Apparently, it's called theft, too

July 14, 2023

My inbox is always full of surprises. Some are good, some are bad, and some confirm a suspicion I've had. The latter came in the form of a letter from The Authors Guild.  

The Authors Guild is calling on the CEO's of AI platforms to obtain consent and compensate - fairly compensate - authors for the use of copyrighted materials used by their AI products. They have provided the opportunity for authors to add their digital signatures to the letter. There are numerous well-known authors on the list of those who have done so, including Nora Roberts, Jodi Picoult, and Diana Gabaldon to name just a few. The list is so long it crashed my browser when I tried to scroll through it. 

If my poor understanding of AI (artificial intelligence) is anywhere near correct, I get it. 

AI tech is built on models. Where did the models come from? What was used to create the models? From the writing found on the Internet. What writings are found on the Internet? Yours and mine, fellow authors. Yours and mine. 

I do know how to read and put two and two together. AI mines the Internet for data and it doesn't make any distinctions or allowances as to where it finds it. It has no conscience, no awareness, no morality. 

Were you paid anything when your words were pirated? Because that's what just happened. And that is, plainly put, theft of intellectual property. 

I'm glad The Authors Guild is taking up the fight. I don't expect much to come of it. Follow the money and you'll understand why I feel that way.    

    _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 

http://kckendricks.blogspot.com

Visit my bookshelf at: 

https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne_3.html

Social media links:

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys

twitter.com/kckendricks

pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards

instagram.com/kc_kendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

KC Kendricks, Between the Keys, AI, artificial intelligence, piracy, intellectual property theft, contemporary gay romance, m/m romance, Authors Guild, 

The dilemma of artificial intelligence (AI)

 June 4, 2023

The current WIP stands at about thirteen thousand words and our heroes are about to get friendly, at least sort of friendly. I haven't decided just how friendly they're ready to be, but something will happen. Will it bring them closer or shake them up? That's the point I'm pondering. 

I'm "pondering" many things these days. "Ponder" is a word I grew up with, and I don't often hear it used now. People today say they're going to "think about it," but ponder, to country folk, has a deeper meaning. To ponder is to focus on a problem, issue, or question until you understand it from several angles. Pondering takes time and often prayer, prayer being a sort of meditation. 

AI, or artificial intelligence, is in the news. The pros and cons of AI is being widely discussed on social media. Hell, Congress is even having discussions about it for all the fucking good that will do. Twitter is lit up with authors discussing and questioning the validity of adding it to their body of work. 

If you use Artificial Intelligence to create a short story, poem, novella, or novel, can you claim to have written that piece of work? 

If you use AI to create a work of fiction and don't disclose the fact, is that dishonest? 

If you use AI to create a work of fiction, who actually owns the copyright? Do you own it or do the creators of the application used own it? 

If you use AI to create a work of fiction and then you market the book without owning the copyright, are you in violation of plagiarism laws? 

If you use AI to create a work of fiction and it's determined both you and the creators of the application share the copyright, do you then have to share the royalties? 

My poor little questions are the tip of the iceberg. 

Using AI to create a work of fiction, a love story for example, may not have much impact on society, but what if AI is used to generate works that are marketed as TRUTH? I read the works of Clive Cussler and David Wood, action-adventure stories that contain a smattering of facts to make the story more believable. They market those books as fiction, of course, but what if someone else begins to write in that genre and markets it as a true adventure, one that really happened? What if people believe it really happened and the lie becomes the truth? 

Call me a Luddite if you want to, but I'm not at all convinced AI is a good thing. Avarice will taint this thing. I fear the desire some hold to be famous and rich will warp all common sense, casting many into a pit of their own making. The need to be part of the "in crowd" and on the cutting edge has been the downfall of many. Folks, don't hop on any bandwagon until you know for sure where it's headed.  

It will be years until the AI fallout is fully recognized. It may not be in my lifetime. But I see one thing as certain. I will be on guard and I will be vigilant about it.

And for now, I'll be adding a note to my copyright notice in every new book that it was NOT created using any AI beyond the inescapable spellchecker. 

_*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
Visit my bookshelf at: 
https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne_3.html

Social media links:

twitter.com/kckendricks

pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards

instagram.com/kc_kendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

KC Kendricks, m/m romance, AI, artificial intelligence, copyright, gay romance, LGBTQ, spellchecker, Congress debate, social media

Bookish Moods and AI

February 9, 2019

A lot has been going on in my corner of the world. The spousal unit continues to improve following neck surgery. How long this will last I can't guess. The occupational therapist has him taking things out of MY cupboards and putting them back - the Medicare dollar at work. The first time he breaks something, I'm taking a day off work to break her. 

My stepfather is whining about not being able to drive. Does he really think I'm enjoying doing his grocery shopping and hauling his arse to doctor appointments? Nooooooo. This morning my duties include taking his trash to the landfill. Fun? Nooooo. 

At the day job, the boiler failed. Half the building has no heat. All of the interiors of the building is
covered in a layer of fine soot. Luckily, my area is heated/cooled by a heat pump. My office was far enough away from the furnace to be barely impacted. I dusted, changed the air filter, and got back to work. Instead, I should have milked it into working at home for a week. 

On the writing front, the Grammarly project has hit about twenty percent completed. The 

Amethyst Cove books are finished, as are A Friendly Neighbor, A Perfect Hire, Lightning Shifts, Desert Snow, Doors of Time, Eye of the Beholder (I must get that uploaded today), The Ghost at the B andB, Hey Joe, and Passion's Victory. I don't know if it's vitally important to my readers that I'm doing this exercise, but it matters to me. It's feeding all those author-ish masochistic tendencies about how foolish it was to pay for "professional" editing. I know I learned a lot from working with editors but you know how we all gripe about those things we view through hindsight. 

Not that the Grammarly system is perfect - far from it. It can take off with you in the middle of a correction and drop you pages away. Very annoying. That little glitch might be adding problems if the system fails to go back and pick up that spot. The major plus is I feel better about the books because I'm at least attempting to improve them. 

I'm sure the Grammarly folks will continue to improve their product. After all, we should all write in one voice, shouldn't we? Therein lies a rub. We should not. We should all sound like ourselves. A comma here or a comma there is not as important as an individual voice. I see that in the number of "suggestions" I decline to accept, especially in dialogue. People should sound like people, not echoes of the robotic. 

Cautiously embracing artificial intelligence makes me feel like a sell-out. It goes against one of my core values that says individuals are more important than the tools they use. On the other hand, this tool may have earned its place in the writer's arsenal.  I suppose like any other tool, it's all in how you use it. 

But enough finger chatter (that's my current slang for typing). Daylight has arrived and my coffee cup is empty. I need to upload the updated Eye of the Beholder manuscript and maybe even get Bored, Stroked, and Blueprinted back out before the demands of the day crash down on my head. 

Because once I've fulfilled my responsibilities to dog, cat, spouse, and stepparent, I'm going to close the door and hide in my office. I may even get some new writing done. Or should that word be accomplished? Where's the AI when you need it? 

KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
twitter.com/kckendricks
facebook.com/kckendricks
pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards
instagram.com/kc_kendricks
My country life at Holly Tree Manor