Theodore’s Comments (group member since Apr 01, 2017)

Theodore’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Nice work!

Congratulations, Dale.

And Best of Seasons.

Ted

There's still some new material in the offing. Apple TV just wrapped up an 8-part docuseries on Benjamin Franklin starring Michael Douglas that I assume will be aired early next year.

I agree...horrific consequences!

Now this is starting to get really strange:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/10/tech/a...

I don't care what they say, Carole and Anna...you're both pretty good! LOL

Done

Haha...one of my books is titled "Cold Blood." (There are a ton of books with that title LOL)

"There's an argument to be made that training a system on an author's works is no different from one author reading another author's works. The input isn't illegal, it's only what happens on the output side."

Agree! It's when it starts copying a work that the trouble begins.

Just saw this article posted:

Authors sue OpenAI, allege their books were used to train ChatGPT without their consent

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/05/autho...

Key Points

Two authors filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging that their copyrighted books were used to train ChatGPT without their consent.
Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad claim that ChatGPT generates “very accurate summaries” of their works, according to the complaint.
They allege the summaries are “only possible” if ChatGPT was trained on their books, which would be a violation of copyright law.

For the hell of it, I tried chatGPT a while back by posing a challenge to produce a tarot card reading similar to the one I wrote about in my YA novel The Hypnotist. I gave the AI program the same five cards I used, and was surprised at the reading it produced. The language was similar to that found in a source I had read to learn tarot card reading for the purpose of writing the novel. The thought occurred to me the AI program had plagiarized portions of the tarot card book. It also occurred to me it was only a matter of time before lawsuits such as the once cited here were filed.

Just saw this article on The Washington Post website:

Goodreads was the future of book reviews. Then Amazon bought it.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

SAN FRANCISCO — Goodreads — an Amazon-owned review site beloved by the bookish — has grown beleaguered.

The site is built on outdated technological infrastructure, which made the cost of overhauling and updating it a challenge that was ultimately not worth it for the e-commerce giant, according to former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Meanwhile, limited manual content moderation and a lack of protective features allow users to engage in targeted harassment known as “review bombing” — behavior that has resulted in the cancellation of books and their authors.

Former employees said Amazon seemed happy to mine Goodreads for its user-generated data and otherwise let it limp along with limited resources. In Amazon’s more than 20-year history, the company has made dozens of acquisitions, and it is not unusual for it to try to cheaply acquire properties in markets that it wants to dominate, only to let them languish. Until recently, Amazon owned Book Depository and camera-enthusiast favorite DPReview, and it still operates discount marketplace Woot, collectibles website AbeBooks and movie database IMDb.

--------------------------------
I can "gift" the article if you can't access it, so give me your email address if you are interested.

Ted

Same here.

Definitely 1

Terrific. Good luck.

If you purchase the books from Amazon on your author's discount, what you do with them is your own business. But if you used an Amazon-provided ISBN to publish the book and then, have the books printed elsewhere for sale in a bookshop, you'll have to obtain and use another ISBN for that edition.

Hi, Anna. Still here, sitting on the front porch, observing the passing scene. As you saw, I did have a few things to say about the AI tool ChatGPT used to generate "intelligent" text (thanks for your "like"):

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

Have a great day.

Dale, what a terrific review. You must be so proud.

And rightly so!

Wow! What an achievement. Congratulations.

And the same to you, Carole.