Artificial Intelligence and Publishing

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Thanks but I think I will stick to deciding for myself what I think is good or bad when forming opinions for any given subject as opposed to forming my opinions on what someone else believes I should think.

Hey, I'm not telling you not to have your own opinions. I was just reacting your own admission that you didn't "like" to think something. So on the outside chance that you didn't realize you didn't have to think it, I merely made a suggestion. But by all means, keep putting the cart before the horse if it agrees with you.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Out of curiosity, what would "embracing AI" look like for publishers?

You asked Apache, who may have a totally different answer. But this web page gives one model:

HarperCollins, Microsoft AI deal sets first public price for training data

The agreement calls for Microsoft to pay a fee of $5,000 per title, split 50-50 between the author and HarperCollins. The deal allows the AI developer to use the data for a period of three years. Payment would be made directly to the author and would not count against a title’s advance.

This deal is surely unavailable to self-published authors. I wonder if it requires a publisher with an attorney who can credibly threaten to sue.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

And as for the comment of Amazon has tons of drivel, by who's definition? One person's drivel is another person's favorite kind of book to read! Enough with the blanket statements.

In my opinion. Too many of the ebooks published by Amazon and others are attempts to jump on whatever bandwagon is currently popular with complaints that many of those copycat books skirt the edge of plagiarism. As has been noted with several complaints about books where the names have been changed but all else is pretty much a word for word of another book as the horrible examples.

A lot of the AI created books on Amazon and elsewhere are dreck with the usual AI hallucinations—this from one person I know who has actually gone to the trouble of downloading hundreds of samples from Amazon and Kobo and then running the samples through several AI detection utilities. The ones that were flagged as AI were purchased—that most of them were 99¢ helped so the total expense wasn't that high though a few eyebrows were raised when looking at his expense reports. The downloaded books were again analyzed and they are now having fun crunching the data and trying to write their thesis. Hopefully, once they have finished and defended their thesis, more information will be available.

As Sturgeon's revelation put it, 90% of everything is crap. Sadly, AI generated content drives that number a lot higher.

I will admit to having read several books that I suspected were AI generated but still better than many human authors' 10 finger exercises.

[John F]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

You asked Apache, who may have a totally different answer. But this web page gives one model:

HarperCollins, Microsoft AI deal sets first public price for training data


This deal is surely unavailable to self-published authors. I wonder if it requires a publisher with an attorney who can credibly threaten to sue.

This sounds like it has possibilities. Customers could have custom written "drivel": "Chat gpt, generate a novella in the style of Steven King with a story line by Lee Child". Full disclosure by all parties, and all parties agree on terms.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by John F

Customers could have custom written "drivel": "Chat gpt, generate a novella in the style of Steven King with a story line by Lee Child". Full disclosure by all parties, and all parties agree on terms.

Did you try it at chatGPT.com?

They give a couple hundred words described as the "opening," and then say:

Want me to continue the full novella—maybe 15 to 20k words, broken into chapters? I can write it piece by piece, serialized like an old-school pulp thriller. Let me know your preferences: tone, level of horror vs. action, or if you want a twist ending.

Are they already paying King and Child to allow this? Anyone know?

If not, I consider this far more objectionable than the Internet Archive COVID lending model that U.S. courts have ruled against.

[John F]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Did you try it at chatGPT.com?

They give a couple hundred words described as the "opening," and then say:



Are they already paying King and Child to allow this? Anyone know?

If not, I consider this far more objectionable than the Internet Archive COVID lending model that U.S. courts have ruled against.

I'M trying to look at it as a glass half full.
If everyone agrees to terms, seems like everyone could get what they want?

[John F]

"AI might undermine one of the better alternatives to the Kindle"

https://www.engadget.com/ai/ai-might...123039955.html

Kobo, a Rakuten subsidiary that sells ebooks and ereaders, has built its name on being a more open and author-friendly version of Amazon Kindle. However, a recent change to the company's self-publishing business has some writers worried that reputation might change. Last month, the company updated its Terms of Service for Kobo Writing Life, its publishing platform, which opened the door to AI features on the platform. With that new contract language going into effect on June 28th, authors seem no clearer on what it will mean for their futures on Kobo.

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