Since July 2015, I’ve hosted WIP Wednesday on this blog.
It’s been a place where I share an excerpt of something rough I’m working on…and others have done the same in the comments section.
WIP Wednesday has meant so much to me.
I’ve set the past WIP Wednesday posts to private, but WIP Wednesday, held on the first Wednesday of every month, has been a place where I share an excerpt of my writing and you do the same in the comments section. During one year, we just did quarterly WIP Wednesdays, but for most of the run, it was monthly.
At times, when I was so crushed by my day job workload that it was hard to get any words on the page, it was a motivation for me to keep writing…at least a little!
Thanks to my wonderful blog readers, it always provided me with encouragement, and I hope others who participated felt the same way. It has been a privilege to be a tiny part of your writing process and get to read parts of the wonderful stories you’re creating.
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 will be the last WIP Wednesday, at least for a while, thanks to Sudowrite and OpenAI.
Sudowrite (like “pseudo-write,” get it?) seems like plagiarism software to me. I think it’s a program for people who want to be writers but don’t want to go to the trouble of learning how to write. It uses GPT-3, created by OpenAI. If I am understanding things correctly, OpenAI has used thousands or probably millions of writers’ work, without permission, to train their machine. Now, I am not a technical person and can only base my judgement on what I read. If I am misunderstanding this, I invite the companies to reach out and explain it to me better.
Contrary to their name, OpenAI is not open at all; based on what I’ve read, it seems the company won’t share what material they’ve scraped from internet to create their program. The Verge notes that if OpenAI disclosed what material they used, it could make them vulnerable to legal challenges; OpenAI’s competitor, Stability AI, is currently being sued by Getty Images for using their copyrighted work. You can read more about all of this in this piece about OpenAI and EU regulation.
Briefly, here are my personal views about Sudowrite and OpenAI, if they go unchecked.
Sudowrite and OpenAI Are Intellectual Theft
While real writers are informed by reading thousands of works, an AI cannot be compared to a real writer because of the sheer scale. I’m guessing an AI can “read” more in a week, or maybe even a day, than I can read in my lifetime.
Although copyright laws haven’t caught up to it yet, using people’s work without compensating them to create a product that then threatens those creators’ own livelihoods is morally reprehensible.
Sudowrite and OpenAI Contribute to Environmental Destruction
You can read all about this issue here, in Gizmodo’s article “Move Aside, Crypto: AI Could Be the Next Climate Disaster.”
Sudowrite and OpenAI Will Lead to Cultural Degradation
I believe Story Engine from Sudowrite and products like it could flood the book market with poorly written books, like sewage in an open sewer pipe pouring directly into a river. This will make it even harder for readers to find quality books written by people who have dedicated years to honing their craft. Editors at journals and publishing houses will be buried in submissions of AI-written work, making it nearly impossible to even get to the originally created material with real merit.
Any writer, no matter how much of a novice they are, is a better writer than any person using an AI tool to paste together a story…because using Sudowrite or similar AI tools isn’t actually writing.
Obviously, I don’t want your creative fiction writing to be stolen and used by Story Engine, Sudowrite, OpenAI, or similar grifting companies.
It appears that OpenAI’s GPT-3 has used fanfic websites such as Archive of Our Own to train their machine. You can read more about that in this article from Wired, “The Fanfic Sex Trope That Caught a Plundering AI Red-Handed.”
That’s why I’m putting WIP Wednesday on hiatus. I understand that what we share here is unlikely to be used by these companies. I’m sure they set their sights on bigger websites; I would not be at all surprised, for example, to learn they snatched up copyrighted books and scripts from pirate sites. Really, who knows what they’re using?
I also understand that even if our work here was used, it would only be a tiny morsel to feed the abomination they’ve created. Still, I just feel too conflicted about it to continue. Our final WIP Wednesday that goes up tomorrow will be made private after two weeks’ time. It sounds like the EU is on the right track with regulation, and I’m hoping that our current laws in the U.S. follow suit.
It’s making me cry to write this post. I really can’t say how much this community has meant to me.
New alternatives? What do you think?
I’m pondering ways to do WIP Wednesday in a different, more private format. I’m not exactly sure how it would work, and I can’t make any promises, but if you have any ideas, let me know!
As you probably already know, I’m also hosting early morning weekday Zooms for writing sessions, and you’re always welcome to join. Email me at bryndonovan1@gmail.com if you need an invite!
Finally, I’m also thinking about ways to host more chatty sessions. For instance, I really like the idea of doing Writing Brag Session at the end of every month, where you can tell us about your new release, the word count you hit, your new blog post, or whatever you like.
Let me know in the comments! I appreciate you all so much! Your writing is important, and it’s a joy to connect with you.
I honestly don’t blame you.
Thanks. It’s really unfortunate!
Hi Bryn,
It’s tough to watch the implications of AI across the board. You are right to be concerned about your data being crawled and added to the learning engines of AI. Your blog is fantastic, and I’d be surprised if it isn’t already part of AI Foundations around the world. If I understand the copyright issues, the AI only has to change a percentage of relevant material to make it legal to use.
As an example, I took pictures of two cars (like ones I owned when I was younger) and asked an AI to show them racing. The AI produced some great pictures, but the cars were slightly modified and all insignias were removed. These are no longer my pictures, they are theirs, morphed and blended into fragments and vectors, buried in trillions of other preprocessed bits for AI use-case consumption .
When we do online critiques to help others, it is not always easy to spot the AI story that is using our feedback to learn and improve its ability to write. It is impossible to tell if the many AI spiders crawling around are collecting stories and critiques to feed themselves, digesting them, modifying them, and absorbing knowledge from those pesky humans.
When we use any of the AI engines available online, we are providing free testing and feedback labor for the companies… no different than the old days when companies offered low prices and special deals to ‘buy’ consumers away from brick and mortar. AI, though, is much more serious, and the potential consequences potentially dire.
Worrisome stuff in a world where our humanity and governance are light-years behind our technology. (Humanity statement modified to avoid IP and potential copyright violations (not by AI) from something that that Einstein guy said once. See, I can do it, too!)
I’m sorry to see the WIPs halted, but understand the violation you feel and the concerns you express. This is just getting started and gobs of money is flowing into startups right now.
You bring up a great point about online critique groups, and YES, when you “play around” with AI, you are working for those companies for free. I wish I’d included that in my original post! Thank you so much for laying this all out!
Also, the tools you are using to “play around” with photos were trained on copyrighted visual materials, which were stolen in the same way as text. Writers should consider that when they use Midjourney, etc for book covers or blog post images.
“The Verge notes that if OpenAI disclosed what material they used, it could make them vulnerable to legal challenges…”
Really? I say challenge away! Who’s going to file the supboena to blow them wide open?
P. S. Bryn, I sent you an email.
“The Verge notes that if OpenAI disclosed what material they used, it could make them vulnerable to legal challenges…”
Which implies that they know that they are doing something wrong and illegal. Maybe they need to go home and rethink their life choices.
Exactly! And thanks Debby, I’ll look!
I’m so sorry, but I understand.
denise
Thanks, friend. Thank you for being such a wonderful part of this and giving so many people great feedback!
So sorry, but understand. You are right to be wary. Things are moving too fast. Being in the middle of change is always difficult.
Kathy, it sure is! Thanks so much.
Ugh, AI really is spreading everywhere. I totally understand putting WIP Wednesday on hiatus (as much as I love it 😅). I pray someday things will be back to normal. Or perhaps even a better normal 😁
Thanks, Skye! Yes, it really is too bad. I hope for a better normal, too!
Real writers may have to start identifying themselves as such by posting a comment on their work like: this is a real work of fiction, not manufactured by AI. Of course, anyone could do the same on their cheated work.
I think it is up to ligitimate writers to spread the word that there will be AI cheaters out there, and that readers will be able to tell the difference between poor and good writing. We need to spread the word and defend our craft.
Thank you for always looking out for us.
Hi Bonnie! I am with you! I am definitely putting an “This is my original work. I did not use an AI.” on my self-published books in the future, and I’ll ask it to be added to any books I put out with publishers. I appreciate you!
Agree with everything you said. It’s a scary time for artists of all kinds who are trying to earn a living with their craft. Artists need to support other artists, and hopefully consumers will also choose to support human artists. I expect the courts will be clogged with civil cases of plagiarism in the coming years. We’ll have to wait and see what shakes out…and try to protect our intellectual property in the meanwhile.
Right? I think it’s so important for consumers to ask for and expect actual creative work and not robot remixes. 🙂
Brynn, I totally understand your frustration and worries about this AI thing. A couple of months ago, I was checking my stats and I saw that ChatGPT showed up under either my Referrers or Clicks. (I can’t remember which.) That freaked me out so much. I actually considered shutting down my blog and continuing my story on paper.
Oh geez, that is horrible. I would hate to see that. It’s all so frustrating!
It’s awful. The only thing that stopped me from shutting my blog down was the simple fact that I would have to figure out the best way to save my work and all of the comments my readers have left on the individual chapters.
Hi Bryn,
I have not joined in WIP due to human thieves, so I totally get wanting to avoid AI. Even simple fanfic stories on A03 get plagiarized by people and there’s no financial incentive there. Just internet kudos.
That being said, you might try looking at WIP newsletter. People can send in snippets of their stories and you can put out a newsletter to your selected audience. Nobody gets scrapped for AI unless someone shares it specifically with AI, and you can be pretty selective with a newsletter. Granted, that’s more effort on your end to vet everything and it may not be worth it?
You could also have a members-only section of your blog for WIPs if AI can’t access those? I’m assuming not, but I haven’t actually kept up so…
Just some thoughts to get the juices running! Take care! 🙂
The WIP newsletter is a good idea! I’m going to give that some thought. I know that human thieves are an issue, too—there have been some pretty famous fanfic and indie publishing plagiarism scandals! I appreciate the thoughts. Thanks so much!
Hi Bryn! I really appreciate all you’ve done over the years with your WIP Wednesday, and I appreciate your wanting to protect us from AI thieves as well. I may not have been as active in WIP Wednesday lately (life gets in the way), but I thank you for it nonetheless, and understand why it’s going away.
Heyyyy friend! Oh, thanks so much. You were such a big part of WIP Wednesday and I really appreciate you 😊
This is a false equivalency. I am a full-time book editor, and what I do is nothing like what an AI does. I am not co-writing.
If I were co-writing, however, this would still be a situation where I agreed to do the work and was paid an amount I agreed to in advance. You have not at all addressed the fact that writers’ work is being appropriated by these programs without their knowledge or consent. That’s why your analogy to using a calculator doesn’t hold up. This tool does not and cannot work without writers’ work, and writers are not paid a cent for it.
The fact that some writers have a team of editors because they have earned great success does not give you the right to use an AI tool to rip off other writers. That makes no sense whatsoever. Stephen King wasn’t born a rich, bestselling writer—he did it through years of very hard work. And he didn’t use an AI.
When you use an AI, you’re not only stealing from other writers, which is bad enough. Unfortunately, you are also robbing yourself of the practice and effort, particularly in working through challenges, that are necessary to actually become a good writer.
None of us grew up with the dream of publishing work that’s partly or mostly text regurgitated and remixed by a robot. To me, these tools are an offense to the act of writing and to the human spirit itself. No one who uses them is a real writer.
No. Rodin didn’t use a tool that ripped off other artists without their consent, and people who helped with his work agreed to do so and were paid for it. Writers are still writers, and people who use AI are not writers. They’ve given up authorship (including on the legal level, since they are unable to legally copyright the resulting work.) I have no idea why you are bringing up Shakespeare, Dickens, Hugo, and Dumas, none of whom used AI.
Hi, Bryn, I so worried about all of this AI stuff and when I saw your post I knew for sure that it’s only getting worse. Is there a way to be positive about AI, I say not at all. Thank you for the reminder to remove what we can that us writers have out there on blogs, etc. My question is, and I can’t seem to find it anywhere…is AI able to pull work from the books free previews on book sites? (The Look Inside feature on Amazon). Also can someone take an eBook from their tablet and upload it into AI software (because they like a story) and have it create a “new” story? These are the things I worry about as well as the lack of morals one has to allow AI to make them a story to sell for profit, illegally in my opinion. Honest hard work should is no longer valued 🙁 🙁 I feel like we are living in a nightmare.
Hey there! Yes, unfortunately, there is no reason why AI companies can’t use sneak previews like that. To be honest, I would be shocked if they weren’t copyrighted material via Kindle Unlimited (or pirate sites.) I totally agree about some people not valuing honest hard work. It’s so disrespectful to writers and the creators of these machines just don’t care.
But I think most people understand the importance of genuinely crafted stories. I think it’s important to push back hard right now rather than viewing it as an inevitability.
It’s challenging for all creatives as all work be it written or illustrated is at risk with this technology. I want to thank you for being vulnerable and for creating this community of supportive writers. I hope you’ll find an alternative way to encourage this type of sharing as I do think it helps us all feel like we’re seen and in this together.
It really is challenging, Kristal! I appreciate the kind words. Community is so important to me, and I’m still thinking about alternatives!
I completely agree with your stance. All my life, I dreamed of technological advancements making life easier—local government offices becoming more efficient, for one, or a vacuum that doesn’t need me to rescue it every five minutes—but instead, we’ve created technology to “write” and “make art” and when it first started making the big rounds last year in those apps, it broke my heart, bc I knew it wouldn’t be long before they came for writers too. My husband didn’t understand at first (tech nerd) but I haven’t come around. (He finally has.)
It’s a devastating blow. I waited too long. My fault; I let life get too busy to work on my stories. And now it feels like it’s too late because, as you pointed out, anyone who’s gotten a wild hair to write a book without putting in the years of learning and growth (bc, be honest, they don’t really want to write That Much, they just want the instant gratification) can/is and it’ll only get worse.
Thank you for the years of WIP Wednesdays. I looked forward to them so so much. I can’t wait to read Knight at the Museum when it’s launched! I’ll probably sign up for your zoom Writing sessions but will only be able to join in on weekends if there are any then. (Day job.)
I’ll definitely still be around; love your page. <3