As an attorney, I find it horrifying that my clients will think my education is worthless and they can get a valid legal document through AI. I have recently turned to creative writing as an alternative to my civil practice work, and thinking about how much work I put into my writing as a non published author makes it even worse to imagine these possibilities. It had not occurred to me there would be books added to an author’s profile without their knowledge. Thank you for shedding light on this subject for us.
I find it horrifying that all humanity will be worthless if this goes in the direction that it’s going. All in the name of what, productivity? Saving money? Truly dystopian.
Saving money is the biggest one with my clients! It’s always been bad but they’re getting worse- can’t I just get AI to write my will? Why do I need you for anything? I tell them they are welcome to draft whatever document they want, but they are paying me for my education and experience.
Aug 19, 2023·edited Aug 19, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner
Remember when 2001: A Space Odyssey was considered science fiction? Remember HAL? Remember when critical thinking had a serious place in education? The future seems frightening, because we are moving at warp speed. It’s only the Truth Tellers like you, the ones who become hoarse from yelling, who we can hope will remind us to be David Bowman. Kubrick would like that.
"2001".....was one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen, and I was 49 when I saw it for the first time. Please don't let our future be even remotely like that.
Thank you for sharing this new type of Scam which is attacking authors. Not only must we stand up to this activity and those that profit from it we must let Amazon know that we are aware of these bogus books etc. I would not know about this new problem, if it were not for your post on instagram and in fact, the very next day another author friend of mine found a Biography about herself on Amazon which she was totally unaware of its existence. Her own mother thought that it was real. Thank you Liz!
It’s worse than any of us can imagine. The short term impacts are bad and will get worse. It’s the long term we should really worry about. Potentially catastrophic.
There’s one that’s scarier than that. Most of us know about autonomous weapons that can make their own decisions as to kill or not kill. What many don’t realize that the major powers already have these weapons or soon will. This is one of those radioactive subjects like UFOs. If you’re a pilot you don’t talk about it for fear of sacrificing your career. Criticize AI as an existential threat and right way people think Cyberdyne.
It’s depressing more than anything, because there’s like 20 people in the entire world who think this is a good idea and the other 8 billion of us are like “Oh well nothing to be done about it.”
The one bright side is that I really don’t think people are going to want to read books or listen to music or look at art made by AI. I mean they’ll try it once but I can’t imagine they’d really care.
I think it depends on the format. Would I walk into a museum of AI art? Probably not unless it had some greater purpose and was curated with a human touch. Would I purchase a children’s book with lovely illustrations that I had no idea were AI generated? Entirely probable. Even substack gives you the ability to generate AI art for your newsletters, but so far I have always chosen stock with a credit to the photographer.
Holy hell that’s beyond scary. I shouldn’t be surprised, my husband is a copywriter raised in the agencies of nyc. He’s currently freelancing client side and his creative director outright told him they are plugging his copy directly into AI to teach it to write in his style. It was a gut punch.
Heather, I literally had nightmares about this comment last night. That really is terrifying. Does he have any recourse? What does his freelance contract say? (also, I was fascinated to learn from Jon that a court ruled AI created contact cannot have a copyright; so the brand has no recourse if somebody -human or not - copies their copied work!)
You may know I’m not a fan either. But even ignoring the awful and terrifying ethical and economic repercussions of AI, I find that I already don’t trust what I see or read with my own eyes. When I see an amazing photo or video of a far away place or a beautiful person I assume it’s AI and it’s depressing to know I’m (probably?) right.
Sorry for the nightmares, it is so frightening though. Unfortunately he has no recourse. He was hired for an 11 month contract and because it is freelance they own everything he creates. I’m sure you can relate, having your own writing style developed over years is the definition of personal. Everyday he stays he feels like he is contributing to the problem as they train AI on his style, yet it is a job and all that goes with that. I think it’s rare that he was told that’s what they are doing but is also scares me that this is likely happing to many others. If there were any recourse we’d be on it in a heartbeat. …and that is fascinating that AI work can't have a copyright so on and on it goes!
So scary but true. Maybe trademarking names will need to be the new hot item on baby registries. But, similar to email addresses, we will need to make them unique (like JohnSmith02). Ugghh..
I’ll give that one zero stars for originality, and overuse of trite similes and metaphors 🙃
As an attorney, I find it horrifying that my clients will think my education is worthless and they can get a valid legal document through AI. I have recently turned to creative writing as an alternative to my civil practice work, and thinking about how much work I put into my writing as a non published author makes it even worse to imagine these possibilities. It had not occurred to me there would be books added to an author’s profile without their knowledge. Thank you for shedding light on this subject for us.
I find it horrifying that all humanity will be worthless if this goes in the direction that it’s going. All in the name of what, productivity? Saving money? Truly dystopian.
Saving money is the biggest one with my clients! It’s always been bad but they’re getting worse- can’t I just get AI to write my will? Why do I need you for anything? I tell them they are welcome to draft whatever document they want, but they are paying me for my education and experience.
Remember when 2001: A Space Odyssey was considered science fiction? Remember HAL? Remember when critical thinking had a serious place in education? The future seems frightening, because we are moving at warp speed. It’s only the Truth Tellers like you, the ones who become hoarse from yelling, who we can hope will remind us to be David Bowman. Kubrick would like that.
"2001".....was one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen, and I was 49 when I saw it for the first time. Please don't let our future be even remotely like that.
Thank you for sharing this new type of Scam which is attacking authors. Not only must we stand up to this activity and those that profit from it we must let Amazon know that we are aware of these bogus books etc. I would not know about this new problem, if it were not for your post on instagram and in fact, the very next day another author friend of mine found a Biography about herself on Amazon which she was totally unaware of its existence. Her own mother thought that it was real. Thank you Liz!
Oh, yikes, I hope she was able to get it removed!
It’s worse than any of us can imagine. The short term impacts are bad and will get worse. It’s the long term we should really worry about. Potentially catastrophic.
Yes! I haven’t even got into the political destabilization that’s it’s already causing. That’s a whole other essay and I’m too scared to write it.
There’s one that’s scarier than that. Most of us know about autonomous weapons that can make their own decisions as to kill or not kill. What many don’t realize that the major powers already have these weapons or soon will. This is one of those radioactive subjects like UFOs. If you’re a pilot you don’t talk about it for fear of sacrificing your career. Criticize AI as an existential threat and right way people think Cyberdyne.
It’s depressing more than anything, because there’s like 20 people in the entire world who think this is a good idea and the other 8 billion of us are like “Oh well nothing to be done about it.”
The one bright side is that I really don’t think people are going to want to read books or listen to music or look at art made by AI. I mean they’ll try it once but I can’t imagine they’d really care.
I think it depends on the format. Would I walk into a museum of AI art? Probably not unless it had some greater purpose and was curated with a human touch. Would I purchase a children’s book with lovely illustrations that I had no idea were AI generated? Entirely probable. Even substack gives you the ability to generate AI art for your newsletters, but so far I have always chosen stock with a credit to the photographer.
Holy hell that’s beyond scary. I shouldn’t be surprised, my husband is a copywriter raised in the agencies of nyc. He’s currently freelancing client side and his creative director outright told him they are plugging his copy directly into AI to teach it to write in his style. It was a gut punch.
Heather, I literally had nightmares about this comment last night. That really is terrifying. Does he have any recourse? What does his freelance contract say? (also, I was fascinated to learn from Jon that a court ruled AI created contact cannot have a copyright; so the brand has no recourse if somebody -human or not - copies their copied work!)
Yes! Thank you for this piece!!
You may know I’m not a fan either. But even ignoring the awful and terrifying ethical and economic repercussions of AI, I find that I already don’t trust what I see or read with my own eyes. When I see an amazing photo or video of a far away place or a beautiful person I assume it’s AI and it’s depressing to know I’m (probably?) right.
My thoughts on AI and our fake new work https://open.substack.com/pub/roxsar/p/that-one-singular-sensation?r=3a36f&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
“Don’t ask me to defend AI - I won’t. But does it surprise me that we’ve gotten here? No. I think we’ve just gotten better at lying to ourselves.” 💯
Sorry for the nightmares, it is so frightening though. Unfortunately he has no recourse. He was hired for an 11 month contract and because it is freelance they own everything he creates. I’m sure you can relate, having your own writing style developed over years is the definition of personal. Everyday he stays he feels like he is contributing to the problem as they train AI on his style, yet it is a job and all that goes with that. I think it’s rare that he was told that’s what they are doing but is also scares me that this is likely happing to many others. If there were any recourse we’d be on it in a heartbeat. …and that is fascinating that AI work can't have a copyright so on and on it goes!
So scary but true. Maybe trademarking names will need to be the new hot item on baby registries. But, similar to email addresses, we will need to make them unique (like JohnSmith02). Ugghh..
Dear Liz,
I don't know what you're so worried about. AI is super double-plus good.
Stay frosty!
Your friend, John Billy
How do I know you are really John Billy? Please DM me a photo of your license and Social Security card immediately.
You don't need a license to drive a yacht, Liz.
Touché. My palace or yours?