They Never Asked (or My AI Thoughts)
In which I found out my words have been used without permission, write some other words, and talk about creating things with words.
Like many of my fellow writers I awoke on Thursday morning to find my various social media feeds full of links to an article posted by The Atlantic by Alex Resiner entitled The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Book Problem.
My initial reaction was “Yeah, tell me something I didn’t know.” I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the term AI for as far as I’m concerned it’s an inaccurate appellation as the one thing these systems aren’t is ‘intelligent.’
In my professional corporate career, especially during my time in the digital asset management space, I was involved with several “AI” projects which were all based on Machine Learning (ML) models and algorithms. And we did some great work. ML is a very useful tool when used to supplement human activity. It is particularly good at pattern matching and data mining at a speed and scale that humans can’t match. Our projects had some great results such as identifying fraudulent claims for an auto-insurance company, helping with analyzing aerodynamic flow, consolidating similar product lines for a large retailer to remove customer confusion, and the one I’m particularly proud of was helping a large media company in identifying the work of previously uncredited photographers and artists.
In all of these projects there were two main guide rails we put in place, that there was always a ‘human-in-the-loop’ part of the workflow to verify the quality of the results, and that the ML could only be trained on content owned by the company implementing it.
Which leads me to so-called “Generative AI.” The way that it has been released and accepted goes against everything I had worked with in terms of ML adoption. After witnessing the apparent unquestioning adoption of GenAI at an industry conference last year I wrote up an article for my consulting business newsletter (and subsequently posted to my business blog) entitled Am I The AI Luddite? It has become one of the most read business posts I’ve ever written - and I’ll be presenting a session on the topic at the same industry conference later this year.
In short I have several problems with Generative AI that I talked about in the article, among them its massive negative environmental impact, the question of is there actually a business need, and above all the moral and legal issues. Which brings me back to Thursday morning.
The article talked about how Meta (owners of Facebook, Instagram etc.) had used the well known database of pirated texts, LibGen to train its own version of a GenAI solution. It is clear from the article that there had been consideration of licensing texts, but the powers that be thought that too expensive, and too slow..
Like many folks I knew that LibGen existed, and had continued to ignore multiple court rulings to take it down and pay fines. But I didn't know exactly what was in it. However, The Atlantic not only ran the report of Meta’s use of the pirated material, but they also developed a way to search LibGen by author name.
So I did.
As you can see there are 12 books that contain my work in there.
Things just got personal.
They never asked me if they would use my work to train their “AI.”
Which got me thinking about permissions. When I first started posting my writing and thoughts online with my first website back in 1995, I quickly became aware of the axiom that “if the service is free, then you are the product.” I was OK with that, as by signing up for the service I was OPTING-IN to the system. My online posts (much like this newsletter three decades later) was a shop window for my writing and thoughts. And over the decades that has served me well in building both an audience for my work, as well as leading to paid work writing books, articles, comics, and podcasting as well as many other opportunities. I also accepted that by opting-in and signing up for platforms like FaceBook that I would be the recipient of targeted advertising. It was my choice to participate.
But at some point over the last decade the software industry has pivoted away from an OPT-IN model to a default OPT-OUT model. Today tech companies will roll-out new updates, functions, and services across their platforms and then leave it for you to find out, and have to then opt-out through either the barely visible unsubscribe link, or navigating a labyrinth of menu items to deselect a service you never asked for in your account preferences.
And that’s where I have problems with the rise and adoption of so-called Generative AI services. I never asked for them, I don’t have a problem they are fixing, I have never used them and I don’t intend to, but above all they never asked me if they could use my stuff.
They never asked me.
And that was not only the legal thing to do, it was the moral, and ethical thing to do.
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Newsletter Schedule Update - With workload on the current writing and podcast projects increasing alongside both an uptick in consulting client activity and my new role at the Ian Fleming Foundation I have had to take a hard look at how and where I’m spending my time, so I still have time to relax and enjoy my family. So for the moment I’m switching this newsletter from a weekly schedule to a biweekly one. - Thanks for your understanding.
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Alan
Other Stuff
Welcome new folks
Thanks to the new folks who have signed on in the last few weeks, and welcome.
But the number of views each week exceeds the number of subscribers, so if you aren’t a member of my wonderful group of folks subscribers yet, then click the button below and join our growing community of readers and commentators to get these missives delivered directly to your email inbox every-other Friday.
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Brabazon Bits
Just a reminder that we will celebrate the UK launch of the Brabazon book at the Aerospace Bristol Museum on Saturday, June 7th.
“Bristol Brabazon: The Ocean Liner of the Skies and its Ongoing Legacy” will be published on 30 MAY, 2025 in the UK and 30 JULY, 2025 in the US.
There is now an increasing list of online bookstores where the book is available for preorder
Bookshop.org (US) - helps independent stores
Pen & Sword (publishers) -
Waterstones (UK) - Free shipping in the UK -
Word Slinging
On the Casino Royale book it’s been a week of research as I work on pulling material together for a chapter on the 1960s spy-craze.
I also made some good progress on the work-in-progress short story as well as working on the script for next month’s Forgotten Beatles podcast episode.
Podcast Procrastinations
A few weeks ago I had a great time on the Maryland Writers Association podcast chatting about my writing process and how the new book on the Brabazon came about.
You can now give it a listen on the A Book Finds You series on your favorite podcast platform or direct on Apple Podcasts HERE
The latest episode of the Bond vs Spy Movie show is now live on the On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast network. This time out Jarrod and I return to 1971 to compare Sean Connery’s return in Diamonds Are Forever with Kirk Douglas in the low-budget British spy thriller Catch Me A Spy.
You can listen to the discussion HERE.
The latest episode of the Chronological Christie podcast on The Murder on the Links is now available so if you’d like to hear our thoughts on Hercule Poirot’s second outing.
And coming this weekend a bonus mini-episode where we revisit some of the questions asked during our discussions over the last three Chronological Christie episodes.
You can check it out both at https://creators.spotify.com/pod/chronologicalchristie
And for updates and reminders, you can also follow the podcast's Instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/chronologicalchristie/
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2025 - “The Untold Legend of the Batman” by Len Wein, John Byrne, and Jim Aparo
When I first got back into comics in the mid-80s this three issue mini-series from 1980 was one of the first back issue sets I hunted down. Originally because of John Byrne’s art in the first issue, but it quickly became my touchstone for what I would become to understand of the Batman family’s backstories.
This new oversized Treasury Edition collection was a joy to revisit. The large size allowed me to really get drawn back into Byrne and Aparo’s dynamic art, while Wein’s story (while a little contrived) was like visiting with old friends. This was my Batman.
Over at our online bookstore at Bookshop.org I’ve now added a new section listing books read so far in 2025, so you can pick up copies of any that interest you, while also helping out local independent bookstores.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - We continue our chronological look at Batman’s publishing history in December 1969 with translated editions from Norway, Sweden, and the UK.
My standout is the traditional year-end British hardcover annual. On this occasion it’s the Superadventure Annual featuring Batman, Robin, Superman, and a partially hidden Wonder Woman taking on a random flying saucer.
Where on the Web is Alan?
You can now find links to all the places you can find me online, websites, newsletters, social media, and more in a single LINKS page on my personal website.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else who might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general - please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter
The Can’t See The Forest (TM) newsletter is a production of Megrin Entertainment, a division of 4Js Group LLC
Preach it. The galling thing is that Meta *knew* the legal and ethical thing to do was license the material, but explicitly chose not to do so.