PSA: "Shaxpir" AI writing software: AVOID!

The tl;dr: A guy is selling subscriptions to an AI-based software tool to "help you write better novels." And to train it, he's used tens of thousands of novels from authors you know, without those authors giving him permission.

...Sometimes things seem to blow up with unusual speed. This particular shit seems to have hit the fan yesterday, primarily on Twitter, when various authors discovered the guy's website, prosecraft.io. This site featured "clippings" of writing from the authors he'd stolen from... and the revelation that he had scraped their entire books, not just excerpts, to train his AI. ("2,470,720,986 words," his website bragged, "from 27,668 books, by 15,622 authors." The only authors who were off limits, apparently, were people using [or paying for] his software.) Though the guy hastily took prosecraft.io down when the online explosions began, if you take a look at this Google search you can see the covers of just some of the books the entire contents of which he exploited for AI training.

This usage goes well beyond the "fair use" defense that he belatedly (and ineffectively) attempted to employ on Twitter. It's straightforward copyright infringement, on a massive scale: good old-fashioned theft.

Gizmodo has a goodish breakdown of the broad situation here. AV Club also has one here.

The only upside to this sorry situation is that, at the legal end of things, this guy is certainly about to get nuked from orbit… because all those authors’ full-text works will still be in the guts of the guy’s AI, which is being used by him for commercial purposes. (Among the authors he made the gross tactical error of stealing from: Stephen King, James Patterson, the Pratchett Estate, and Nora Roberts. This... is not going to go well for him.)

Leverage's John Rogers sums it up succinctly:

ALT

Meanwhile: the guy who created this whole mess is still selling subscriptions to his Shaxpir software (I'm not adding the URL here) that he trained using stolen goods. So—until someone stops him—you might like to reblog this info for the attention of others here who prefer their writing to stay human-made as well as -fueled, and not to support the seriously ethically-challenged.

This is why it is so important to be critical and double check everything you generate using image generators and text-based AI.

It looks finally this may be happening?

But, my dudes, this should have happening... I don't know, back in 2019, when our guy Elon had been publicly stating that Teslas would have fully automated driving before the end of the year... For 5 years in a row. Or after he pretended to spark a transportation revolution with Hyperloop (which not only was barely feasible from a physics standpoint, but also mocked by every urbanism and transportation expert, a legal and safety nightmare, etc) or The Boring Company (the guy promised some crazy things about costs and, unsurprisingly, never delivered given that the only thing he did was to buy a second hand boring machine).

It's absolutely bonkers that it had taken the press over ten years of continuous outrageous lies to start thinking "hey, maybe we shouldn't take what this guy says at face value?"

Sounds so familiar…

I understand the "I will die for you" ship dynamic, but what about the "I will not let you die, I will not let myself die- we will, at any cost, survive" kind of couple?

one thing abt ai and the mainstream climate of entertainment is that it's made it clear we need to celebrate weird imperfect offbeat art more than ever. the ai art i see floating around is pristine in such an uninspired way it's made me rethink my relationship w creativity entirely. i'm less concerned with creating polished works than i am with creating and consuming the bizarre, the messy, the challenging. i want my brain to go ❗️ when i see something beautiful - not because it's a perfect clone or amalgam of populart/contemporary style but because it stirs the worm in my heart that feeds on what it means to be human!! it wriggles in delight at the taste of fallibility !!!!! make weird shit and dance with your shadow!!!!!!!! canonize the magic of being human by giving the absurdity of it form !!!!!WE ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN THE EFFICIENCY OF OUR CELLS!!!!

Reblog if you understand and have felt the pain of your glasses never being clean no matter how many times you wipe them

HEY HEY LISTEN THE VOICE OF THE MTA TRANSIT SYSTEM, ALL THE ANNOUNCEMENTS ON THE NYC SUBWAY LINE??

SHE'S A TRANS WOMAN AND TRANSITIONED AT 66!!!!!! THE BACKGROUND HUM OF MY CHILDHOOD, AND SHE'S LIKE ME!!!! WHAT THE FUCK

Dropout is back in production. 🫡

As I mentioned, Dropout is not associated with the AMPTP, who negotiates on behalf of the majority of studios and streamers. But truthfully, there's no such thing as a "struck company." There are instead "struck contracts" -- and not-struck contracts.

We assumed Dropout's contract - the New Media Agreement for Non-Dramatic Programming - was stuck because it wasn't specifically on a list of non-struck contracts. After speaking at length with our lawyers and with SAG, turns out that is not the case.

So, Dropout can return to business as usual. And because none of our shows were ever struck, talent can go back to promoting their Dropout appearances. 🎉

SAG's decisions are in part strategic. Small streamers like us continuing to work while the major streamers cannot gives us a competitive advantage and puts more pressure on them to make a deal. 😎

But make no mistake about it: We continue to support our striking performers and their cause.

- Between Dropout and me personally, we have donated $20,000 to the Entertainment Community Fund.

- If anyone doesn't feel comfortable working with us or promoting their work during the strike for whatever reason, we respect their decision.

- While we already pay above minimums, we will continue to go above and beyond to reward and protect our performers *and* crew members, and plan to put even more of our money where our mouth is before the end of the year.

Dropout fans, thank you for your support and solidarity during this uncertain time. Keep supporting the Entertainment Community Fund, as well as the pet projects of your favorite creators.

And with that, it's back to work. ⛏️

there's only one thing worse than an awful book, and that is an awful book with ONE tantalisingly compelling element

throws another pathetic wet sopping puppy dog of a grown man into my basement

thought they needed a little reminder that they still have far more to lose if they double down on this stupidity.

spread the word, it seems they're... very forgetful about this.

A small collection (feel free to add):

@staff You're not very subtle.

ao3 writers staring at their inboxes 0.2 seconds after posting a new fic

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

The vulture capitalist hedge fund that bought and subsequently destroyed Toys R Us now owns Overdrive/Libby.

They have already begun making it worse/less usable and they have a chokepoint monopoly on the delivery method of ebooks borrowed from public libraries in the US.

A fun thing about capitalism is that rich people can buy something a lot of people love and depend on, and then destroy it for fun and profit, and there’s not really anything we can do about it.

And now they’re in closing negotiations to buy Simon and Schuster. I’m sure this will have no negative consequences for books at all.