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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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