Fresh from CBR (who I suspect is using AI to write their articles on anime tropes)!
https://www.cbr.com/george-r-r-martin-sues-openai-chatgpt/
If you are interested in the wording of the lawsuit, you can follow the link here.
(pours a goblet of Dragon’s Milk)
Alright, let’s get into some side issues here.
First of all! This is a “class action” lawsuit. Legally, that means an individual or group acting on behalf of a larger group, known as the ‘class’.
The Author’s Guild, including such names as the G.Reat beaRded glacier Martin, John “you will read this dramatized court transcript and you will love it!” Grisham, Jodi “let me tell you about my family” Picoult (whose individual case I briefly covered here), and a variety of others who I don’t recognize, are representing their members’ way of life.
I repeat.
Way of life.
Remember that. Especially for such huge names and unforgettable styles as these, the name and the style is the way they make their money.
Stories are a dime a dozen, but style is unique.
The lawsuit points out something that speaks to the two sides of the issue.
“The AI could have been trained with public domain works.”
And, owning a few digital copies of public domain stories, I can assure you that there are many excellent stories that you can have for free. Well-written, well-loved, and uncopyrightable.
So why train off of these big names?
(sips the Dragon’s Milk)
Because, I guess, it sells.
This wasn’t an artistic decision solely.
I mean, it is one thing to say, “Gee, I like Martin’s style and Picoult’s passion and Grisham’s cleverness, I wanna write like them some day”.
It is another thing entirely
to make a computer program that does the writing
for you
for money.
Or to sell that program to others
for who-knows-what purpose (as we saw with Picoult’s case, linked above).
It takes money away from the writer,
who (in most but not all cases) needs the money they get
from teaching eager writers,
offering tips to eager writers,
showing up at conventions packed with eager writers,
and risks invalidating all the seniority work it took
to become a writer that other writers look up to.
And for all that I will joke that “perhaps AI will finish “The Winds of Winter” if Martin croaks before then”
I would much rather that Martin write the story he wants
and release it in a complete form
SOME TIME THIS CENTURY
or just hand the job over to Brandon Sanderson,
but don’t give it to a program.
I’m glad this lawsuit is happening.
(finishes the goblet)
And you will not hear those words out of me very often, so nota bene.
I am not a member of the Author’s Guild.
I might never be.
I don’t know I ever want to be a member of any guild at all.
But I am an author,
and I am a writer,
and if these authors can defend their work,
their voice,
their style,
their lives,
from unwanted encroachment and a sort of mental theft,
then some day,
I can, too.
Best of luck to them,
and may the odds be ever in their favor.
Uncle Hat's Writing Resources 
Leave a comment