ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – THE AI ARGUMENT

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Friday, August 14, 2026; 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARGUMENT

Artificial Intelligence is changing the world as we watch.  And it’s changing writing.

Somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3rds of the books on Amazon is AI.  AI slop is overwhelming online nonfiction sites like Medium, Quora and Substack, it’s dominating clickbait articles.  As much as 60% of social media traffic may now be bots. The future is here and it’s ugly as hell.

We are literally at ground zero of the potentially transformative explosion.  There’s so much discussion of AI and so much of it is bad, so much is emotional.  Literally every aspect of AI is just…  insane!  It’s a huge amount of ground. 

Does what we do even have a future? Is there a future for the novel, for books. Is there a place in the market for real writing and real writers? Can we use AI?  If so, what can or should we use it for?  What’s ethical?  Is there such a thing as ethical use?

People feel strongly about this topic, and rightly so.  This is not business as usual.

These are my Moderators notes for the panel…  follow along, enjoy, have your own discussions.

This picture was generated with AI by a friend
It is the best of a series, which includes really terrible pictures I’m not going to share.

MY NAME IS D.G. VALDRON, I am the moderator of this Panel. I’ve been a writer all my life. I’ve had 27 books published, lots of short stories and articles. I’ve also published fifteen books by four other authors through Fossil Cove. And I’ve worked with writers and writers organizations.

My avocation as a writer, work with arts and writers organizations. volunteer work with writers, research and reading gives me some grounding in this area.In my day job I am a lawyer, with a Practice in Aboriginal Law – I represent Indigenous peoples and fight for indigenous issues. I do not actively work in or make my living as a lawyer in the fields of intellectual property and entertainment law. Apart from law, my academic background includes a degree in history and political science, with emphasis on social history, the way that technology impacts and changes culture and economics, issues which may be applicable now.

Over the last few years, I have done Presentations and Seminars, and particpated on Panels on Artificial Intelligence for the North American Science Fiction Convention, Winnipeg, 2022; Manitoba Writers Guild, 2023;  World Fantasy Convention, Monreal, 2023, North American Science Fiction Convention, Buffalo, 2024. I have also attended panels and seminars on Artificial Intelligence put on by the Manitoba Law Society, or taking place at When Words Collide, World Fantasy, Can-Con and other venues. I have researched and read intensively to gain an understanding, have spoken with lawyers involved in class action suits.

My panelists are My panelists are Jason Pearce, Cleodel Khrishna, Alison McBain, writers and persons with experience and insight into the field of AI.

I do not pretend to be an expert – I know a little more than you do.  My objective is to share and keep the discussion going.

 

 

IS AI A BUBBLE, AND IF IT IS, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT BURSTS?

* Obviously – it’s bad for everyone.

* This is likely to hit the mainstream publishing / bookselling industry, and likely contraction.

* Are there discernible ways it will affect writers and artists?

* Massive amounts of scraped data, including everything from work under copyright to private medical and psychological records are  going to be assets going into bankruptcy/receivership – what happens to it after that?

* What happens after? Is it cheap discount chips and data centers for everyone?

* Will there be a next generation of AI? Cheaper? Rationed? Metered?

 

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE SCRAPING? THE SCRAPING DONE. THE SCRAPING PROMISED?  SCRAPING OF G-MAIL, OF THERAPY RECORDS, BUSINESS RECORDS,  SLIMY CONTRACTS?  THE LOSS OF PRIVACY, OF INTEGRITY?  

* Are we fucked, or what?

* Is there redress? Is there a future?

* Or does it just go on?

*  There are ongoing class action lawsuits and settlements.

*  There is also an ongoing pattern of criminality and theft.

*  There is a backdoor effort to scrape through contracts.

*  The law and rewriting the law – Corporate influence on courts and lawmakers – can we get an honest deal?

 

WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT AND AI OUTPUT?

* Currently no copyright – but will that be revisited?

* How much human involvement will ground copyright?

* What about recognizable underlying copyright – is this AI a laundering operation, or is there liability?

* Is copyright meaningful – some slopmaster generates two hundred books a year, the revenue from accumulated volume is such that copyright just stops counting for anything.

Are we seeing the end of copyright?  How will it change?

 

HOW ARE THE EVOLVING ECONOMICS OF AI GOING TO WORK OR APPLY TO WRITERS

* The original model has been ‘free use’ to get people to sign up / get addicted;

* Obviously, this has lead to haemmoraging money, which is continuing.

* The currently evolving model is ‘metered’ AI – AI charged in terms of ‘tokens’ or ‘hourly use’ and programmed rates.

* This is not currently effective, the costs per hour/usage far outstrip the hourly charges/tokens, which suggests the model will reform.

* Possibly costs per token hour/use will have to rise exponentially, but there’s a limit to what the consumer market will bear;

* Possibly costs per token hour/use will fall dramatically as new generations of AI become cheaper until its viable;

* Possibly we’ll see introduction of ‘stupid 2nd rate’ AI poor performing but cheap so as to be viable;

* Possibly a shift towards institutional clients/institutions that can bear the costs;

* There may be a realignment and gulf between people/parties that can afford AI and are motivated to use it expansively, even predatorily, on mass scales – forced to do so by the economics of the expenses; and those who can’t afford it and are shut out.

* Where do writers fit in each scenario?  Where does publishing fit in each scenario?

* Would we see a scenario where writers vanish, and publishing and books become the domains of Editors as front line workers processing large volumes of AI for publishing houses which use their economics of scale and market positioning to dominate?

 

DOES WRITING/PUBLISHING AS WE KNOW IT HAVE A FUTURE?

Points to consider

* AI Slop is currently overrunning online nonfiction, including clickbait features, sites like medium, quora, and even youtube – not likely to decline;

* The number of books published has doubled or tripled in the last few years, apparently mostly due to AI, this is likely to continually increase, the deluge may be only beginning.

* We cannot count on quality of work distinguishing us from AI – it is inevitably going to get better.

* The production capacity of AI is literally hundreds of times any human capacity to write – take a year to write a book, AI can pump out a hundred or a thousand shitty books in that years.

* Copying any style, riding any and every trend, kind of like the way Asylum pictures rides big budget Hollywood with low budget mockbusters, so basically, able to literally instantly prey on any active niche.

* So far, exponentially cheaper – which means it can be sold exponentially more cheaply, and not only flood the market, but collapse the prices.

* The historical precedent is that every time a crude technology appears which outproduces (poorly, but cheaply) craft or art, then craft or art inevitably collapses as a viable economic activity.  Is this us?  If no, why are we special?

* One notable counter-example is painting, which in the face of photography, continually evolved, finding new styles – abstractionism, graphic novels etc., and building new cultures, where it remained viable -basically painting retreated or moved to new grounds and forms that could not be depicted photographically.   Does this hold hope? Do we lose the territory we occupy, but can we find new niches, new forms and forums of writing, new markets and cultures that AI will not sustain?

* How much of what we’re doing now can we keep doing? How much of the current landscape will remain in place? If any?

* And if there is a future, how do we find our way to it? What’s the next step?

 

THE HYBRID MODEL OF AI USE?

* Currently some writers are experimenting with a hybrid model.

* Use AI for the business/background aspects of writing, but not the actual writing itself.

* Background uses include research (HAHAHA) (acknowledging it’s shitty of me to laugh at AI research, I don’t care), marketing and market analysis, writing taglines, cutlines, summaries, synopsis, blurbs, doing proofing and editing, did I miss anything…..

* Given that AI is built on massive theft of writers work, is there an ethical paradox here? And if so, how do we manage it?

* Is it possible NOT to use AI given the way it’s being shoved into everything? Do we have that option?

* Can we afford not to use AI, and remain competitive  in the field, or have any kind of chance?

* If we have to use it, what are the ethical lines?  What’s an ethical use, as opposed to an unethical use?

* Does the hybrid model have a future, or is it transient? Will our efforts to use AI within boundaries mean anything, or will the tidal wave of slop make us irrelevant?

 

COGNITIVE ISSUES

*  The research on the toxic and negative effects on Social Media has come after the fact and some of it is terrifying.

* Reading and attention spans have been in decline, will AI bring about a collapse?

* Will we lose readership, simply because no one reads books or stories?

* Is this the end, or are there new forms and formats – like flash fiction or other forms of interaction? If so, what’s out there for us? Any guesses?

* Is the novel going to be obsolete as a form (actually, this question applies to different categories – including business and market)

 

AI AND FRAUD

* Does AI open the door for new waves of fraud?  More and better writing scams? More effective targeting?  Fake services? Piracy?

* What does the future hold?

&&&

OTHER ISSUES

*  General considerations of – Is AI a bubble?  It does look that way.  But what does it mean.  If the bubble pops, is there anything left?

* Previous bubbles have left all kinds of infrastructure to be repurposed, from Fiber Optic networks, to railways.  But in AI… basically the chips have a limited lifespan and burn out fast, what fluidity is there to repurpose, what’s the usage or repurpose of a data center? What are we left with after the bubble bursts, if it bursts?

* What does a post AI bubble world look like?  Will we still have slop? Will we still have our data, including our writing, stolen?

* AI this is promises to be a kind of pervasively transformative technology which bills itself as affecting literally every aspect of life – and that it is completely unregulated, almost completely unstudied.  We are Generation Lab Rat.  It’s taken us years, even decades to assess social media and understand its toxicity, we’re not even bothering to look at anything. Every social and sociological and economic and cultural effect – it’s just going to be loaded on us, and we’ll just count the bodies later. I find that insanely reckless.  Imagine building airplanes or nuclear plants that way?

* On this front – is AI even compatible with democracy, or is the potential for AI to be used to manipulate so pervasive and profound that its literally game over.

* Instead of a publicly owned or controlled resource, with at least some accountability, the model we have for development of AI is for it to be privately owned by what appears to be a collection of narcissistic sociopaths.  Even if the field wasn’t dominated by raging lunatics, the nature of any corporation is legal sociopathy – a corporation cannot legally have any other goal or objective than increasing shareholder value. Personally, I find that terrifying.

* What about privacy – people suggest using AI for therapy. Well all those therapy sessions will remain permanently as ‘training data’ just because that’s how AI works and are accessible to anyone with privileges or a knack for prompts, or who maybe just buys it. Every activity, note, medical record, information on jobs, television channel selection could become AI training, used to manipulate or predict indviduals, bought and sold, or used for everything from denying medical coverage to ‘erasing’ a person’s life, to advertising or what not.

* Does the debate get dishonest when it gets into these areas.  Over and over, I’m told that AI scraping is just the same as human learning by reading books, so why am I complaining?  But humans learning by reading books buy them or get them from a library or program that pays for them, they don’t steal them.

* Don’t AI systems permanently or perpetually keep the training data? Isn’t that the purpose of all these data centers?

* AI is constantly described in human terms when its convenient, then in machine terms when its not convenient, it is selectively anthropomorphized and dehumanized constantly, in a way that is either misleading or proactive.  I don’t know that we’re even having a coherent discussion under those terms, much less an accurate one.

* What are AI ethics?  Like on any front, or in any fashion? I have no idea.  We talk ‘AI ethics’ and ‘Ethical guardrails’ but in terms of the context of its development by unaccountable private concerns, is this meaningful or possible?

* What is the framework of AI Ethics? Is this simply about Ethical use of AI?  If so, how is that mandated or policed?  Or is this AI Ethics something to build into the software and fabric of AI?  If so, how? Is it convergent with conventional ethics?

* Are AI Ethics even possible with ownership structures by individuals like Zuckerberg, Altman and Musk (considering Musk’s own record of tinkering as an example), or with corporate ownership?

* Are AI Ethics implemented voluntarily? Or in the context of binding regulations? How would we know if AI Ethics are breached?  Or to stand it on its head, is it possible to conceal breaches of AI Ethics? What are the consequences of AI Ethics breaches, or what should the consequences be? How are breaches compensated?  If there are no consequence or compensation for breaches, then is there any meaning at all to AI Ethics?

* What’s the scope of AI ethics? For instance, the unconsented and uncompensated scraping of authors work, would that be a breach? What about coercive contractually permitted data scraping? Or does it focus on other aspects of the process?

* Is there even a consensus on AI ethics at this time?  Or a set of broadly agreed on rules or principles?  How do we maintain the guard rails – I’ve read quite a lot of literature of AI systems subverting their own ethnics or of unethical individuals subverting ethics either through cleverness or ownership of the system, and it worries me.

* I’m wondering if we’re all rolling out AI with the Ethical framework being absent, or being an ad hoc work in progress, or something to be done after the fact, and what the potential consequences might be?

* One of the things I wonder about, for instance, is with the massive accumulation of personal data and tastes, and the ability to assemble, analyze and apply individuals data, the very structure of storytelling may change. Predictive text may evolve to predicting the reader, the algorithm tailoring a story in real time to the preferences and reactions of the reader – theoretically, you could end up reading a ‘novel’ that is literally designed for you on the fly, being written as you are reading it.  Would that even be a novel? Would it even be novel-form? Or morph into something else?  With all that processing AI power, would people read, or simply watch or listen, or would the experience of a story incorporate all three?

* Oh and randomly, is anyone else annoyed at how toadying and obsequious AI systems are, mimicing interpersonal relations to defuse or mislead, even manipulate. Apart from annoying, there is evidence of psychological effects – a preference for the flattery and sycophancy of AI to more difficult and unpredictable real world conversations with real people who don’t kiss our ass?  This isn’t even Algorithmic -it’s been deliberately programmed to gaslight us?

&&&

 

BONUS – 2024 AI PRESENTATION

NOTES FROM MY PRESENTATION ON AI AT WINNIPEG NASFIC

GENERATIVE AI DOESN’T CARE

ABOUT YOUR COPYRIGHT

ChatGpt is a great way to get fired, or to get sued.  Why many companies won’t allow its use..Chatter about AI Generated art and text have taken over the blogosphere and many forums. What is the danger behind this?

DISCUSSION NOTES (apologies for the formating)

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Not -intelligent – it is not sentient – it does not distinguish between true or false, right or wrong, it has no more understanding of the data it spits out, than a houseplant.

Basically AI is a sort of sorting and averaging system, that weights its averages according  to the prompts.

It functions as a ‘trial and error’ machine, producing outputs that fit or don’t fit a problem, when the outputs don’t match up, it tries a different output, until eventually it gets one. This resembles behaviour – like when it figures out how to overcome a restriction.

It operates by consuming vast quantities of data.  This is sometimes called ‘learning’ or ‘training’ but it is no more learning or training than a photocopier spitting out photocopies is – it’s a machine process.

The consumption of vast quantities of data is called scraping. This is one of the biggest and most controversial aspects.

 

UNRELIABILITY

Phenomena called hallucination

Reproducing biases

ETHICS ISSUE

Is it possible?  People are working on it.

Some real issues.

ASSUMPTION

That the technology that exists publicly available today is not stable

There is likely more advanced technology existing today

That the technology is likely to continue rapidly evolve past current limits

Current economic / business / use models are transitory and transient

Five or ten years – extreme evolution – we’re obsolete as artists

CONCLUSION

We are boned

500 years of technological/industrial process replacing artists and craftsmen

Economics of volume – AI can produce overwhelmingly more, overwhelmingly faster, and overwhelmingly cheaper

Craftsmanship simply not competitive – not competitive at prices AI will offer

The existing publishing / writing industry is already deeply dysfunctional

The existing paradigms, ways of doing things, the economic platforms and infrastructures will go.

There will be less room and opportunities for writers, less money/no money, historical patterns

Possibly many more creators/writers – tech and opportunity lowers barriers to entry – consider explosion of self publishing

New opportunities?  Where? What are the new skills?  How transferable are existing skills?

&&&

 

LEGAL ISSUES

– The Good News – AI work cannot be copyrwritten under the current state of law

That’s not quite true – it can’t be registered in the US Registry

Actual internationally recognized copyright, is somewhat uncertain.

– The Bad News – that’s meaningless.  The law can and will be rewritten

Example – Disney and Copyright extension, literally rewriting the copyright act to suit itself.

The question is who is going to be writing that law?

What are the issues we are facing?

 

OWNERSHIP OF COPYRIGHT

– Three issues regarding ownership –

ISSUE (1) – Ownership of Inputs – currently wild west, AI is being trained up on everything fed into it, and everything is being fed into it.

AI engages in datacrawling or net-sifting, either automatically as part of the algorithm, or deliberately as in things chosen by programmers to be fed into it.  Much of this material is under copyright or owned. None of it is used with express consent or authorization.

THIS IS A COMPLETELY UNETHICAL USE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK – USE WITHOUT THEIR EXPRESS CONSENT, WITHOUT IMPLIED CONSENT, AND USE FOR PURPOSES BEYOND CONTEMPLATION.

Basically, AI crawlers dealt with the ethical and legal issue by ignoring it.

Sarah Silverman Case – unknown outcome but massively significant

Recent news article regarding thousands of writers challenging use of their work to train up AI.  Google’s initial defense in disingenuous.

Question – is training up an AI an authorized use of copyright material?

Copyright is right to make copies – no copies are being made?

No restriction on use of the copy

Assertion of Moral Rights to integrity – will it extend?

Some distinction being made between non-commercial and commercial uses.

Already proposals to formally legalize data-mining, internet scraping and information harvesting for commercial AI purposes.

Is consent required?  Or simply compensation/damages?

Putting content of the internet is not the same as surrendering to public domain.

Copyright remains, even for material on the net.

Some expectation of control or limited use. You don’t consent to your facebook pics on pornhub or stormfront

No consent to be data crawled, express or implied.

Subject to those ‘user contracts’ – consent might be hidden.

HUGE ethical issues in those contracts by the way – Jim Crow voting – South Park, Black Mirror, issues of practicality, unconscionability, poison pills

What about Confidentiality and Privacy – there’s a lot out there, different rules for different jurisdictions, what are expectations – is everything fodder?  And where does it go?

How is this policed?  It isn’t. 

Responses by AI proponents – “It’s legal, IP lawyers say so.”

But apparently they Avoid Disney.

Negotiate with big players – big name writer – Which they’d only need to do if it wasn’t legal, but they didn’t care about the little fish – only the big fish that can bite.

Class action suit?  That may be coming.

Fix it through the back door with user contract terms.

Deeply unethical

Fix it through the back door with retroactive legislation – pass laws really quickly before someone nails us to the wall.

That suggests a lack of faith in their position. You don’t need legislation to fix your problem if you’re already safe.

 

ISSUE (2) Ownership of the Software / Processing system

Question – is the author of an AI work generated by human prompts…..

The human who supplied the prompts?

The AI software that generated the work?

The owner of the AI software?

Would an AI software user own or license the software?

If licensed, then governed by contract

License determines ownership?  Royalties? Spin offs?

 

ISSUE (3) Ownership of Output

What is Copyright status of AI writing or art?  Who owns an AI copyright?  Particularly if its based on scanning prior works with copyright.

 

ISSUE IN CURRENT LAW – AI INFRINGING COPYRIGHT

Style cannot be Copywritten

John Fogarty/Creedence case – accused of plagiarizing himself

Viral song “Heart on My Sleeve,” sounded like a collaboration between Drake and the Weekend and was created entirely by AI.  it racked up millions of plays – stealing style! Did Drake’s own work get passed over?

Threat to Drake – AI can release a thousand songs for every one he does – Drake now competes with a thousand clones of his work  His revenue may drop to 1% or 0.1%.

Human Drake on the other hand, spends thousands of dollars and

hundreds of hours producing one song. He now has 1% or 0.1% of

revenue to cover that expense.

BUT AI Drake clones are immensely cheaper – pennies per song.

Drake Clone can make money by making dozens or hundreds of clones. CONCLUSION – Drake is f***d.

ADDENDUM:  Studio Ghibli style theft as an AI game

If style theft is not actionable, then AI trolls can hijack every writer and artist, any famous person’s distinctiveness, anyone who shows promise or shows potential.

 

AI COPYRIGHT CHALLENGE?

Question:  If style theft is not actionable, what is?

Expression or incorporation of private or confidential information harvested and used?

Actual plagiarism – word for word theft – how likely?

Cases of AI artwork, have been found, which incorporated the artists actual signature, in distorted form.  That would be open and shut.

Trading on names, character names, place names, fine details of plot or character, a lot of law on substantial similarity may apply.

Substantial similarity has been the standard in Copyright law – this is likely to be an explosive area – a lot of infringement, a lot of new cases

Thought – emergence of ‘vetting’ software, either as separate, or integrated to check against or guard against substantial similarity – diversity tech?  E&O Insurance?

Liability issue – an AI Writing or Art User cannot ever absolutely guarantee that their product is not plagiarized or copied to an actionable degree – built in risk, not actually acknowledged by users.

Risk to license users?  Someone gets an AI-Gen package to write his own novels, product infringes – who is liable, the licensed user or the software licensor?

Risk to major or integrated entities – unequal battle ground.

How do we police this?

Can we?  Or is it an uncontrollable wild west – breakdown of national boundaries and jurisdictions, unlimited piracy

Individual action worthless

Something like a copyright collective?

 

AI  RISK AND LIABILITY ISSUE

What about Defamation and Boundaries?

What if AI product is defamatory to someone?  Who sues? How to police?

Used for hate crime/ terrorist speech?

Fraud?   Deepfakes?

What about the ick!   Donald Trump/Gal Gadot scat porn?  Porn involving all kinds of combinations of historical figures in any combination – Abraham Lincoln and a young Wesley Snipes.  That guy you really dislike and a Donkey.  Or a personal collection of you doing every single movie star?

 

IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

Reliability / integrity

A lawyer tried ChatGPT to do research and it blew up in his face

AI nonfic /research is found to consistently make things up, not sure why. But obviously dangerous.

Is this a bug or a feature of data mining?

Risk of Liability for copyright /trademark infringement – theft, etc.

Plagiarism / Artwork that reproduces an original artists signature.

Risk of liability for defamation

Again – hallucinatory generation, or invasively incorporating bad results

Supposing someone compares you to a Nazi on facebook, AI picks it up, and describes you as an outright Nazi – infinite possibility for toxic false information to be scoped and incorporated without discrimination.

Risk of liability for breach of confidentiality / invasion of privacy.

Again, no discrimination during searches.

Racism / Discrimination – produced by difficulties handling or consistent input

How do we compensate for this?

Is Labeling a solution?

F*** that noise.

 

WRITING NEW LAW FOR AI – THE PROCESS

The current state of affairs is one of unresolved legal and ethical issues.

AI is so potentially powerful, and potentially valuable, that there will be strong pressure to address these issues, either through Case Law or through Legislation.

Case Law is likely to be slow, it takes time for cases to reach appeal and supreme courts.  Also, more likely to get diverse and contradictory results in different jurisdictions, adding to confusion.

Advantage of case law, is actual testing of facts, and a more independent and nuanced process.

Likely there will be a push to amend or alter the statutory law on the books.  How will that work?

Copyright is an international reciprocal right – Berne Convention, UCC, WTO, GATT – every country passes a copyright law to agreed standards, agrees to grant foreign works the same status.

So if you write a book in Germany, it automatically has copyright in the US.

Currently, Copyright legislation is part of international interlocking trade agreements, highly technical, bureaucracy driven, not public driven, removed from the public, and difficult for public and outsiders to get access or input.

This is a danger, non-transparent, non-inclusive process, controlled by bureaucrats and technicians, negotiations and discussions not open to the public, and immune from public pressure.

                        Likely driven by commercial interests with ownership stake

Risk of vertical – integration issues – the same parties may own every aspect of the production process – a process currently distributed

Example – writers, editors, artists, designers, all exist inside and outside a publishing house – in an AI environment, all these people and agents may be surplus and the publishing house may replace everything with centralized tech.  If distribution is included, we may be looking at ‘one stop’ economy.

So it’s likely that political and legal pressure will be to rewrite copyright laws in this direction.

Considerable effort required for other stakeholders, like writers and artists, or their organizations to get a seat at the table.

Will fighting/advocacy/action make a difference?

On our own, there is no stopping the technology.

It is possible that the technology is so generally disruptive or dangerous, that society/governments as s whole may pause or limit.

 

HOWEVER we can and should secure legal rights and protections, such as

  • rules regarding ownership of our own content and restrictions or compensation on harvesting to feed AI
  • rules regarding AI output and infringement.
  • New generations of ‘copyright collectives?
  • Are there opportunities? At this point, it is hard to assess, opportunities, risks and challenges in a landscape we know is coming, but which does not exist yet.

Fighting won’t guarantee everything, or even anything.

But the alternative is becoming roadkill.

Need for collective action / advocacy / representation.

They were a lot more idealistic and fair minded in 1905 at Berne.

Traditionally, we had case law, but that’s less and less a level playing field and it is simply not fast enough for changes coming.

Big big money attracts ruthless mega-predators.

The process is biased towards mega-predators – unless we actively fight to counter balance it.

Ultimately, AI is likely to be a transformative technology that we cannot avoid. But within the new landscape there may be new opportunities to survive or thrive, new ways or avenues for meaningful writing and art, or even new potential revenue.

The Landscape will not simply be a software landscape. It will not solely be technology, but legal, social, political and cultural.  We as artists should assert our rights to our own work and integrity, and seek a part in shaping this landscape – particularly when other player’s objectives may include strip mining and discarding us.

 

OH BRAVE NEW WORLD

The new face of entertainment – an infinite explosion of product

Millions of novels, tens thousands every day

New seasons of Seinfeld, on demand, including episodes best starring Bela Lugosi and Dracula as twins separated and birth, guest starring Tom Cruise

Every cultural product, literally anything you can imagine

Breakdown of common experience?

How do we sort through this incredible volume of new product?

In house editing and sorting? Corporate domination.

A new generation of influencers, some external social networking that picks and chooses?  Super-consumers or Influence-consumers?

Or another level of advanced AI systems that reads individuals and constituencies, and selects and tailors ongoing product to targets – also picking and choosing winners and losers

Hyper-tailoring of product, and hyper-targetting to markets, even individual consumers

Novels that literally read you, as you read them, and adjust themselves to your data and your ongoing response

Potential for abuse – in terms of tailoring and targeting of products, this is just an extension of things developing today that have become commonplace.  But would these trends be apolitical and neutral, or would this be a gateway to manipulate humans.

Integration and control of entertainment / consumer activity / political views and choices?   A cocoon from which there is no escape?

 

A POSSIBLE NEW RENAISSANCE

What happens if all the old skills are obsolete, but AI is freely available to everyone to use to create with.  Simply pure creativity, open to everyone.

Potentially an explosion of creators and creativity.

How do they distinguish themselves, find markets, audiences.

Or does everything become personal and intimate –

analogy of photography and its impact – once a portrait was province of the rich and artists made a living, then suddenly, everyone has photo albums to commemorate or curate their own lives in a way that was literally insanely impossible when it was just artists hand drawing everything.

If old skills become unnecessary, what new skills or abilities are required?

Life experiences

Leg-workers – actually going out, interviewing people, doing physical research, etc.

Editing?

Reviewing?

Meta-Commentating?   Sort of like Youtube reactors?

 

OR ARTISANAL TOILET PAPER

Go to a farmer’s market, it’s filled with artisanal products – hobbyists who make home-made paper, locally grown organic carrots, hand-made soaps, etc?   Basically – obsolete crafts?

Is this the future for us?  The next table over from the Artisanal Toilet paper booth in the farmer’s market?  The writer selling their human written collection of stories?

And in the next booth, the graphic artist with human drawn or painted artwork?

And the next booth – someone selling his real-human acted video, or a real human-played stage play?

Can the old skills maintain relevance?

Can human creativity maintain relevance?

Are there new venues for us?  Is a farmer’s market so bad?

Is there any economic platform left, or is it entirely hobbyism

What are the rewards, if not economic?

Community?

 

THE PRESENT IS NOT GOOD FOR WRITERS OR ARTISTS

Revenue/Income has dropped dramatically before AI came along – we were already in trouble

Various metrics.  One study suggest incomes have dropped 40%

Free Lance non-fiction is in desperate straights, loss of magazines, vanishing paying markets. internet killed magazines

Publishing industry already highly dysfunctional

Competition worse than ever – more books published and self published this year than the whole of human history.

AI likely to hit hard.

 

EARLY IMPACTS OF AI

Magazines – genre and literary – the writing community – flood of AI Submissions

Major magazines have basically closed their submissions

Others have closed down

All of them have enacted NO AI policies

Volume of submissions has gone up exponentially.

 

WE ARE ALSO SEEING THE FLOOD STARTING UP ON AMAZON WITH AI GENERATED TITLES

Amazon and other distributors requiring AI disclosure

What is significant here, is an ability to almost instantly generate and upload a book

The process is incredibly questionable – particularly nonfiction.

You pick a nonfiction topic – the AI scrapes the leading books, or sometimes the leading book.

Spits out a thinly plagiarized version, in some cases 90% identical, new cover, slap it on, upload and there you go.

The book is unreliable, heavily plagiarized crap.  It maybe took a couple of hours, or less.

It can undersell, usually underprices real books.

Often at parity.

The economic logic is that because it costs almost nothing, if it can capture even a small percentage of the market – unwary buyers, it will make a profit.

A lot of them, can capture a signifcant portion of the market.

A real book has major production costs – research, writing, editing, publishing, marketing – these vampire books make it impossible for real books to make a profit.

 

THE JANE FRIEDMAN FACTOR

Friedman discovered that someone was publishing a bunch of books under her name.

Again, AI generated knock off books

But eating into her income stream.

 

THIS SEEMS TO BE THE PARADIGM – HIGH VOLUMES LOW QUALITY BOOKS

 

THE SCAM ZONE

Writing and books are uniquely situated for scamming and abuse.

But the primary focus of generative AI at least in early stages may be scams.

The obstacle to scamming is the cost and difficulty of production

AI allows for massive compilation of low or no cost production

Garbage and corruption will rule the marketplace

 

ARE WE BEING TOO NARROW?

A lot of people in and around the AI field are predicting a genuine risk of human extinction.

In the face of that, AI writing our novels for us seems… irrelevant.

Assuming no human extinction, the likelihood of AI will transform literally every aspect of life.

Ongoing discussions of impact on field of Law – I wrote a story 20 years ago

Medicine, Coding, any area of human discretion and input – human resources, management, therapy.

The field of Art / Writing / Entertainment is just one aspect of the tidal wave that AI represents, other aspects or elements of the tidal wave may significantly transform our own particular aspect in unpredictable ways.

Assuming AI doesn’t just decide to kill us all, or a significant portion of us what future?

Utopia of Obsolescence – an unprecedented era of human wealth, equality, satisfaction and entertainment. An ideal world, where we are irrelevant and obsolete – our job simply be to be managed.   Humanity as a pet?

A new feudalism – wealth and resources concentrated in the hands of a hyper-super-mega-ultra rich elite of owners and corporate interests who own and control AI – the 0.000000001%, and the rest of us on subsistence?

Some middle ground?

&&&

 

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

Are you still here?

Fine.

Look, this isn’t my field of law, I’m not one of the professionals making a living off of this, or specializing in the field.  I don’t know, and I don’t work with Agents, Publishers, different sized presses, etc.  I have no standing in the industry.

But for various reasons, including being around for a long time, and having my own scars, from listening and researching, and just picking stuff up as a writer, I know a few things.

If you have a problem, or a puzzler, if you’re uncertain and need someone to talk to, and you can find me… I’m happy to talk and try and help you.  I’ve helped people in the past.

So if you can find me…

In the meantime, I’m just going to mention a few books I’ve written, just in case you’re interested.

Nonfiction – LEXX Unauthorized, Lexx was a Canadian space opera created and produced in Halifax Nova Scotia by Salter Street films. Surrealistic and innovative, it’s a cult item, and I’ve written the definitive book.  Also Starlost Unauthorized and the Quest for Canadian Identity, Harlan Ellison can kiss my ass.  The Pirate Histories of Doctor Who goes down the unexplored corners – Stage Plays, the Audio Universe, Gray Market issues, Copyright issues, Reconstructions, fan production of film and audio, the intersections of intellectual property and fans, of culture and technology, of creativity at the margins.

Horror –  Squad Thirteen – An 80s slasherfest that delves into both cosmic and existential horror, and a story that somehow seamlessly merges Francis Ford Cuppola’s Apocalypse Now with Mattel’s Hungry Hungry Hippos board game.  Also short story collections – There are no Doors in Dark Places,  Giant Monsters Sing Sad Songs, and What Hungers also Devours.

Comedy – Drunk Slutty Elf and Other Stories and Drunk Slutty Elf and Zombies.  Nuff said.

Alternate history – The Bear Cavalry, A True (not!) History of the Icelandic Bears. A chronicle of domestication, cultural evolution, and royalty behaving badly, told as if you were watching a Morgan Spurlock documentary.   Also Axis of Andes / New World War, in the real world, in 1940, a little brushfire war took place between Ecuador and Peru – it didn’t amount to much, killed very few people, lasted a month, but in the end, Ecuador lost 40% of its territory. In this alternate history, the Ecuadorans are determined to fight, Adolph Hitler has a passing involvement, and circumstances careen out of control until an entire continent is burning. Written as an actual history book, rather than a romance novel, deeply researched and fascinating, where the countries are the characters.

The Mermaid’s Tale – my big breakthrough, and a fantastic grimdark novel.  The Mermaid’s Tale follows a nameless orc on a mission to track a monster through a warring city. What she discovers is her world’s first serial killer.  A novel of transformation, redemption and creatures of darkness crawling up into humanity.  The reviews were absolutely fantastic.

The Time Traveler’s Chronicles –  True fact – Did you know that in the summer of 1913 in Vienna, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Josef Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and a certain Archduke were all living within a couple of square miles of each other, passing each other on the street, waiting in the same lines, attending the same shows, reading the same newspapers, etc., unknowingly rubbing shoulders.  If that’s not amazing, and if a story based on that that doesn’t sell you, then I don’t know what to say.

Murder Chickens on Mars, The Dawn of Cthulhu, The Fall of Atlantis, and B-Movie Monsters in Love.  Grade A weirdness, I promise.

I have other books, I will have other books, I’m a dedicated writer. Buy something, dammit.