Eric, this is an interesting piece, but I'd suggest going a step further if you are trying to frame this issue in terms of ethics and good practice. You say, "you are not a good or bad person if you use AI" Do "good" people traffic in stolen goods? That is what you are doing when you use degenerative AI. You are using other writers words and ideas, taken without their permission, without even consultation, and with no compensation. You mentioned Anthropic, which is one of the worst. They just lost a court case with the Authors Guild because they are guilty of pirating so many books. Ethical? Good?
I know this first hand. I wrote 12 research-based books. No book leaves or big advances, just writing nights and weekends on top of a full-time teaching job. Three were "licensed" to AI by Routledge, even after I asked in writing to opt out. Someone got millions but I got nothing. Six more books appear in the database of pirated books. I wasn't asked, didn't agree to this use of my work, and of course got nothing.
Please don't say "it is only training," since I have seen huge blocks of my writing spit out verbatim.
The choice of our time for academic writers can be summed up as: do you want to stand on the shoulders of giants, as Isaac Newton urged, or on the backs of writers whose work was stolen? When we stand on the shoulders of giants, we show respect by naming them and citing their work. We can't do that when their writing is part of an anonymous soup of content.
Feel free to share my story with your students who are trying to decide whether using stolen words from people like me is OK with their conscience.
Wow, Janet I’m so grateful to read your comment here and so sorry that you’ve been robbed. I’ve been robbed too. I appreciate you taking the time to tell your story in this much detail here in this conversation because it extends the field to include the norms that AI is enforcing. They’re profoundly disrespectful of human intelligence, and the ways that we have used our intelligence to contribute to other humans. Disregarding our ownership and right to benefit from of the fruits of our labors set the world up for the annihilation of our individual creative identities. I can’t begin to imagine how that norm will allow children to develop healthy individual identities.
Thanks Meri. It is beyond maddening! People who are asking us if we want to "rewrite with AI" because somehow their regurgitated flat writing is better than what we could produce are also actively complicit in the dismantling of our research, education, library, and media infrastructures so people are restricted or discouraged from reading evidence-based sources and thinking for themselves.
What’s happening right now right under our noses, unless we start making big noise and pushing back in education from K up through higher ed, is training humans to disregard the humanity of other humans that has built the platform we call civilization. It’s horrific looking ahead unless we start really raising hell about these things. I’m gonna really be looking to see if the fellow who made this post here replies to our conversation. If not, he’s just part of the problem.
Hi Eric, This is the message for students, teachers, parents, in fact any humans.
AI can help you cheat underwater. It can help learn on steroids. You are in charge. depends on what you are trying to do. Get the right answer because that's what you were asked for by teachers or education systems. Or learn how to get the right answer, because you want to learn and you value knowledge and learning. It all depends on the user, YOU.
1) the massive scale theft of every writer and artist in human history that enabled this technology
2) the forced labor and exploitation of grossly underpaid workers in Asia and Africa whose job is to sift through child abuse material and other sickening content day in and day out to aid in the training of these models.
Students need to know about this and consider the ethics when deciding whether to use these products.
as long as you’ve put this piece out here for the public, Eric, I certainly like to hear your response to Janet Salmons’ reply and how you see the facts she’s raising impact the kind of advice you want to offer students using AI
One of the best articles I read lately. Thank you!
Eric, this is an interesting piece, but I'd suggest going a step further if you are trying to frame this issue in terms of ethics and good practice. You say, "you are not a good or bad person if you use AI" Do "good" people traffic in stolen goods? That is what you are doing when you use degenerative AI. You are using other writers words and ideas, taken without their permission, without even consultation, and with no compensation. You mentioned Anthropic, which is one of the worst. They just lost a court case with the Authors Guild because they are guilty of pirating so many books. Ethical? Good?
I know this first hand. I wrote 12 research-based books. No book leaves or big advances, just writing nights and weekends on top of a full-time teaching job. Three were "licensed" to AI by Routledge, even after I asked in writing to opt out. Someone got millions but I got nothing. Six more books appear in the database of pirated books. I wasn't asked, didn't agree to this use of my work, and of course got nothing.
Please don't say "it is only training," since I have seen huge blocks of my writing spit out verbatim.
The choice of our time for academic writers can be summed up as: do you want to stand on the shoulders of giants, as Isaac Newton urged, or on the backs of writers whose work was stolen? When we stand on the shoulders of giants, we show respect by naming them and citing their work. We can't do that when their writing is part of an anonymous soup of content.
Feel free to share my story with your students who are trying to decide whether using stolen words from people like me is OK with their conscience.
A could of guest posts about my experience from The Scholarly KItchen: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/author/janet-salmons/
Wow, Janet I’m so grateful to read your comment here and so sorry that you’ve been robbed. I’ve been robbed too. I appreciate you taking the time to tell your story in this much detail here in this conversation because it extends the field to include the norms that AI is enforcing. They’re profoundly disrespectful of human intelligence, and the ways that we have used our intelligence to contribute to other humans. Disregarding our ownership and right to benefit from of the fruits of our labors set the world up for the annihilation of our individual creative identities. I can’t begin to imagine how that norm will allow children to develop healthy individual identities.
Thanks Meri. It is beyond maddening! People who are asking us if we want to "rewrite with AI" because somehow their regurgitated flat writing is better than what we could produce are also actively complicit in the dismantling of our research, education, library, and media infrastructures so people are restricted or discouraged from reading evidence-based sources and thinking for themselves.
What’s happening right now right under our noses, unless we start making big noise and pushing back in education from K up through higher ed, is training humans to disregard the humanity of other humans that has built the platform we call civilization. It’s horrific looking ahead unless we start really raising hell about these things. I’m gonna really be looking to see if the fellow who made this post here replies to our conversation. If not, he’s just part of the problem.
This is a brilliant, wise summary, Eric
Hi Eric, This is the message for students, teachers, parents, in fact any humans.
AI can help you cheat underwater. It can help learn on steroids. You are in charge. depends on what you are trying to do. Get the right answer because that's what you were asked for by teachers or education systems. Or learn how to get the right answer, because you want to learn and you value knowledge and learning. It all depends on the user, YOU.
2 elephants in the room here:
1) the massive scale theft of every writer and artist in human history that enabled this technology
2) the forced labor and exploitation of grossly underpaid workers in Asia and Africa whose job is to sift through child abuse material and other sickening content day in and day out to aid in the training of these models.
Students need to know about this and consider the ethics when deciding whether to use these products.
as long as you’ve put this piece out here for the public, Eric, I certainly like to hear your response to Janet Salmons’ reply and how you see the facts she’s raising impact the kind of advice you want to offer students using AI