{"id":584620,"date":"2023-07-27T19:43:33","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T16:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-this-canadian-author-wants-ai-companies-to-pay-up\/"},"modified":"2023-07-27T19:43:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T16:43:33","slug":"why-this-canadian-author-wants-ai-companies-to-pay-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-this-canadian-author-wants-ai-companies-to-pay-up\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why this Canadian author wants AI companies to pay up"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Photograph by Ellis Parrinder)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

More than 10,000 members of the Authors Guild, America\u2019s largest organization for writers, recently co-signed an open letter<\/a> urging AI leaders at tech companies like Open AI (owner of ChatGPT) and Meta to stop using their work without permission or compensation. \u201cMillions of copyrighted books, articles, essays and poetry provide \u2018food\u2019 for AI systems, endless meals for which there has been no bill,\u201d says the letter, featuring the signatures of industry bold faces like Margaret Atwood, Jennifer Egan and Dan Brown. Linwood Barclay, the Toronto-based king of crime thrillers, is another notable name on the list. \u201cFor so long, AI was in the realm of science<\/a> fiction,\u201d says Barclay. \u201cIt feels like since ChatGPT came up, we\u2019ve taken this huge leap forward.\u201d Here, he talks\u00a0about the looming threat to writers and why AI novels will be the Big Macs of literature.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with why you co-signed the letter from the Authors Guild.<\/b><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I got an email from the International Thriller Writers association, and then shortly after, I got a second letter from the Authors Guild. Both expressed the same concerns around the impact of generative AI technology<\/a> on our profession. There is the broader concern around AI supplanting humans in creative fields, but more specifically, our open letter addresses copyright infringement. Tech companies are using our work to teach their AI tools how to write and tell stories, despite the fact that we have not given our permission.<\/p>\n

The way I see it, let\u2019s say you\u2019re the Ford motor company. You get a Toyota and dismantle every last aspect of it, take it apart, see how they made it. And then you copy all of those components in your own vehicle and sell it as your own. If you did that, I\u2019m sure there are umpteen industrial laws that would come to bare. If that\u2019s wrong, then so is what\u2019s happ<\/a>ening with our work.<\/p>\n

How are AI companies obtaining your work?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not entirely sure\u2014I\u2019m just a guy who writes stuff. I know that it\u2019s not difficult to find pirated versions of my books and audiobooks online, so it\u2019s certainly possible that\u2019s what\u2019s happening. Trying to get that under control is like herding cats. Or maybe the tech companies are buying the material. You can get some of my work on sale for $2.99, so not a big investment if you\u2019re planning to rip it off. There are some authors, including Sarah Silverman, who are suing AI companies for using their work. I say, good for them!<\/p>\n

The open letter is calling for regulation, rather than trying to stop what\u2019s going on. Is that because you feel it\u2019s inevitable?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

When you look at the history of new technology, it doesn\u2019t get stopped. If it can be done, somebody will do it. There\u2019s this feeling of inevitability, like we\u2019re trying to stop a boulder from rolling down the hill. I think that\u2019s why the message is: \u201cIf we can\u2019t stop it, let\u2019s find a way to control it.\u201d If you\u2019re going to feed our books and our material into this computer, then we want consent and compensation.<\/p>\n

Any thoughts on what reasonable compensation might look like?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there are thoughts, but that\u2019s why authors have agents who come up with formulas. If somebody wants to turn your book into a TV show, then they option it for a small fee. If they actually make the movie, you get paid a larger amount, and there are other stipulations too. I\u2019m not sure how to deal with the additional layer of determining when AI is using your work. That, to me, is an intense quagmire. I don\u2019t know how it will get sorted. I\u2019m hoping I\u2019ll be dead first.<\/p>\n

Tech leaders have argued that generative AI like ChatGPT is digesting material, not copying it\u2014more akin to learning than stealing.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

My son-in-law and I were chatting about this the other night. He was playing devil\u2019s advocate and asked, \u201cHow is this different from when copyrighted literature is used to teach students, who could then go on to write their own book?\u201d I think the difference is that you are still doing the work yourself and putting your own stamp on it. The AI is consuming and \u2018learning\u2019 with the sole objective to reuse and manipulate for profit.<\/p>\n

How can you tell that the generative AI tools are being trained on the copyrighted work of published authors and not, say, Reddit<\/a> threads and Wikipedia posts?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

If you were going to steal food, would you steal steak or a Big Mac? It just makes sense. It\u2019s hard to confirm because the tech companies aren\u2019t very transparent about the process. My understanding is they\u2019re throwing all of these books into a blender, so what comes out is five per cent Linwood Barclay, five per cent Harlan Coben, 15 per cent Margaret Atwood\u2026<\/p>\n

And then suddenly there is no need for actual Barclay or Coben or Atwood because the robo-writers have been trained on their work?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Exactly. That\u2019s part of the reason the Writers Guild of America is striking. Those workers are concerned that companies will shovel in all of this data and then tell AI to give them a thriller about a terrorist stealing a nuclear bomb in Moscow. Maybe you\u2019re paying a human to do some touch-ups, but you\u2019ve saved yourself $500,000 on screenwriters. If we can do that with movies<\/a>, what about art and music? I was going to say food, but we already have AI food. It\u2019s called McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but notice that\u2019s your second McDonald\u2019s diss\u2014\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I love a Big Mac once in a while, but it really is computerized food. The point is that it doesn\u2019t stop with writers. If everything creative is created by machines, then who is it for? Are we going to be entertained by \u2018art\u2019 that has been manufactured? I don\u2019t think so. I saw a tweet from John Cleese<\/a> who asked why we can\u2019t use AI to replace executives instead. All they deal with are data and balance sheets. I\u2019m sure that Disney\u2019s Bob Iger could be replaced with some sort of AI that could make all the decisions he gets paid $35 million to make.<\/p>\n

Does this new frontier feel sudden for you? Like all of a sudden we\u2019re living in what used to be the plot of a Steven Spielberg movie.<\/b><\/p>\n

The latest AI developments are a huge leap forward, like somebody just invented fire or the wheel. It\u2019s funny because when you look at Star Trek<\/i> or Ex Machina<\/i> or The Terminator,<\/i> the fear was always that robots were going to seize control. There\u2019s no movie about robots coming to write our poetry.<\/p>\n

Where does this leave writers? Asking for a friend.<\/b><\/p>\n

Everywhere you turn, writers are getting squeezed. Their content is being distributed online, and we live in a world where everybody thinks that because it\u2019s on the internet, it should be free. Incomes have already gone way down over the last couple of decades, and now you have publishers looking to create content at the lowest possible cost. Is there a way to throw 20 John Grisham or James Patterson novels into an AI program and then generate five plot lines that you pay some junior employee to throw together into a book? I don\u2019t know how good it can be, but what\u2019s sad is that it doesn\u2019t necessarily matter.<\/p>\n

Have you read anything written by AI?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I have read the output where someone asks ChatGPT a question and then you see what comes out. What I\u2019ve seen was impressive, but it\u2019s not literature. If there is an AI novel, I\u2019m not aware of it. It\u2019s not like I go into Chapters asking for the robot author section.<\/p>\n

I was at an event recently where the speaker joked that writers don\u2019t need to worry about AI because AI doesn\u2019t have childhood trauma.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon Pegg, the actor from the Mission: Impossible <\/i>movies, said something similar. What AI program can write about what it\u2019s like to lose your parents or live through an illness or welcome a child?<\/p>\n

You are in your mid-60s with many blockbuster novels to your name and financial security. If you were earlier on in your career, would you be looking for a new line of work?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Even before what\u2019s going on now with AI, it\u2019s become so hard to become a successful author. Publishers are less inclined to nurture a writer through several books that don\u2019t do well. There was an article after Cormac McCarthy died saying that the career he had wouldn\u2019t be possible in today\u2019s industry.<\/p>\n

Tech giants aren\u2019t known for doing things out of the goodness of their hearts. What\u2019s your next move?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I think what we\u2019re doing now is subjecting all of this to sunlight, so people know what\u2019s going on. Studios and publishers may be trying to create as much content for as little as possible, but in the end, maybe the marketplace will decide that we don\u2019t want to watch crap created by a soulless machine.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, does any of this get your creative juices flowing?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I did a book last year that was about a test community of self-driving car users on Martha\u2019s Vineyard\u2014a virus gets introduced and all of the cars become homicidal. After surrendering control to technology, is it possible to go back? It was a lot of fun to try my hand at sci-fi, but it\u2019s not my usual thing. They\u2019re are other writers who are better at that than I am.<\/p>\n

Like maybe robot Linwood Barclay?<\/b><\/p>\n

Exactly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n