Genre Grapevine for June 1, 2023
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Professional Organizations Must Step Up on AI
Last week I reported on the Sudowrite controversy and the increasing pushback against AI. Since then, discussions and debates have continued within the science fiction and fantasy genre over what large language models (LLMs, also called artificial intelligence by some) and text-to-image models mean for authors and artists.
In that report I discussed how a new research paper by Kent Chang, Mackenzie Cramer, Sandeep Soni, and David Bamman revealed OpenAI's GPT-4 had memorized a number of novels including Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hunger Games, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dune, and Game of Thrones, along with many more copyrighted works.
But now even more evidence has emerged revealing the large numbers of copyrighted works used to train LLMs. For example, Courtney Milan recently pointed out "Hey indie romance, they trained GPT by scraping free books on Smashwords. We are disproportionately represented." This was in response to another new research paper, this time by Jack Bandy and Nicholas Vincent, that revealed the text dataset BookCorpus contains thousands of copyrighted books. BookCorpus was used to help train LLMs for Google, OpenAI, Amazon, and dozens of other companies and was found to include many works of fiction, including novels published on Smashwords.
And in addition to this, many online SF/F magazines including Clarkesworld and Uncanny are reporting that their content has been heavily scraped in recent weeks, quite likely for use in training new AI systems.
In response to this, authors and editors are calling on professional organizations like the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, Horror Writers Association, Romance Writers of America, PEN America, and SCBWI to take a stand on this matter. In particular, these organizations are being urged to release statements condemning the use of copyrighted works by LLMs like ChatGPT without the authors' permission or notification.
So far, only the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom has released such a statement.
As Michael Damian Thomas of Uncanny Magazine said, specifically calling out the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, "We need your leadership on this, (SFWA). At this point, you should be well aware of the issues with AI writing programs. You made a statement of solidarity with the WGA. Please add your voice to their fight against AI writing."
Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld even grew "tired of waiting for industry organizations to respond to AI issues" and released his own draft statement, seeking feedback on it from others in the genre.
As Clarke's statement says:
"We believe that AI technologies will likely create significant breakthroughs in a wide range of fields, but that those gains should be earned through the ethical use and acquisition of data. We believe that 'fair use' exceptions (and similar exceptions in other countries) with regards to authors', artists', translators', and narrators' creative output should not apply to the training of AI technologies, such as LLMs, and that explicit consent to use those works should be required."
One likely reason many of these organizations have been slow to respond to this issue is because there is uncertainty about how authors and artists may use AI platforms in the coming years to create new works. I myself have said that in the future I believe many authors and artists will use AI as a tool in their creative process.
But how people may use AI systems in the future is a completely separate issue from how the companies creating LLMs and other AI platforms are today doing wide-scale copyright theft. The use of copyrighted works by LLMs goes far beyond any reasonable or legal definition of "fair use." Every professional organization representing authors and artists needs to release statements condemning the use of copyrighted works by LLMs.
Over the years I've seen SFWA and other writing organizations release countless statements when authors had their books pirated online. How is this any different? This isn't about the future of AI systems and LLMs, it's about extremely powerful and rich companies using our works without permission or payment.
AI Issues Continue to Plague SF/F Magazines
Genre magazines continue to deal with issues related to AI submissions. As previously reported, in February of this year Clarkesworld was forced to close to submissions after being overwhelmed with works written with ChatGPT and other LLMs. The magazine eventually put new "basic elimination efforts" in place to weed out AI works and reopened to submissions, with far fewer AI stories being submitted in March and April.
However, Neil Clarke is now reporting that in May the magazine was again flooded with AI submissions, quickly rivaling and possibly surpassing how bad it was earlier this year. As Clarke revealed, he initially only banned between one and two hundred "authors" a month for submitting AI-generated works. However during the first half of May he had to ban 500 plus people for submitting AI works. And that was in addition to the magazine's normal workload of processing about 1100 legitimate submissions each month. It also appears these AI submissions are the result of viral "make money online" videos that specifically target Clarkesworld.
As Clarke said, "All of this nonsense has cost us time, money, and mental health. (Far more than the $1000 threshold that Microsoft Chief Economist and Corporate Vice President Michael Schwarz sees as a harm threshold before any regulation of generative AI should be implemented. But let's not go down that path. It's not like I'd trust regulation advice from the guy with his hand in the cookie jar.)"
Clarkesworld also discovered after publication that the cover art for their May 2023 issue was likely AI generated (something the magazine does not allow). Clarkesworld removed the art after publication and replaced it with a black cover with a Ghostbusters-style red circle and slash over the letters AI.
In addition to Neil Clarke being very outspoken on this issue, in recent days a number of genre magazines have released statements saying they won't accept or publish AI writings or art, including The Dark, Apparition Lit, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Uncanny Magazine. In addition, some of these magazines said they would permanently ban authors and artists who submit AI-generated works.
One big exception to this trend appears to be Space and Time, which from May 15 to 29 held a special submissions call for "AI-involved poetry, prose & visual art." According to Space and Time's editor and publisher Angela Yuriko Smith, the special submission call is being funded by Leonard Speiser.
Speiser, who will also guest edit the special issue, is an "AI-focused investor" per his bio on the Horror Writers Association's recent "AI and Writing" webinar. Speiser has also worked extensively in tech-related venture capital. Smith, who is also on the board of trustees of the Horror Writers Association, was another scheduled speaker for that HWA webinar.
Space and Time was criticized for doing this AI issue, with Usman T. Malik saying, "This call is bad. It will provide precedent to others." And as Eugenia Triantafyllou said, "This entanglement of an AI-businessperson with a writing organization is very troubling and raises a lot of ethical questions."
In response to criticism, Smith released a detailed statement on the AI submission call.
Don't get me wrong, Space and Time can absolutely support AI writings and art if they desire. But I also personally see this as an attempt to normalize AI writing and art, which is disturbing for any SF/F magazine to do, especially one with as long a history in the genre as Space and Time.
Don't Forget Genre Magazine Face Looming Kindle Disaster
While AI issues like these are commanding a ton of attention from genre magazines these days, don't forget that the magazines are also facing a looming disaster with regards to Kindle Newsstand.
On September 4, 2023, Amazon will end magazine subscriptions through the Kindle Newsstand platform, which many genre magazines relied on for a large portion of their subscriber base. Worse, these magazines have no way to contact these current Kindle subscribers to try to convince them to switch their e-subscriptions to a different platform.
Sean Wallace, publisher and co-editor of The Dark, said the loss of Amazon subscriptions will hit his magazine hard. "By my calculations," he said, "I'll need about one hundred more patrons to keep things rolling along for The Dark."
To learn more about this issue, see my previous special report. But the most important thing you can do is subscribe or financially support your favorite genre magazines.
Related News
As reported last week, one of the writers who defended Sudowrite was S.B. Divya. While Divya said she doesn't use any AI tools for her writing, she said there were "others with different fiction writing goals who might find it useful."
However, Divya was flooded with criticism for her stand and decided to delete her Twitter account. Divya posted the message below on Twitter before it was deleted and said I could also share it here:
"Folks, my [Twitter] mentions are flooded. A few kind friends have summarized the situation. For the record: I support unions, workers' rights, and human rights. I support the WGA and all artists in their efforts to be free of AI tools and to have their work protected from training sets. I support the implementation of an opt-in system to regulate what content can be scraped for machine learning purposes. I am sorry that my tweet has caused so much pain, anger, and grief.
"I'm currently having a bad crash due to ongoing Long Covid problems. Screens & typing are very hard. I apologize that I was not able to respond in a timely fashion nor to engage with each and every mention. I will leave this thread up for a few days, and then I will be deactivating my Twitter account as the response to my previous post has made me feel unsafe on this platform. I wish you all a happy, fulfilling, and peaceful life."
Here are also a few final thoughts on all this:
Interesting thread from Joseph Fink, who said "The 'threat of AI to the profession of writing' is actually two completely different things that are being conflated by both the media and older, less tech-savvy writers. One is real and the other is fictional marketing hype. A large language model chatbot CANNOT replace tv or film writers. Not now, not in the near future, I personally believe not ever. That is fiction. However, the real threat is bosses using this fiction as an excuse to turn writing into low paid gig work. That is real." Read the whole thread.
John Scalzi shared similar thoughts: "You do all understand that the corporate goal for AI is to get everyone in the world down to the cognitive level where AI-generated work is an acceptable replacement for human imagination and effort, yes? If you don't understand that, congrats, enjoy your AI-generated work."
Finally, Phoenix Alexander shared a very good thread of non-AI-related ways to improve your writing.
Awards
The Chengdu WorldCon announced through Twitter that this year's Hugo Awards shortlist will be out early June.
Winners of the 2022 Nebula Awards.
Winners of the 2023 Ursa Major Awards.
Winners of the 2023 Premio Vegetti.
Winners of the 2023 Prix Imaginales.
Winners of the 2023 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.
Winners of the Xingyun Awards for Chinese Science Fiction.
2023 Igynte Award finalists. Voting is open through June 30.
2023 Locus Awards top ten finalists. Winners will be announced June 24.
Finalists for the 2023 Kitschies Awards.
Finalists for the 2023 Aurora Awards.
Finalists for the 2023 Mythopoeic Awards.
Finalists for the 2023 Rhysling Awards.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has created the Infinity Award, which will honor SF/F authors who passed away before being considered for the Grand Master Award. This year's recipient is Octavia E. Butler.
Mahmud El Sayed won the 2023 Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour.
Dominique Scali won the 2023 Prix Jacques-Brossard.
The Utopia Awards, honoring works "that exemplify hopeful, utopian fiction (science fiction, fantasy, climate fiction...)," are open to submissions published in 2022 until June 16.
As reported on File770, rule changes to the Bram Stoker Awards have been announced including an increase in the number of member recommendations to qualify for the preliminary ballot and expanding "the poetry category to include long-form works in verse in addition to collections."
Hugo Book Club Blog wrote a must-read essay called "The Word For 'World' Isn't America" about the genre's premier award. "The Hugo Award — when it was established in 1953 — may have billed itself as celebrating the world's greatest science fiction, but that was for a limited definition of 'world.' This was a 'world' that extended no further north than Toronto, no further east than London, and no further south or west than Los Angeles. American cultural hegemony was baked into the DNA of the award. … As much as Worldcon likes to think of itself as a 'World' event, it seems pretty clear that for the first seven decades that it existed, the Hugo Award has steadfastly resisted the global reach of fandom."
Other News and Info (Yes, There's Non-AI News!)
Erica Ifill was invited to speak at the "Ottawa International Craft and Book Expo" but declined because their pay was below Ifill's usual rate. The event organizers replied to Ifill with an insulting message: "No problem. We already have enough amazing speakers who have a much better social media following than you. I'll let Elon Musk and Bill Gates know you might be available though." As Ifill said, "This is what happens when Black women have the temerity to ask for what we're worth." In addition, Dr. Emily McEwan delved into their promo materials and Facebook account and raised concerns about the event while Victoria Strauss also raised concerns, noting the event used to be called the Toronto Book Expo.
Book reviewer Christine Reads pointed out BookTok drama around an author who "wants reviewers to sign contracts and if they don't provide a full adequate review, you will get sued for the price of the book and damages." Foz Meadows looked into the original creator and discovered more concerns, including the person launching a "site called Novelled, which is meant to be an intensive mentorship/workshop program for aspiring writers. The price? $1997 dollars." Read both threads for complete details.
In a welcome turn, PEN America and Penguin Random House have sued a Florida school district over the district’s unconstitutional book bans.
Excellent tweet from screenwriter Valentina Garza: "In case anyone's wondering why the WGA is on strike, this is my streaming residual check for two episodes of Jane the Virgin. One for .01 another for .02. I think the streamers can do better."
George R.R. Martin shared "a few words about what I think is THE most important issue in the current writers' strike."
According to editor E.D.E. Bell, Publishers Marketplace refused to carry an announcement about upcoming books from Atthis Arts. Bell tweeted what she said was an email from Publishers Marketplace, which read "We took a look at your website. We've decided not to list companies with a crowdfunding element for now. Please try us again if your business model changes." Of course, Publishers Marketplace did cover the Brandon Sanderson books funded by his record-breaking Kickstarter, and also covers nonprofit presses that receive grants and support from donors. And as RB Lemberg pointed out, "Plenty of crowdfunded anthologies and books got a PM Press announcement, so this is very strange." Publishers Marketplace needs to release a statement on if this is indeed a new rule and why they are implemented it.
As Brandon Taylor recently tweeted, "Oh dear. I have become a discourse." This happened after Laura Miller, Slate's books and culture columnist, wrote a column about Taylor's novel The Late Americans and essentially bemoaned his fiction not being identical to his Twitter feed. The column was roundly attacked, with Jeff VanderMeer saying, "Sorry, but this Laura Miller review of the new Brandon Taylor novel is just dreadful." And Shiv Ramdas verbally fileted the column, saying "This may be the worst piece of writing on a book or author I have ever read. a whole ass article to complain that a book differs from author's Twitter. Just say you hate reading. Would save everyone time. Shame on everyone involved with this."
Some things in an author's life are so amazing and beautiful and strange that words can't sum them up, but Saladin Ahmed comes close: "Logged on after a few days away to see one of my favorite people in science fiction become a runaway bestseller at the spurring of a Trigun fan account called Bigolas Dickolas so I'm going to just log off again and pretend that twitter is Good Once More." Ahmed was referring to how a Trigun anime series fan account named bigolas dickolas wolfwood urged everyone to buy This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. In response the novella became a NYTimes bestseller and caused other authors to set up altars to Trigun. For more, read this TechCrunch article or this interview with Amal El-Mohtar.
As John Wiswell said, "Wishing all my fellow authors a Bigolas Dickolas of their own."
John Wiswell also shared a great tweet on why rejection should never stop you: "I had stories rejected 800+ times before I won the Nebula Award. When I moderated my first panel? A rejection email popped up and covered my notes. I once got a rejection six minutes after midnight on New Years. The day I sold my novel? I got a short story rejection, too."
After Vintage Books* announced the upcoming release of an anthology of retellings of Greek myths that didn't include a single author of Greek heritage, a number of authors from the Greek diaspora spoke up. Eugenia Triantafyllou said, "I feel like inclusivity would benefit by the addition of Greek writers in anthologies like this because our voice on the matter hasn't been heard since forever. Including Greek authors in Greek retellings is at this point fresh and revolutionary." Triantafyllou also wrote a related threat later in May well worth reading. And N.C. Koussis wrote a deep-dive essay examining Greek myth and western hegemony and exploring why these myths are frequently told by the people they're not about. * Note: I mistakenly said the anthology was published by Tor when it will be released by Vintage Books.
And a tweet by Danai Christopoulou shows why inclusion is so important: "So I posted a TikTok about Cursed the Deer, my YA fantasy based in Greek myth, and someone left me a comment saying 'this is 100% Percy Jackson fan-fiction.' Putting aside the fact that I've never read Percy Jackson, imagine saying this to a Greek author. With your whole chest."
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) is holding a survey about whether the convention should remain in Florida in light of the state's new discriminatory and hate-oriented laws.
Everyone in fandom should read Chris Barkley's powerful essay and loving remembrance of Ric Bergman. RIP. Alienation and loneliness are serious issues in our world and we all need to remember to reach out to and support one another.
On Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss warns about termination fees in publishing contracts.
If you want to understand the history of purity culture and antis trying to reframe sex and relationships across genre fandom and all fictional worlds, this Vox article by Aja Romano is the best overview I've seen on this bewildering topic.
Three Crows Magazine is on an indefinite hiatus "due to a combination of life circumstances, health issues, and other commitments that are incompatible with the level of effort it takes to run a literary magazine."
The Mary Sue offers a good overview of what happened with New Leaf Literary Agency in May when the agency dropped dozens of authors after agent Jordan Hamessley left. In a statement released on Twitter, Hamessley said her departure was "not my choice." The response from the writing community was extremely against New Leaf, especially since the authors were dropped by email and some of them were in the middle of contract negotiations with publishers. For more on the backlash against New Leaf, you can also read this article in Publishers Weekly. Sara Patel also shared a disturbing thread on her experiences with New Leaf.
Clarion West released the final report from their Evolving Workshop Culture Project, which envisions changing the workshop to allow it to better help new and emerging voices in speculative fiction.
A lawyer used ChatGPT to write a legal brief for a Federal judge. But in an absolute surprise to no one, ChatGPT made up relevant court decisions cited in the brief. The judge was not amused. But the best part, as Alexandra Erin explained, "is that the lawyer who consulted ChatGPT essentially asked, 'Are you lying to me?' and it told him it wasn't, and he took it at its word."
Screenwriter James Moran for the win by tweeting "If they made Raiders of the Lost Ark today, they'd probably cram it with woke anti-Nazi propaganda, put in a feisty woman who can outdrink men twice her size, and make the hero keep failing and scared of snakes or some shit, ugh." In even more humor, some people didn't get the irony so he pointed out that all of that is actually in the movie.
As Shiv Ramdas pointed out, "It's pretty illuminating how none of the podcast bros who keep asking writer guests why AI can't replace them never ask those guests if AI could do a better job hosting the podcast."
While working on her thesis, Isabella Rosner came across a ton of 17th- and 18th-century Quaker names. Her list of the 90 wildest early Quaker names is astounding. My favorites are Love Beer, Robert Were Fox, Charity Kill, Job Bland, and Revolution Sixsmith.
Malcolm Wood shared "One of the best intros I have read," which is this note on language from Caimh McDonnell's Disaster Inc. A must read, with bonus points for having fun with the spelling differences "recognized" by different cultures.
Sarah Andersen's new cartoon shows why book lovers will never embrace minimalism.
This Tom Gauld cartoon perfectly captures the line many writers continually trip over: "Somewhere between your initial outline and this latest draft, you've crossed the fine line from 'intriguingly enigmatic mystery' into 'complete load of nonsense.'"
Opportunities
Baffling Magazine is open until June 15 for queer speculative flash submissions of under 1,200 on the theme of "quiet" stories, along with unthemed work. Details>>
Diabolical Plots next submission window will run from July 17 to 31 for unthemed stories up to 3,500 words. Simultaneous submissions allowed, no AI written/assisted stories. Details>>
Neon Hemlock's We're Here 2023: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2023 is open to reprint submissions through December 31. The anthology will be edited by Darcie Little Badger and series editor Charles Payseur of Quick Sip Reviews. Details>>
OutWrite's fifth Chapbook Competition is open through June 30. Winning chapbooks will receive 25 copies, an offer of print publication from Neon Hemlock Press, and an opportunity to read from their work at OutWrite 2024. Details>>
The Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction, a short story award to promote science fiction and related genres of writing in Pakistan, is open to submission until July 31. Details>>
Tenebrous Press has an open submission call until June 20 for dark speculative fiction "concerning humanity's rage against the devaluing of the light." Details>>