money, we call them heroes. We have a real problem seeing that they are hoarders.
I know, right? Mark my words, that's where some Medium writers will be going. Not all, for sure. Not even most. But some will. There's a smaller pack too. $40 USD for 35K words. That's a post a day, easy. It is depressing.
Wow. “Why do rich people keep working so hard to end jobs that keep the rest of us working and putting food on the table? Because all those “thousands of” companies using Jasper and other AI programs to create their content and web copy and social posts and headlines — they don’t need to hire people like me or you anymore.” Just wow. I was seriously considering trying to get into these kinds of writing jobs... may end up being like a Blockbuster Video investment 🥺
Yeah. I hear you. There's probably still room to get into the field working for small companies in niche fields that AI doesn't write about very well. But maybe a bit like investing in Blockbuster, too. It makes me want to lock down my writing and choose who gets to read it.
Right? I don't have much personal writing anywhere, but I used to write for business sites and magazines. That's all floating around out there. Plus, I did a bunch of ghost writing for a while and that's out there, too. It's kind of sickening.
This is beyond terrifying. Our words are from the heart. We tell a story because we either thought it up from scratch, because we created it loosely based on things we or someone we know has lived through, or because it is a segment of our lives. To imagine words strung together because they’re pulled from the massive “story brain” of the world is sickening to me. This makes me feel lightheaded.
The only place I can find it remotely acceptable is in business, explaining something technical, which has never been personal.
Here's how Jasper is treating copyright. It came to a head because of their art module. You can type in a text description and Jasper will make art. Technically, the art is unique because it comes from the words I type. Like, no one else is going to describe a sunset using the exact same words I do. But according to the Jasper site, all the art created automatically goes into public domain and anyone can use it. I can create art there and sell it, but anyone who sees it and likes it can also sell it. Now imagine if they do that with words.
I was writing blog posts for an seo marketing firm, pretty good job. Their assignment queues dropped and I thought it was their marketing budgets. Now I'm realizing they're likely using AI
Yeah, probably. Kind of sucks, hey? I used to do a lot of posts for an SEO firm, too. But that was a number of years ago. When they started dickering rates I quit.
Your dystopian story is scarier than you say. When Jasper and friends gobble the entire writing world and spit out their psyop-soaked text, humans already influenced by media/government misdirection will be even less in control than now of their own thoughts and reactions. When it gets to the point where AI can "translate" obscurely referenced work by the likes of James Joyce in "Ulysses" and e.e. cummings' challenging syntax, humanity is further compromised by "them rich folks" out there. Unless people take heart from cummings' advice to "dive for dreams or a slogan may topple you," and start a countering revolution, something like an HonorBot to distinguish between true human writing and Botsquawk, we are in for more devastating assaults on our mental/emotional/creative wellbeing.
Yup, totally true David. Years ago I read that almost everything adults "think" they know comes from someone's marketing. Milk is good for us? That's dairy marketing. Butter is bad for us? Nope, that's from margarine marketing. Won't even get into big pharma marketing. Lots of people don't know a fake headline from a real one and don't know what's real and what isn't. That's about to get way worse. If anyone created an Honor Bot, Elon Musk would buy it and corrupt it.
Presumably, an HonorBot would not be for sale when owned by someone incorruptible, if there is such a person left in this "I'm looking out for me, gedda outa my way" society. Don't, for instance, look among the many "scholars" who write Wikipedia blurbs. If you can't believe even them, who ya gonna believe? And then there are today's "scientists."
When I was writing this, I wondered what you were going to say. You're absolutely right. They will need people to keep their drones and robot maids working and in good repair.
Copyright law has been a mess for a long time, in part due to corporations like Disney that want to extend it for millennia. The idea of content produced by AI is bad enough, but if it is being trained by scanning content, then the accuracy of the published "works" is going to reflect the accuracy of what's on the Internet. It's also going to be tainted by stuff that's posted as informational that is in reality advertising. It may help to convince the reading public that content behind a paywall is far better than "free" content stuffed with advertising and nonsense. Bill Gates has already bought up massive amounts of farmland, perhaps hoping to control the food supply. This would seem to fit his seeming agenda to make us all serfs with him as our lord.
You nailed it, Jim. It really makes me consider putting all my writing behind a paywall and not into the internet at large. And being fussy about that paywall, too. Because we all know plagiarists are already grabbing entire publications at Medium. So their paywall is no barrier. But I do have an idea I'm pondering on. Will share it once I start. And yes -- billionaires seem to get off on the idea of having serfs. They might not get to be kings, but they can at least have serfs.
What do I think of the whole mess? I LOATHE it.
I think you should send this piece to every Opinion page editor on the planet.
lol, I would not even begin to know where to look. But it's so not okay.
I'm a former publicist. I know. :)
Seriously your words here need a larger audience
I've never used an AI writer, but I use ProWritingAid and I've played a little with Midjourney.
I have no problem with ProWritingAid and Grammarly's use of AI machine learning. They aren't claiming credit for someone else's content. They are proofreaders, but because they aren't perfect, there's still a market for professional human proofreaders to check the output.
Midjourney and the other AI Art generators, on the other hand, are running into the same problem with using other people's content without credit, let alone compensation. I've read that Shutterstock is starting a fund to pay contributors whose work is used to train AIs, I'm curious how that will go down.
I also read about an indie novelist who used an AI writer to help her write novels faster (I wish I remembered where I saw the article so I could link it, or the novelist's name so I could search for it). She trained it on her own fiction, so she clearly owned the copyrights. It did help her write faster, but after a while, it also caused her to be creatively disconnected from her fiction in a way she was not when she did all the writing herself.
Someone has been adding my writing to a list on Medium. The list is named something like "For My AI" -- that's not verbatim, but it's along that line. So I went to the list. It's more than half my writing with a few others sprinkled in. All my pieces on writing. Not a thing I can do about it.
There's another list on Medium that's called something along the lines of "History AI" -- that's not it exactly, but the list has over 1000 history posts. My measly 34 are in the list. Nothing I can do about that, either.
But for that reason, I'm very interested in the Shutterstock topic you mention. I'm going to look that up. Words would be much harder to track and compensate, of course. But they might set some kind of precedent.
P.S. If you remember the author or run across it again, think of me, k?
Such good analogies and explanations! Thanks for all your digging and deciphering. The clips are great, too :)
As a writer, a composer, a painter - yeah, it sucks that AI may "replace" me. But then, long-haul truck drivers face the same thing. Grocery clerks, receptionist-schedulers, you name it. Why not me, after all?
Personally, I think all profits above a certain (high) level should be mandated to be distributed across the populace so no one has to be dependent on a "job". What would you write if you could have housing, food, and clothing automatically provided? And would you only circulate it on paper (leather? stone?) through underground (non-computer accessible) channels?
Yes, I totally agree with what you say about basically a minimum viable income. If the government is going to let corporations indulge in the practices they do, they should make sure everyone is taken care of via that same system. And glad you enjoyed the clips. :)
It certainly sets up a dystopian prospect for the future, Linda. I believe most billionaires are sociopaths. They have way too much power and an insatiable need for more and they don't care who gets thrown under the bus.
Yup, I agree. When people hoard things with no regard to health or safety, we call them mentally ill. When it's money, we call them heroes. We have a real problem seeing that they are hoarders.
Well that's depressing. Want to split the monthly fee and get 500 articles each? Seriously, that's depressing.
I know, right? Mark my words, that's where some Medium writers will be going. Not all, for sure. Not even most. But some will. There's a smaller pack too. $40 USD for 35K words. That's a post a day, easy. It is depressing.
Wow. “Why do rich people keep working so hard to end jobs that keep the rest of us working and putting food on the table? Because all those “thousands of” companies using Jasper and other AI programs to create their content and web copy and social posts and headlines — they don’t need to hire people like me or you anymore.” Just wow. I was seriously considering trying to get into these kinds of writing jobs... may end up being like a Blockbuster Video investment 🥺
Yeah. I hear you. There's probably still room to get into the field working for small companies in niche fields that AI doesn't write about very well. But maybe a bit like investing in Blockbuster, too. It makes me want to lock down my writing and choose who gets to read it.
That too for sure! I have a lot of personal writing out there.
Right? I don't have much personal writing anywhere, but I used to write for business sites and magazines. That's all floating around out there. Plus, I did a bunch of ghost writing for a while and that's out there, too. It's kind of sickening.
This is beyond terrifying. Our words are from the heart. We tell a story because we either thought it up from scratch, because we created it loosely based on things we or someone we know has lived through, or because it is a segment of our lives. To imagine words strung together because they’re pulled from the massive “story brain” of the world is sickening to me. This makes me feel lightheaded.
The only place I can find it remotely acceptable is in business, explaining something technical, which has never been personal.
Thank you for this eye-opening article, Linda.
Yup. I love that phrase, Joy. It's a good one. We are all helping to build a massive "story brain" that teaches robots to replace us.
Here's how Jasper is treating copyright. It came to a head because of their art module. You can type in a text description and Jasper will make art. Technically, the art is unique because it comes from the words I type. Like, no one else is going to describe a sunset using the exact same words I do. But according to the Jasper site, all the art created automatically goes into public domain and anyone can use it. I can create art there and sell it, but anyone who sees it and likes it can also sell it. Now imagine if they do that with words.
Right? God, if I could figure out how to make a living without the internet, I'd log off and never come back.
Goodness, you write about complex topics so well. Great read and got me thinking about copyright implications from where I live.
Well thanks, glad you enjoyed. :)
Well....damn!
You didn't mention fiction but I'm betting it's in the works. Read 1000 novels in a specific genre then write one.
Question. Can Jasper read a writer's article/blog/novel then emulate the style?
Damn, Ma'am!
That's a good question, Linda. I don't know if it can. I suspect so, but I don't know for sure.
Fascinating essay.
Thanks, Linda
I was writing blog posts for an seo marketing firm, pretty good job. Their assignment queues dropped and I thought it was their marketing budgets. Now I'm realizing they're likely using AI
Yeah, probably. Kind of sucks, hey? I used to do a lot of posts for an SEO firm, too. But that was a number of years ago. When they started dickering rates I quit.
Your dystopian story is scarier than you say. When Jasper and friends gobble the entire writing world and spit out their psyop-soaked text, humans already influenced by media/government misdirection will be even less in control than now of their own thoughts and reactions. When it gets to the point where AI can "translate" obscurely referenced work by the likes of James Joyce in "Ulysses" and e.e. cummings' challenging syntax, humanity is further compromised by "them rich folks" out there. Unless people take heart from cummings' advice to "dive for dreams or a slogan may topple you," and start a countering revolution, something like an HonorBot to distinguish between true human writing and Botsquawk, we are in for more devastating assaults on our mental/emotional/creative wellbeing.
Yup, totally true David. Years ago I read that almost everything adults "think" they know comes from someone's marketing. Milk is good for us? That's dairy marketing. Butter is bad for us? Nope, that's from margarine marketing. Won't even get into big pharma marketing. Lots of people don't know a fake headline from a real one and don't know what's real and what isn't. That's about to get way worse. If anyone created an Honor Bot, Elon Musk would buy it and corrupt it.
Presumably, an HonorBot would not be for sale when owned by someone incorruptible, if there is such a person left in this "I'm looking out for me, gedda outa my way" society. Don't, for instance, look among the many "scholars" who write Wikipedia blurbs. If you can't believe even them, who ya gonna believe? And then there are today's "scientists."
It's distressing. But thanks for sharing.
When I was writing this, I wondered what you were going to say. You're absolutely right. They will need people to keep their drones and robot maids working and in good repair.
Yeah, they will need people to do that. But not very many.
I hear you, Suz. Winter arrived here. Easy to go into hermit mode here, too.