[Breaking News … (Dateline Chicago) The Chicago Sun-Times has published its recommended summer reading list, and, once again, I am not on it. The real news, however, is neither are the books they recommend. Turns out … they are figments of the imagination that we know collectively as Artificial Intelligence. Here are some of the ramifications. SB SM]
https://www.thepopverse.com/literary-recommended-reading-ai-chicago-sun-times-andy-weir-oops
If there’s one tradition that readers can rely on, it’s a summer reading list appearing in newspapers to help you decide what books to take to the beach. This year, the Chicago Sun-Times found an exciting new twist to the formula, by publishing a book list that features books that do not exist.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t an intentional gag, but instead the result of the piece being written by generative AI, and then published without seemingly any kind of editorial oversight — in other words, think of it as a glimpse into the future, as journalism (like seemingly all creative endeavors) becomes overrun by executives looking to increase output while lowering costs.
The piece was filed by Marco Buscaglia, who told 404 Media, “I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first. This time, I did not and I can’t believe I missed it because it’s so obvious. No excuses. On me 100 percent and I’m completely embarrassed.” He added, “This is just idiotic of me, really embarrassed. When I found it [online], it was almost surreal to see.”
One of our favorite media seers, Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker himself, had these thoughts:
The article starts with a recommendation for Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende. This is Allende’s ”first climate fiction novel” where “magical realism meets environmental activism.”
It’s a shame that Allende never wrote this book. Nor did anyone else—the book simply doesn’t exist.
(I’ll predict, however, that an AI-generated book with this title will show up on Amazon within a few days. When you live in a world of AI hallucinations, this is how the business model plays out.)
The next book on the Sun-Times list is The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir. This novel is also non-existent. But the storyline—about rogue AI that gains consciousness—makes me think that the bots are now mocking us.”
More from Ted:
“If AI really were—as is so often claimed—a great creative tool, you might anticipate that these visionary artists would be demanding accelerated development of the tech. After all, these same musicians have readily embraced new tech in the past.”
But that’s not how they feel about AI.
Tell us how you really feel, Ted:
“So let me get this straight—AI is wonderful, except for the fact that it’s destroying media, education, the environment, music, the arts, public trust, thinking skills, and everybody’s job. For a start, they are begging for transparency. Just let us know who is using our music (or writing or whatever) to train AI. How could anyone deny such a reasonable request? Is there anyone who benefits from secrecy in this matter? Let me point out the obvious. Only a criminal trying to steal people’s life work would want to keep all this hidden.
“Alas, we now have overwhelming evidence that this kind of criminal behavior is widespread in the AI business. For example, we now know that Mark Zuckerberg gave his team permission to violate copyrights by training the company’s AI on seven million pirated books.
“This included almost everything I’ve ever published in book form. Yes, this is personal for me.
“You might expect political leaders would step in at this point, and defend the millions of creative professionals at risk from this piracy. But instead, they are doing the exact opposite—even firing the director of the US Copyright Office, allegedly because she was worried about violations of IP law in AI training.”
We’re in trouble.