The rapid progression of Artificial Intelligence has led to new and unprecedented circumstances for societies around the world. Generative technologies have been thrust into multiple sectors of life; business, law, education, content creation, writing and journalism- to name a few.
As such, we are now faced with complex legal and moral issues surrounding AI’s ingestion of copyrighted works, as well as their output and composition of generated content.
As reported by The Atlantic in the fall of 2023, a massive data set, referred to as “Books3” were used without permission to train generative-AI systems. This data set consisted of close to 200,000 books. 
How do authors feel about this?
“It’s a combination of being flattered and being concerned,” said writer Drew Hayden Taylor to CBC News, highlighting the complexity of the practice. Young adult writer Gordon Korman also shared an uncertain point of view, “They’re not really stealing your stuff,” he said. “It’s not quite like people are using excerpts or characters from your books or storylines.”
We spoke with Patrick Mork, motivational speaker and Author of Step Back and LEAP, 9 keys to unlock your life and make sh*t happen, for his thoughts.
“I do believe that Author should be compensated if large language models are going to use our work for training, but I also don’t believe that it’s realistic that AI companies have to put in sophisticated systems in order to make that work.” Mork continued, “(I would prefer that) anytime a significant portion of my work is cited or used, there is some sort of a reference and perhaps even a link to Amazon for the reader to see the original text and be able to purchase the book”.
Keidi Keating, editor and publisher, shared with us, “My thoughts are that AI is in no way a replacement for writing a book – AI lacks the love and soul energy that goes into good writing that comes from the heart. It’s palpable.”
Authors: What do you think?
Readers: What do you think?
An avid book reader and proud library card holder, Angela is new to the world of e-Readers. She has a background in education, emergency response, fitness, loves to be in nature, traveling and exploring. With an honours science degree in anthropology, Angela also studied writing after graduation. She has contributed work to The London Free Press, The Gazette, The Londoner, Best Version Media, Lifeliner, and Citymedia.ca.
