I’ve generally been keeping quiet about the various ongoing controversies regarding artificial intelligence, because it’s a complicated topic that a lot of people on various sides of the argument like to reduce to small talking points. Further, for a long time it was largely a topic of academic interest to me instead of an immediate concern. Until recently.
I was pointed to a recent article in the Atlantic about how 183,000 books were used by Books3 to train Meta's AI LLaMa. It turns out that one of my books was used. There was a link to a searchable database, but that link is now down (presumably due to Meta’s lawyers).
"Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence" by mikemacmarketing is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
For those not in the know, what this means is that the text of my book “Watson is Not an Idiot” was acquired and used as part of the dataset of LLaMa. I have, effectively, written content for Meta. I’m not being reimbursed, compensated, or credited for that work.
Now, given that I’ve worked on over 200 books, games, and whatnot, odds were this was bound to happen. While it happened on one of my lowest-selling books, it is a book I actually get royalties for. So this is lost income, although how much income is lost is, most likely, on the scale of “a few pounds at most.” Still, I’m pretty sure Meta is good for a few pounds, and I’d like that money.
At the moment, there isn’t a heck of a lot I can do, because there’s no way I can hire a lawyer able to take on Meta with any reasonable success. Luckily, I am a full member of the Writer’s Guide of Great Britain, so I’m investigating my options through the guild (as they have made their policy position very clear). To wit:
Currently AI developers can use bots to ‘scrape’ or ‘mine’ writers’ work from the web and use it to ‘train’ their tools, without the knowledge or permission of writers. AI systems are also unable to ‘unlearn’ material once it is ingested, so once it has been ingested it will remain in that system forever.
Many AI developers are not transparent about what data has been used to train their tools, meaning writers cannot tell if their work has been used.
The WGGB believes that AI developers should only use writers’ work if they’ve been given express permission to do so. 80% of respondents to our survey ‘somewhat agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that, “AI developers and systems should seek permission from writers before using their material.”
So we’ll see what happens. Surprisingly, none of my RPG work seems to have been scraped, but I suspect that’s only a matter of time. So it’s best if I draw a line in the sand here now, so I’m ready for the next wave. And while I’ve been off Facebook for years now, I’m seriously considering doing the same with Instagram now, because 2023 is apparently the year of me having had it with social media company bullshit.
Anyhow, these are the realities people like me face right now, and I try to share the good and the bad with you in these monthly newsletters. Let’s move on to some happier news, shall we?
News Roundup
It’s been a while since I talked about Realms of Pugmire, but we’ve had some progress on that front. First, I’ve started writing art notes for Realms, meaning we’re getting ready to buy the rest of the art for that book. Second, I have final drafts for the upcoming enemies book, Threats & Curs, so that should be going to editing soon. Finally, the cat supplement The Curious Cats of Mau has first drafts in. The inestimable Lauren Roy is helping me develop that one, and she’s been doing a fantastic job giving that team the help and support they need. So already there are three books in various stages of completion, with lots more to come!
Nick Olivo did a review of my Roll20 module “Revenge of the Super-Skrull.” Check it out!
Finally, I’ve started (well, restarted) a Cohost account to do more long-form blogging. I planned to document my move to the UK, but I fell off the wagon for a variety of reasons. I’m back, documenting my process from around late January, and hopefully I’ll be caught up soon.
My Media
For the past few years I’ve been increasing my knowledge and appreciation of manga. I started primarily because I discovered a while back that manga is the fastest-growing area of sequential art sales in the world, and I approached it purely as a professional seeking to understand a new way of telling stories. Since then I’ve become a fan, although admittedly a haphazard one.
However, recently I discovered a company devoted to more diverse manga called Saturday AM. They produce several digital anthology magazines by people all over the world, and featuring more diverse characters. And honestly, they have some great stuff. I could talk about most of them all day, but in the interests of space here are three I’ve grown particularly fond of.
The Massively Multiplayer World of Ghosts (Oscar Fong, Frederick L. Jones) is about Nilay Rao, a teenager who is bad with games that is sucked into a world where video games and card have real power. It’s absolutely Yu-Gi-Oh meets Digimon, but it’s actually surprisingly compelling, as long as you’re willing to accept that the game mechanics are made up to service the plot.
Apple Black (Odunze Oguguo) is a fantasy battle manga. Humans acquired fruits called “Black” that gave them magic powers, but their power has faded over the generations. However, a young sorcerer named Sano is believed to be a savior known as the Trinity. It’s an interesting spin on the “Chosen One” trope.
Finally, Gunhild (Fred Tornager) is about a teenage fire Jotun who grew up among humans and decides to become a god. It’s a little silly, but Gunhild is a fantastic character, and it’s really fun to see new spins on Norse myth.
You can order physical copies of each volume (called “tanks”) from most manga supplies and online. You can also subscribe to the magazine to get access to all their back issues for a few quid a month, or get a large chunk of their work via Humble Bundle right now. Honestly, if you like comics at all, odds are you’ll find at least one series that grabs you.
Whoops, I need to get going to get my flu jab, so I’ll wrap it up here. See you next month!