The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association supports the National Writers Union's "Creators call for action on AI copyright exemptions", and shares the link to an Article written by Edward Hasbrouck explaining the issues that copyright owners have (or may have) with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
https://nwu.org/creators-call-for-action-on-ai-copyright-exceptions/
Also, there is an important joint statement which explains the position of creators whose work may have been "scraped" and used without permission.
https://nwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2023_07_17-Joint_creators_statement_-AI-Act_EN.pdf
To date, as of July 19th, more than 10,000 authors have signed the Authors Guild petition that calls on AI industry leaders to protect (that is, fairly compensate) authors.
https://authorsguild.org/news/thousands-sign-authors-guild-letter-calling-on-ai-industry-leaders-to-protect-writers/
There is still time to sign the petitions, or to spread the word.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation --of which I am no fan-- (which phrase is an example of Litotes, a rhetorical figure of speech using understatement) has posted a couple of interesting articles concerning surveillance.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/even-government-thinks-it-should-stop-buying-corporate-surveillance-data
Credit for the lion's share of the writing is attributed to Nicholas Wilson.
That idiom goes back to the days when every schoolchild learned and understood the difference between a lion and a lioness, and of several hundred other interesting creatures and their offspring. Alas, nowadays there are word games --such as those offered by PEAK-- that will not allow the male name for a mature barnyard fowl... nor can one use the very normal short-form of the highwayman Richard Turpin's first name.
EFF's Hayley Tsukayama discusses surveillance of car drivers as a result of the technology in their vehicles, which technology is usually not optional.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/steering-mobility-data-better-privacy-regime
Much earlier in the year, legal blogger Jeremy Goldman of the law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz offers an analysis of a batch of lawsuits where AI generators are accused of infringing on copyrights.
https://ipandmedialaw.fkks.com/post/102i5io/do-ai-generators-infringe-three-new-lawsuits-consider-this-mega-questionPerhaps I have shared this example of bad AI previously, but it is worth revisiting, particulary if one rejoices in Schadenfreude. (Possibly, combining "rejoice" and "Schadenfreude" is tautologous.). It's an article by Paul Farhi about a news site that tried an AI shortcut.
With regard to AI, I am reminded of the nursery poem, it might be a limerick, There Was A Little Girl by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. When it's good, it's very very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid.
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™
http://www.spacesnark.com/
http://www.rowenacherry.com
