Should We Allow AI to Learn From Our Writing?

It appears I am in the minority on the topic of AI. Learn away, my little AI friend. I hope the world is better for it.

Image created by “AI tool Microsoft Bing Image Creator powered by DALL·E” — the author has the provenance and copyright.

This was a response I wrote to the article titled Default No to AI Training on Your Stories by Tony Stubblebine, but I wanted it to be visible here as well. It seems to be quite a burning topic lately. By the way, I also write on Medium, so if that is your jam, you can follow me there.

I encourage AI to learn from my writing.

Any AI is only going to be useful if it has been able to learn from good data. It’s already too colored in its fake limitations to be truly useful and objective.

I see only the benefit of the whole society when AI systems can learn from us all. After all, AI is just a collective representation of humanity.

AI isn’t going away, as the internet hasn’t, so it would be best if we get the most useful, intelligent, and knowledgeable version possible.

Of course, I don’t make a living from writing (I only wish to), and I understand people are afraid of AI.

It’s the same for all jobs and businesses. “AI is taking our jobs!” The crowd screams. It won’t. It will cause some changes, though, as all new technological breakthroughs do. We will adapt.

Now, if the AI systems were open source and available to all, this would end that debate for me.

I want my writing to help and entertain people. By absorbing it into the vast knowledge database of humanity, it could do some good out there.

The problem is that those AI companies charge money (some) for the use of AI and use data for which they don’t compensate the original authors. Often against the will of writers, as we can see in the outrage out there. That doesn’t seem fair or logical. True.

While I don’t like seeing all these AI posts everywhere, the truth is not much is lost compared to most high-profile money-makers among the most prolific authors.

People seem to like fluffy, empty, hyperbole shit, essentially forcing all to participate in the game in competition for attention using the same tricks. Since they like it, they should be able to enjoy it.

If they prefer AI writing, then let it win.

I don’t think it will, though. I still believe that this problem will be solved by the market a.k.a. the readers choosing what content they like and ignoring what they don’t like.

Algoes would then do their thing. The more generative, soulless content out there, the more we will appreciate personal, emotional, and individual stories. Premium stuff, really. There will always be a market for that. I have no doubt.

I have and continue to play with AI in order to understand it and easily recognize its fingerprints. They’re everywhere on Medium, less so here, on Substack. People are people. They were always gaming systems with fake engagement, overpromising, click, bate, bots, links… Now, it’s AI. I don’t think we can stop that.

So, for me. I opt-in, let the AI learn from me all it wants, and if there is some additional compensation for it, as Medium’s Tony Stubblebine suggests, I won’t say no. It seems prudent from Medium to try and milk this artificial cow and share the profits.

I would be interested to hear what the Substacks stand is on the matter.

Substack

, care to comment?

And, of course, I’m interested in your thoughts, dear reader/writers, on allowing artificial intelligence to learn from your writing.

• Would you allow it by default or restrict it?

• Would you be interested in a system of compensation for allowing AI to learn from your work?

• What kind of compensation system did you have in mind?

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