Adam L.G. Nevill's Blog, page 2
March 26, 2025
AI - AN AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS AFTER THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE BROKE THE META HEIST STORY. PART 2.
If you use AI to generate ideas for stories, you are not a writer. Similarly, if you need AI to rewrite your sentences and paragraphs, or restructure your book, or even produce any portion of a written work, then you're not a writer.
If, by some combination of keywords, the AI produces something that appears competent, you didn't create it; nor does this make you creative. The technology can only perform this function, at your prompting, because it has been illegally trained on the work of real writers. Tinkering with the output, editing it and rearranging it, doesn't make you a writer either. Every derivative produced was produced by the software, not you.
If you truly love books but use AI to make them, you are destroying what you love. And once you have destroyed what you love, what then?
Very few people master anything. To master anything, innate ability is required, as well as a significant investment of time and a sense of purpose. To be original, you also need vision. There are no shortcuts. Any other method is cheating. The constant promise of tech companies that their apps will "unleash your creativity" is a shameful lie. It's a heinous form of neo-Marxist propaganda. What this means is: no one is exceptional, everyone is the same, everyone is not only creative, but equally creative. Which any rational person knows is BS. There has only ever been one Shakespeare.
So, if you are taking shortcuts and cheating and destroying what you profess to love, what is your motivation? Laziness, self-deception, competitiveness, greed, uncertainty about what you are doing with your life? Or is it something malicious, like envy and resentment directed at those who have accomplished something - "look, what I can do too!" Only you're not creating anything - the software is producing something and you're cheating. What are you displacing?
Of equal importance to writers, in this catastrophe and in this entire space, are the readers. They're hard to attract. Their appearance and interest and appreciation is a magical process. Once they appear, they invite other readers to read the same books. To keep readers reading your books, you need to build trust with a readership and you can't let them down. This can take decades (in my case). It's a contract and connection so precious, it is sacrosanct. AI produced/part produced books betray and cheat readers and kill all of the magic. Forever.
So, folks, if you are using AI to "produce" books, or part produce books, you and I are done. It's over.
Every single time that someone cheats and uses AI to provide a story, or provide a character, or rewrite a description, another part of culture withers, another threat to human talent and expression is sent into the world. What we're then reading will not be truthful, not sincere, not genuine, not even human, and a betrayal of human endeavour.
AI - AN AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS AFTER THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE BROKE THE META HEIST STORY. PART 1.
A while ago on here, I posted about how nine of my books had their copyright infringed, along with another 180K titles, when all of these books hosted at a pirate website were scraped for inclusion in the Books3 dataset, to train the LLMs of the big tech companies. In the recent meta heist of seven million books from the LibGen pirate website, all of my books, including foreign editions, were included on that site. So, it's reasonable to assume that the copyright of my life's work has been infringed, within two years, by tech companies training their large language models for AI.
What a way to celebrate my 30th year as a professional writer.
If you look into Alex Reisner's investigation, published in The Atlantic magazine, it's clear that employees of the tech companies knew that what they were doing was illegal. Deception preceded theft and has followed theft.
Anyway, I may rage but I also always look for solutions. I've spoken to a licensing company (Created by Humans) and set-up an account in order to state that no book authored by me is available for any exploitation by AI. I must now input 216 titles (numerous editions of each book), one by one, and set up exclusions on two types of AI usage. This will only be applicable if legit AI companies, in the future, wanted to license my future books, and who approach me or a third party that represents my work. It's like pissing into a strong wind, however, because of the precedent that Tech companies, in collusion with pirate sites, just help themselves anyway. Also, everything that I have written has already been scraped. I will, however, piss into the wind because I need to do something.
Also, everything that has been scraped and used to train AI, apparently, can't be "unlearned" by the technology. How convenient. Also, from what I can determine, AI detection software isn't foolproof. How convenient. Because if you were reckless enough to release such a virus, you'd create diagnostic tests and a vaccine first, in case the consequences were hideous?
But, if you intended to pull off the biggest theft of culture in the history of mankind, in order to exploit it for your own gain, you'd hope that what you've done can't be undone; and to avoid litigation until the end of universe, you'd want what you've stolen to be laundered into derivatives in just such a way as to make it impossible to accurately detect the usage of the stolen source material. I see a pattern emerging.
This all follows years of me sending takedown messages to pirated book websites with mixed results - if they're Russian like LibGen (now there's a fucking surprise), forget it. I want to write books, and publish them, and not spend my time and capacity drafting and sending out takedown notices, and filling in endless fields at licensing websites, and reading scores of articles on just how far I have been held upside down by my ankles and shaken hard, before having my rights desecrated.
Now, the British govt, in all of its wisdom and desperation to dig itself out of a financial hole, and to not get left behind, suggests that training AI on copyrighted works should be, more or less, fair usage. This is the "Data (Use and Access) Bill". And I'm going to guess that those sympathetic to the tech industry advised them on its creation.
According to the proposals in the bill, the only way that I can prevent my work being used to train AI, would be for me to "Opt out" all of my books, in every single edition, in every single territory, rather than "Opt in". So each and every ISBN generated for each edition of all of my books (hence the 216 cited above) will have to be separately "opted out" - yet what about short stories in multi-author collections? What if you missed an old eBook edition from 10 years ago? It's just not workable or practical. An opt-in arrangement, however, would be: unless stated by the author that their work can be used to train AI, tech companies and users of AI are forbidden to touch the work. But that's not in favour of the tech companies, is it? And everything has already been scraped and can't be "unlearned", so all of this opting out is only applicable to future works. How many times must I be forced by AI to piss into strong headwinds?
This bill also suggests that the derivatives shat out the other end can be copyright protected. It beggars belief. So, you'd be sanctioning copyright infringement of all existing human created books, but would legally protect the derivatives resulting from this theft?
Mercifully, the House of Lords has asked for amendments - "forcing AI crawlers to observe UK copyright law, reveal their identities and purpose, and let creatives know if their copyrighted works have been scraped." You can read about it in Graham Lovelace's article.
To my dismay, the only factor included in these discussions appears to be money, revenue, transfer of wealth, etc. Something far more valuable is at stake: our ability as a species to think abstractly and to make sense of ourselves, the world, our place in time, and to preserve the most important facets of storytelling that carry the wisdom of the ages, through every successive generation of our species. And let's not discard the neurological and psychological and social impact of making people stupid and making truth irrelevant through tech. I get a sense that everything is at stake.
So, I have also taken part in the lengthy 'Consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence' to explain just how unfair this legislation is, and what the dire consequences will be for writers, and for human created culture. The idea that culture is fodder for AI muck sprayers, and only has the worth that tech companies assign to it, is just too staggering to comprehend.
If this post disappears, or my SM accounts are suddenly placed in hiatus, I won't have deactivated myself. Just so you know.
March 24, 2025
CARL PUGH'S DEPICTION OF THE CUNNING FOLK
Artist Carl Pugh recently shared some of his work with me; a creation inspired by Cunning Folk. "In my mind the image was to fuse the nature/folk horror element with the human element of the story. Especially when Tom digs his way into the mound/barrow and uncovers the skulls. Essentially this is what the image represents."
Carl was kind enough to send me a print that I will frame and add to my walls of horror, and I've included an image of his Cunning Folk artwork below.
You can also check out more of Carl's work and his store right here.
BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY - MICHAEL WERTENBERG
The ever insightful and prolific reader of horror, Michael Wertenberg, has curated his own list of the Top Ten Best Horror Books of the 21st Century. One of my novels is included, and for this I am immensely grateful. But can you guess which one it is? A really strong list too; only one of the books I haven't yet read.
ROOTS OF MY FEARS - ANCESTRAL HORROR
Gemma Amor is reprinting my story 'To Forget and Be Forgotten' in Roots of My Fears: Terrifying Stories of Ancestral Horror (Penguin US; Titan UK). Preorders are available here.
ALL THE FIENDS OF HELL - FRENCH AND SPANISH EDITIONS FORTHCOMING
All the Fiends of Hell has its first translation into a foreign language. The French edition, published by Elder Craft, Tous Les Démons De L'Enfer, is due to be published later this year. French readers can see what Elder Craft are up to here.
And for Spanish readers, a Spanish translation and edition is underway at my long-time Spanish publisher, Minotauro.
IMAGINATOR FOLK HORROR SPECIAL EDITION: THE RITUAL
Imaginator is publishing a Folk Horror Special Edition (Issue 8 of the magazine), slated for Mid-April publication. This edition includes a sumptuous sixteen page feature celebrating The Ritual, both film and book. Ken Miller interviews me, but of more interest, genius concept artist, Keith Thompson, who created the Jotunn in the film, gives an interview. Keith's piece is filled with insights about his creative process and Keith also shares the sketches of the god's development. I don't think these have appeared anywhere before. You can read more about this edition at this link to the Imaginator page.
https://monsterzone.org/imaginator-ma...
January 1, 2025
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2024 IN REVIEW. WHAT'S COMING IN '25.
I published a new book in 2024 - ALL THE FIENDS OF HELL - and with some trepidation. It was alien territory for me and also took a long time to land; I nibbled at versions of the ideas and story in a novella, short story and screenplay, over several years, before writing the novel. And yet, the enthusiasm for the book this year has left me feeling relieved, confirmed, grateful and heart-warmed.
A huge salute and my sincerest thanks to the readers and reviewers who have given the book your time, and who have kindly shared your thoughts out there. And a big thank you to Nightworms for including the book in February's package.
In 2024, I also managed to write the first five drafts of a new horror novel. I'm currently grinding out line-edit drafts and will finally stop tinkering and complete the novel in January. With the team, I'll then begin the long critical path of producing multiple formats of the book, to be published in time for Halloween 2025. More details about the new book are coming soon; in my newsletter first and you can sign-up for that at www.adamlgnevill.com (and get a free book).
Beyond my desk, I've often been preoccupied with adapting the house to our needs and taste (and removing curses) after our move in late 2023. But, I have also managed to get onto the sea in my kayak, and numerous times despite the wind. I've also filled another year with Sea Nevill shenanigans, books, films and music. Multiple shit-shows, out there in the world, didn't extend an invitation for me to join in either. For all of this, and more, I remain grateful.
Sending my best vibes for '25 to family and friends, and my mates and readers in the horror tribe. I hope that horror, in the new year, remains inside your books and films ... and seeps no further.
JAY'S 4 STAR + BOOK CLUB 2024 - THE FIENDS' SELECTED
TALKING SCARED: 'THE BEST SCARY BOOKS OF 2024'
'All the Fiends of Hell' invaded Talking Scared's 'The Best Scary Books of 2024'.
An interesting list too. I get a few good recommendations from Neil's shows and always find his reviews stimulating and well articulated.
In the red light, we're delighted. The Horrors are waving their vaporous hands in thanks!
You can listen to this show here, or on Spotify.
