Worldcon and the MWA betrayed its writers by using AI
Why is this still a thing?!
I’m sorry, I know, two newsletters in two days, but this is worth saying…
I’ve got a piece in an upcoming issue of Writer’s Digest, about why writers shouldn’t use AI. This is for a variety of reasons, including:
The tech’s horrendous impact on the environment
It is frequently inaccurate
It is lazy, like using a forklift to move weights around at the gym
But most importantly:
The entire system subsists on stolen and pirated material
That last one is pretty important. We recently learned that Meta accessed databases of pirated books to train their AI software. My books were in there, which automatically makes me part of a class-action lawsuit against them. Fun! I can’t wait to get ten dollars, six years from now.
The goons who run these companies are literally lobbying for copyright laws to be abolished so they can feed our work into their machines. Which underscores a pretty important fact: THEIR TECH DOESN’T WORK WITHOUT STEALING SHIT.
They can’t afford to license stuff… or maybe they can, but how else would they afford their superyachts? So their brilliant solution is to remove one of the few ways artists are able to protect their work and support themselves.
The goal here is replace us. This is what the tech industry does. It finds a problem that’s not really a problem, and tries to fix it by breaking a system that may not have been perfect, but it was paying someone else and not them.
If you don’t need to pay writers, think of the savings!
Which brings us to Worldcon and the MWA.
Recently we learned that Worldcon, a major science fiction convention, used AI to vet panelists. Specifically, they used it to research potential panelists for problematic things that might disqualify them—like if they’re racist or transphobic.
They did the right thing the wrong way. Obviously you don’t want to put some homophobic dipshit on a panel at a prestigious convention, but they could have just… taken a few extra minutes and done the research themselves.
Because, as I mentioned before, artificial intelligence is frequently inaccurate. Whatever information you get from those dumb machines needs to be fact-checked anyway, so maybe just… do the research in the first place? Cool, you saved ten mintues but you wasted a reservoir’s worth of water.
Then, there’s the Mystery Writers of America. The MWA hosted the Edgar Awards on May 1. This is like the Oscars of the crime and mystery world. And they used AI-generated images in the ceremony’s video presentations.
From Publishers Weekly:
An opening video, surveying treatments of the genre on the big and small screen, was narrated by a creepy AI version of Humphrey Bogart, complete with imperfect lip-syncing, later followed by one featuring an even creepier, black cat-holding, artificially-generated Edgar Allan Poe.
I’ll give this much to Worldcon: at least they were trying to make a laborious process more efficient. They shouldn’t have done it, but it’s not as egregious as the MWA, which probably boils down to “we thought it would be cute.”
I am going to say this as clearly as I possibly can:
This was a slap in the face to every writer in attendance at the Edgars.
Because probably every published author in that audience has had their books stolen and fed into the grinder. Which means probably every published author in attendance is part of that class-action suit against Meta.
It is no secret that the writing community at large despise AI, for it’s laziness, for it’s lack of imagination, and for the way it’s stealing the things we make to create revenue streams that will never touch us.
For these professional organizations, which are supposed to support and protect us, to then use that technology, in any way, is an utter fucking embarrassment. It is out of touch in a way that, in a fair and just universe, ought to result in resignations.
I used to be members of several professional organizations, including the MWA, and in the last several years, I let a lot of those memberships lapse. I had no idea what I was getting from them, other than the pleasure of paying money for them to host readings and events I wasn’t invited to, or didn’t feel welcome at.
There’s a larger conversation to be had, about the way a lot of these organizations do nothing to reach out to writers of a younger generation—the up-and-comers who could carry the torch for them into the future. But it’s hard to look at them and not feel like they’re little fiefdoms run by and for the people who are already “in the club.”
And maybe it’s my fault for not engaging with them in a more active way… but if this is how they comport themselves, I have no interest.
Anyway, keep an eye out for Writer’s Digest article. I wrote the piece months ago, and it’s already been laid out, so none of this latest bullshit will make it in; consider this a companion piece.
In case you missed it yesterday, I’ve got some events coming up, including a party for Christa Faust’s new book The Get Off, later this month, and the launch of the next book in the Assassins Anonymous series, The Medusa Protocol, in June. Details and RSVP info is here.
The best description I've heard of the goals of AI is this: "AI seeks to give capital access to talent while denying talent access to capital." The Bogart/Poe AI "movies" cut to the heart of the matter: tech bros are stealing from artists of all kinds & seeking not to replace writers, painters, film makers, etc. but all artists & art itself as a medium of human expression, not to mention as a way to make a living. Creatives in all mediums need to show solidarity if they expect to succeed in push back, let alone financial lawsuits.
Younger generation? Man, I'm a GenXer and I felt those words. I've never been able to clearly state how it makes me feel to know people have used AI in their art. Well said and explained. When I was in my teens and twenties, I would have thought it was genius - a new form of art! But I had Star Trek in my mind back then. The reality of the AI we've been handed is that it was developed underhandedly by unscrupulous people who do not care about anything but wealth.