Authors and AI

There are several issues with AI generated content.

1. Copyright laws are complex:
   1. It was done so that the creator could have time to monetize the content they had made through being the exclusive means to get the content for a period. After which, society at large could use the content without issue.
   2. In an attempt to keep more out of the public domain, over the last few decades, it had gone from 25 years from creation to now being until 75 years after the death of the creator.
   3. There are several exceptions for “fair use” of copyrighted content that do not require a license from the copyright holder. (Not going to list them here.)
   4. Only content made by a human is able to be copyrighted. If an animal makes it, or there is no real interaction that makes it (i.e., surveillance camera feed), there is no copyright.
2. The content that was used to fill the dataset used by the generator usually is not shared by the large corporation that makes it. As such, most people believe it contains copyrighted material, which they didn’t have a license to use it.
3. The generator is then used to make content in the same media as the source content (i.e., pictures used to make pictures, stories used to make stories, etc.), and at times it looks similar to the original content.
4. The generated content, as it looks similar, could be competing directly with the original content, which goes against the original spirit of the laws.

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So when using it, the issue can be:

• Am I taking money away from someone who now won’t be paid at all for their content, which I am using?
• Am I fine with the content not having a copyright available, meaning others could use it too, without me being compensated?
• Does it have an ethical issue I am willing to deal with?

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With this, many readers are not willing to support someone who is making the issue, as they don’t think it’s ethical to use AI-generated covers and definitely not to use AI to make content.

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For me & my published books:

• The photos I have used for my published books are all photos I have taken myself. This is for the fact that I control the copyright and can reproduce them however I want.
  • I have used internet photos for the covers when on Wattpad but have worked to try to track down the copyright first
  • I did use a photo from another photographer for Wolf Tech 5 but had an agreement with them to use it, and if I used it on the published version, there would be compensation and a separate agreement.
• I have used Adobe’s AI generator for editing the background in my cover photos a couple of times.
  • Instead of needing to spend 6-10+ hours using the cloning or other editor tools to slowly adjust the image to remove an unwanted element, I used the generator, and it took me under a minute.
  • As the basic image is one I did take, which has a copyright, so far, doing a minor change is still copyrightable.
  • I have posted the original and the finished cover to my Flickr account.
• I do not use any AI generator for the content creation of the content.
• I have not used any external editor for doing corrections.
• I use Microsoft Word 365 for writing. I find the predictive typing is more of a distraction than anything, so I have disabled it and just use the spelling/grammar check.

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For me & fun:

• Images:
  • I have used online AI art generators (Note: I do not call them photographs)
  • I have used offline AI art generators on my own PC
  • If I ever share what was generated, I mention it is AI-generated.
  • If I could afford to hire an artist to make me art (especially of my Fursona), I would, and I would be much more proud of it. I have had some art made, but not anything recently.
• Stories:
  • Would I use it to generate a story or creative content like that? Unlikely.
• Other Uses:
  • I am not a programmer, and all that I know of programming is self-taught. I did have a class on C and on Perl. From both, I don’t have much of an understanding of how to have things happen.
  • I know some SQL, but not enough to do complex joins or work.
  • I have used ChatGPT to help me create a program. I can do the front-end design to be functional for a Windows VB.net program, but not for the back-end linking to SQL.
    • When working on it, I tell it specifically what I am wanting to do for a specific task (i.e., from an MDI parent, to have it go through the children and update the displayed data from the database). It generated a template for me to put in each form to trigger the update and how the parent finds and calls the child form(s).)
    • I still have to think of, work it out, test, and often debug what it gives me. I have enough knowledge that, at times, I have changed the code or given it further directions of what I want to do.
    • I will be doing other posts about AI use later. Feel free to use the RSS for the AI usage if you want to monitor.