I’m not a fan of this topic because it’s a heavy quagmire of technical lingo while also crossing over the legal threshold and getting the lawsuit treatment, which means fitting those square techno-pegs into round legal holes.
We’ll see how the lawsuits pan out, but the takeaway will give the AI producers better guidelines. And AI will move forward. Does the technology generate new material or a ripoff of copyrighted material? That’s what the lawsuits will determine. Is the artwork AI creates sufficiently transformative, or is it simply derivative? Transformative is a legal use whereas derivative is a copyright violation. Who knows the right answer?
In the end, it’ll sufficiently evolve. Will we be able to work it into our own efforts, or will we fight it tooth and nail to the bitter end? It is coming. The best thing you can do is hone your craft and improve your storytelling to where no one else is doing what you’re doing at the level you’re doing it.
Surrender? No, but grow with the times. It is 2023, after all. We were already supposed to have died five times over from global cooling, global warming, the H-bomb, pestilence, World War III, drought, overpopulation … so many ways we were supposed to be wiped from the face of the planet. But we’re still here, and so is AI.
At some point in time, I’ll play with it. Right now, I’m not touching it. I’ll wait until the lawsuits are resolved, so I don’t have to redo or unlearn something. It’s hard enough to write the book the first time, let alone do it over. I have too many books to write to be walking backward.
AI. It is the future. Will it replace humans? I sure as heck hope so, but in the realm of physical labor, cleaning, and those things that take us away from our more cerebral endeavors. Exercise the mind, and do great things.
Some people will use AI to generate a great deal of new content in very short order. Can’t do anything about that except build a readership based on your work right now. They’ll keep coming back to you because they like the books you write. There’s also world-building. Build the intellectual property within which you can use AI to generate stories—you and no one else. To the IP owners, the spoils. Spice is life!
Be the recipient of derivative revenue. Sit back on a beach and retire. That’s just one outcome. There are plenty of other alternative timelines. Start writing yours today.