On a RampAIge
Wins and losses for writers and artists in the AI world
If you care about the creative industries, you should also care about AI.
Right now, artists of all types are fighting to protect their copyright and their very livelihoods against generative AI systems that, allegedly, have consumed vast quantities of copyright-protected works. (Open AI even go so far as to say that their system can’t work any other way).
There aren’t many wins for creatives right now.
If you’re an artist, you will want to be aware of Open AI’s proposed lame-duck opt-out process: https://www.chrislynch.link/2024/05/07/openai-offers-an-olive-branch-to-artists-wary-of-feeding-ai-algorithms/
If you’re a software developer, you’ll also want to know what’s going on at Stack Overflow right now: https://www.chrislynch.link/2024/05/12/why-i-want-to-delete-my-stack-overflow-account-even-if-they-wont-let-me/
There is a growing list of legal cases against Open AI and other AI companies that have used copyright-protected work without consent, including by some major newspapers. However, with news sources such as the Financial Times striking licensing deals, smaller publishers and rights holders may get left out of the picture.
I don’t have a good answer for writers and artists looking to protect their rights, other than to watch this space carefully.
In the meantime, work continues on Return to Neverbury. I’ve got six stories completed now. They are longer than the stories in the original, so I’m already at a very similar word count. I’m currently divided on whether or not to keep the length the same with fewer stories or to add some more stories and make Return a longer book than Welcome to Neverbury.
I also found time to go and explore a pirate ship, which I’d love to say is research for a book but was really just for me…
