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Chatbots

Dinsdale 🚫
Updated:

Apparently AI-powered chatbots are submitting stories for publication, although that is in the world of paid submissions.

Another article linked from that one (Everyone Is Writing a Novel, Even ChatGPT) alleges that "The self-published section of Amazon's Kindle store is filling up with AI-written books".

I have been wondering recently how one particular author has managed to write over 1000 illustrated stories in a fairly short timespan, although I don't think chatbots were "a thing" when he started so I'll have to continue wondering.

Edit 1 day later: That Everyone Is Writing a Novel, Even ChatGPT is no longer linked from the first article so I'm linking it directly.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dinsdale

Since AI-powered chatbots aren't sentient, presumably all of their output consists of plagiarism.

AJ

Replies:   Gauthier  Scribbler
Gauthier 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Not true. While some chat bots can be triggered to output exact training data, for example asking for a Quote would do that, most content is randomized and original.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking 🚫
Updated:

@Gauthier

most content is randomized and original

If it's randomised, it can't be original.

it was worst times of the times of was it best the ;-)

AJ

Scribbler 🚫

@awnlee jawking

plagiarism or not, they can't hold copyright, because they are not persons as defined by law. Their output can be regarded as 100 monkeys pounding on keyboards, and chance took a part.
The machine owner can't claim copyright, because the owner didn't create the work.

This is common sense (no relation to "The Law") which is sadly lacking, in today's society.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express, last night. YMMV

Replies:   JimWar
JimWar 🚫

@Scribbler

Not sure that has been defined yet. Corporations are persons under the law and can hold copyrights so if a person or a corporation held a license for a particular chat bot the copyright would be in the name of the person or company. Whoever set the parameters for the story would be the creator. Unless it duplicated something already copyrighted or written it would not be plagiarism and could be copyrighted as an original work.

Replies:   LupusDei
LupusDei 🚫

@JimWar

Indeed, I have kept half an eye on the discussion, and my understanding is, that the person prompting the AI to do things is to be the most likely recognized copyright holder of the output (apart from it containing verbatim source fragments) when the law settles.

There is huge can of worms regarding inclusion of copyrighted material in the training data, but that's a separate discussion.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking 🚫

@LupusDei

There is huge can of worms regarding inclusion of copyrighted material in the training data, but that's a separate discussion.

How could it work without the training data?

AJ

Replies:   LupusDei
LupusDei 🚫
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

In theory, it could have only texts (or images, or whatever other stuff if we talk more generally) in public domain as the training data.

As a language model, it predicts the most likely next words; it doesn't recreate any source text (unless prompted to do just that). The size of the corpus of texts necessary to develop the appearance of language processing may currently be unknown, but it may not be THAT large after all.

For it to be rich and creative and sufficiently original you may, would, of course want all texts there is. But the discussion is more about if and how copyright holders should be compensated for inclusion of their intellectual property in AI model's training data, than if it should be allowed at all.

Replies:   Grey Wolf
Grey Wolf 🚫

@LupusDei

As a language model, it predicts the most likely next words; it doesn't recreate any source text (unless prompted to do just that).

I would strengthen this. It can't recreate any non-trivial source text even if prompted to do so with any reliability. It could recreate 'close' source text (where close may be in the eye of the beholder), but the difference between model size and training dataset size is beyond the current technology for data compression in many cases.

An enormous amount of information is 'lost' in training, but that's the goal - this isn't compression, it's modeling.

Replies:   LupusDei
LupusDei 🚫

@Grey Wolf

There was an example where ChatGPT was asked to recreate the first page of a certain novel, and it presumably succeeded. But yes, in the apparent confidence it invent non-existent programming methods out of thin air (then back up their supposed existence with equally invented technical literature), it likely would go unto it's own story very soon if asked to continue.

Replies:   Grey Wolf
Grey Wolf 🚫

@LupusDei

It's (of course) far more likely than the monkies and typewriters to manage that, but there is a ton of data loss. I'm more familiar overall with the AI for image synthesis, but in either case there are inevitable and enormous data losses.

Some of it is that both image synthesis and chat also tend to incorporate random seeds, so the same prompt might not reproduce the same thing.

And, yes, I expect it would go meandering off, which prompts an enormous philosophical debate about the nature of creativity.

Pixy 🚫

@Dinsdale

I have been wondering recently how one particular author has managed to write over 1000 illustrated stories in a fairly short timespan, although I don't think chatbots were "a thing" when he started so I'll have to continue wondering.

They could possibly be autistic or on the edge of the spectrum, and that's all they do for eighteen hours a day...

Scribbler 🚫

@Dinsdale

FINALLY found the quote I was searching for:

"I'm not frightened by the advent of intelligent machines. It's the sarcastic ones I worry about."
β€”Quentin R. Bufogle, The Concubine of Mars

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Dinsdale

On an interesting note: I found something interesting.

Not a chatbot, but an AI designed for writing stories.

https://novelai.net/

Can't do much for free, but I was intrigued enough to get a basic subscription to experiment with.

The thing that drew me in is that there doesn't seem to be any content filters. It will do graphic sex stories.

ystokes 🚫

@Dinsdale

Even though I have been into computers since before Windows I think we have become to dependent on technology. From smart phones that driven families to ignore each other at the dinner table to cars that drive themselves (often into each other) smart homes that if a power failure your screwed. And then there is social media which allowed everyone to hate each other using fake names. I am waiting to see how SCOUS comes down on social media. I can see the end of social media. We could even lose this forum.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@ystokes

We could even lose this forum.

WLPC is in Canada, so SCOTUS doesn't much matter. What matters is Canadian law.

Replies:   ystokes
ystokes 🚫

@Michael Loucks

WLPC is in Canada, so SCOTUS doesn't much matter. What matters is Canadian law.

Someone will still TRY to sue them.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@ystokes

Someone will still TRY to sue them.

They'd have to go to Canada. No US court would have jurisdiction and without personal service (i.e. the paperwork being served) to a US address, good luck even getting in front of a judge in the US (beyond him telling them to get the f-ck out of his courtroom and stop wasting his time).

IANAL, so take my comments with that in mind.

Replies:   Grey Wolf
Grey Wolf 🚫

@Michael Loucks

Lawsuits per se aren't my worry (barring some reciprocity agreement that I'm unaware of).

What would worry me would be a change in US law that affected transmitting the data itself. If transmitting the data from a website was banned, we'd need VPNs (and VPNs would likely be on the chopping block at that point), etc.

I'm worried that we're seeing increasing openness towards simply banning content, and it's a very short step from that to banning transmission of data to and from sites that hold banned content.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@Grey Wolf

I'm worried that we're seeing increasing openness towards simply banning content, and it's a very short step from that to banning transmission of data to and from sites that hold banned content.

That is m worry as well, but end-to-end encryption and VPNs will get around that, and it's not difficult to run

your own VPN endpoint in a country that doesn't band the material.

Sadly, though, the totalitarians are winning with the 'think of the children' arguments and soon enough encryption will require a license and any use of encryption without said license (and 'golden keys for the government') will itself be a crime with lengthy mandatory prison sentences.

Orwell was a f-cking optimist.

Replies:   AmigaClone
AmigaClone 🚫

@Michael Loucks

Orwell was a f-cking optimist.

Except in terms of when things would happen. Also, no way of knowing what he expected 1990 to look like...

ystokes 🚫

@Dinsdale

I agree with what you are saying. That's why the word TRY is in bold type. We are talking about the USA where you can find a Lawer willing to file anything and just maybe a judge to agree with them.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@ystokes

I agree with what you are saying. That's why the word TRY is in bold type. We are talking about the USA where you can find a Lawer willing to file anything and just maybe a judge to agree with them.

And WLPC is in CANADA. US Courts and US Court rulings do not apply to what can and can't be published.

In order to sue, you need standin and jurisdition. No US Judge has jurisdiction over WLPC. Lawyers know this and could be sanctioned or even disbarred for filing a suit when they know it has no chance of having standing/and or jurisdition.

Replies:   awnlee jawking  ystokes
awnlee jawking 🚫

@Michael Loucks

I assume you don't live in Canada though. In the UK, there's a blacklist of sites that ISPs aren't allowed to connect to. Mostly child porn, but sometimes sites are banned for political convenience.

AJ

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

I assume you don't live in Canada though. In the UK, there's a blacklist of sites that ISPs aren't allowed to connect to. Mostly child porn, but sometimes sites are banned for political convenience

I'm in US.

And that's what VPNs are for. I never connect to the internet without a VPN and my exit node is almost never in the US (unless I need to access something geoblocked).

Avoiding those blocks is trivial.

A good choice for VPNs is Mullvad (based in Sweden) with no-logging, completely anonymous access (you can buy time via a pre-loaded card from Amazon), and post-quantum encryption.

ystokes 🚫

@Michael Loucks

Lawyers know this and could be sanctioned or even disbarred for filing a suit when they know it has no chance of having standing/and or jurisdiction.

That still doesn't stop them does it? Just look at all the bogus lawsuits in the last 2 elections.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks 🚫

@ystokes

That still doesn't stop them does it? Just look at all the bogus lawsuits in the last 2 elections.

And sanctions have been issued and are forthcoming. At least in those suits they had plausible standing and jurisdiction claims, it was their legal theories that were bogus.

A suit against WLPC in a US court wouldn't survive a motion to dismiss that anyone who speaks English could write. :-)

Dinsdale 🚫

@Dinsdale

Now Grammarly are joining the fray, offering AI-Powered writing as "GrammarlyGo".

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