Whatever you do, do not feed the beast

From romantasy to AI, it's a good time to get out of our comfort zone and remember what being human is all about.

Guys, I’m proud of myself. I’m reading a romantasy! Me reading a romance is no surprise. I love love stories particularly the less clichéd variety. What can I say? Just like Terry from Brooklyn Nine-Nine loves love, so does Zanni.

Fantasy, though? That’s a whole other story. It’s not that I’m scared of dragons. But … I kind of am. The last fantasy I picked up and finished was Harry Potter when I was a teenager. I don’t know, I just don’t think I’m cut out for the fantasy genre generally speaking. Or maybe I’m just pigeon-holing myself.

After listening to a few podcasts about Rebecca Yarros fever, however, I decided to take the plunge and read the first Sarah J. Maas book in the ACOTAR series. I’m quite enjoying it, even though I haven’t hit the saucy bits. It’s an easy read and goes to show, you shouldn’t put yourself into a reading corner. The dragons and I are getting along just fine. (Well, they’re fairies, but let’s just keep with the analogy.)

Interestingly, in fact, the fantasy element is probably the thing I’m least critical about. But although I have a swathe of commentary on plot, tension and character development, this post isn’t about ACOTAR, per se.

The other day, I was listening to a New Yorker Review podcast: Critics at Large, where three critics review the latest news and pop culture each week. The episode was about romantasy and I smiled a little as these highbrow literary readers tentatively picked their way through mossy glades and fairy dells, trying to understand the mystery of romantasy. Like me, they didn’t hate it. But one thing Alex said did kind of get under my skin.

She commented that romantasy was a pick-and-choose genre. Readers have preferences writers play into. Readers share a list of ingredients on social media and writers take the bait. Alex commented that AI could well step in and do the same thing. This would be a good use of AI, she speculated. Just type in your preferred options and generative AI spits out your personally curated romantasy.

My back instantly bristled.

No.

The fact is, humans are writing romantasy. And some are making very good money out of it. I hasten to add that many of these writers are women. Romantasy, romance and fantasy are genres where people can make a lot of money once they grow an audience. I am definitely not for tech companies taking incomes away from people who manage to make a living out of spinning fairy dust from words.

Every week, there’s a fresh AI news-bite to balk at. I bet you’re already aware of The Atlantic’s exposé last week about Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) quite literally and knowingly stealing from authors to feed their generative AI machine. Read the article here and weep.

Many of my colleagues have responded, justifiably so, in an outpouring of grief, anger and despair.

No, my colleagues yell. We won’t accept this now nor ever. Danielle Binks’s article really hit a nerve.

There’s a very insipid argument to be had that AI is here to stay and we have to learn to work alongside it. But no - what we need to do is preserve and honour humanity’s drive to create and connect, and at this moment in history, make a living from it.

I know I’ve been fortunate to get to write for a living. I don’t take this privilege for granted. Every morning, I wake up and think, Thank goodness I get to do what I love for money. Every work day is richly satisfying as I pour my heart and soul into words, the people I mentor and the book community. I’ve never had reason to stop and question what I do; to feel guilty or icky. I get to hold my chin up and feel proud of getting to write books for young people, as well as mentor other people who love writing. Writing for young people requires extreme care and sensitivity. I’m not willing to hand this job over to machines.

I think AI, in many cases, can be a wonderful thing … for helping me find my way in a foreign city, for translating pharmaceutical labels so I don’t take the wrong thing, for helping me manage my finances and find hidden photos in the deep pit of my iPhone photo album.

But I am struggling to see the good in generative AI, particularly if it thieves from living, breathing creators. Particularly if its primary benefit is to fill the pockets of the already (very) wealthy. Where is the morality? Where’s the human spirit?

This is my mindset: don’t use generative AI full-stop. But definitely don’t use it for your writing. Or your editing. Spellcheck, Grammarly, sure. But removing the human touch editors provide is degrading your story.

Using AI to shortcut research is cheapening the beautiful journey you go on when you dive into a topic and walk around, stumbling on serendipitous discoveries, which give you the same jolt of satisfaction you’d get from finding a diamond on the beach. The last time my daughters and I spoke with my aunt Hendrika before she died, we talked about her life’s work and the satisfaction she gained researching and writing more than seventy books about family history. She wouldn’t have given away that experience for anything.

Using generative AI to write your story means you don’t get to experience the wonder and joy of writing; i.e. the best thing in the world. You don’t like writing? Here’s a simple solution. Don’t write. I bet there are plenty of other things you enjoy doing.

All these self-serving reasons aside, every time you use generative AI, you are endorsing it. You are using technology built from stolen creative work. You are costing the environment a bucket load. (You can read more about that here.) And you are feeding the beast. The more you feed it, the bigger it gets, until it hunts you down and eats you too. (Hey, there’s that dragon again! I knew there was a reason I started this piece with romantasy …)

If you’re a creator who is currently feeling powerless and overwhelmed, here is a list of actions you can take, provided by the Association of American Literary Agents:

• First, there is already a class action lawsuit in process. If you have interest in joining, you can reach out to Mathew Butterick at mb@buttericklaw.com

• You can email your publishers the link to the page where their book appears on the LibGen website, and ask that they send a DMCA take-down request to remove the book immediately from their database.

• Companies are required by Federal law to comply with properly sent DMCA take-down requests, and generally, there is a high success rate.

• For further guidance on the DMCA take-down process, here’s an excellent resource: https://copyrightalliance.org/.../write-dmca-takedown.../

• Set up a Google alert with your name and book titles; this can help catch when they pop up on pirated sites, so take-down notices can be sent right away.

The Australian Society of Authors, the Australian Publishing Association and the Copyright Agency also released a collective statement about LibGen/Meta theft which you can read here. Their recommended actions include:

• Check if your ISBNs are included: Use the Atlantic’s tool to check if your books are included in the LibGen dataset, and register that inclusion with the ASA via this form. In Aotearoa New Zealand, NZSA is collating a list of all NZ writers affected via this NZSA form.

• Endorse the International Statement on AI training.

• Be vocal: Share the ASA and APA’s statements on social media, and add your own voice. This action raises awareness, and supports the industry associations as they directly lobby the Federal Government for legislative action.

I’m a member of the ASA, because I believe it’s important to put my money where my mouth is, and help fund the organisations who are prepared to advocate on our behalf. If you’d like to enquire about membership, do so here.

If you’re a bystander, wondering what you can do, share the news. Let people know you aren’t happy. And if you can, resist using generative AI for anything. I know it’s tempting; generative AI is so easy and can solve so many problems. But it’s been made illegally and unethically, and would love nothing more to steal livelihoods away from living artists. Imagine a world without human-made creativity? I’m sorry, but that’s not a place I’m keen on. Take me to the fairy dell any day.

To my friends and colleagues whose work has been stolen by Meta, my heart is with you. To you, as a consumer and lover of any form of art, please keep these creators in your mind.

And to AI, back to the drawing board you go. You have cancer to cure and world-hunger to obliterate. I think you’re busy enough.