AI “Writing” and “Art” IS Theft & Yes, I’m Willing to Die on This Hill

The Comment I Submitted:

Copying a writer’s work and utilizing that content without their express permission is an abusive practice that must never be tolerated, much less adopted as a norm.

Attempting to understate the criminality/unfairness of these actions by changing phrasing–from “copied from” to “informed by”, for example–is a complete perversion of the principles of owning the copyright to one’s own work. It is also economically catastrophic and detrimental to human writers and artists.

There is no actual artificial “intelligence” involved here

Computer programs do not presently have the capability to think for themselves or discern right from wrong. Let us please not keep pretending that the technologies being touted at artificial “intelligence” are more than glorified search engines that have the capability to scrape the internet, stealing the product of our creative labors. 

The sad fact is that the technology being called artificial intelligence could be inherently useful to humans but its potential usefulness has been perverted by bad actors attempting to give people the impression that this technology is capable of thinking for itself and producing original content and ideas. It is certainly not. 

Only terrible humans

In reality, all we have here are Terrible Humans seeking to take unfair advantage of and profit unethically from the labors of other humans, i.e. writers, artists, and other creatives, while shifting all responsibility/accountability for their ill-deeds onto non-human entities.

Under no circumstances do I, personally, wish to acquiesce to the selfish kind of sophistry and twisted logic that demands that my creative work is fair game for the use of individuals or corporations bent on profiting obscenely from the product of my labors without fairly compensating me. 

Copying and utilizing my creative work, for any purpose, without my consent—not to mention without properly compensating me for it–is theft. It only stands to reason that such actions/behavior should be strictly prohibited.

Would you like to weigh in on the matter too?

Submit your comment/statement here: https://www.copyright.gov/policy/artificial-intelligence/comment-submission