Generative AI

Mostly sucks

Added to my book blurbs

Generative AI is a massive topic. It’s being forced on us despite the many huge problems connected to it, such as theft of copyrighted material, loss of human jobs, use by the military, and massively unsustainable energy consumption.

You can add the fact that some authors are using generative AI to write some or all of their books, churning out low-quality titles with minimal editing. It’s why I have added the disclaimer shown in the image above to all my book blurbs:

“Note: this work is 100% human-created, crafted with love by the author. No generative AI has been used in the writing or editing.”

It’s no surprise that the kinds of companies I hate, which I tried to cut out of my life, are the ones using this tech, pushing it, and planning to make untold billions from it.

So, a few articles I read recently which I think make good starting points, or act as evidence for what I said above.

• We need to reclaim software’s wishing well from the cruelty of generative AI

• A New List Reveals Top Websites Meta Is Scraping of Copyrighted Content to Train Its AI

• Microsoft confirm they've supplied AI tech to the Israeli military for use in Gaza, following BDS Xbox boycott

• AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that.

I hope some of those are thought-provoking. So yes, boycott Microsoft, Facebook/Meta, Google and the rest. :-)

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PS I’m also an author. You can buy my books, or subscribe to my newsletter. I would be grateful for either. :-)