You can’t copyright AI text

You shouldn’t be able to at least.

This entire post is gonna be a response to this article: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/author-granted-copyright-over-book-with-ai-generated-text-with-a-twist/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2V8UhBqIhPZOItkutVWV5dbrdzcfv1temluvDLoqq2mH_VYhQ8XQmJWeg_aem_AVdhQregse5E_2iNn2sfJWW_g2qbp6kMQe1224x8sroZY6JNpxAl20foXPq5_FhwZm3VnVmoyXoNWXK8mFpY7JmR

So if you would like full context, go take a quick read then come back to me, I’ll wait.

Now with that out of the way, let’s begin.

The article talks about how Elisa Shupe was able to get her book copyrighted despite using AI text in her novel and in a weird turn of events no one mentioned her book or where to find it, so I did the work and discovered it’s called “AI Machinations: Tangled Webs and Typed Words” under the pen name Ellen Rae, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/AI-Machinations-Tangled-Typed-Words-ebook/dp/B0CKWSQYVV/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Mnte1&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=138-1086470-4047013&pd_rd_wg=JsCX3&pd_rd_r=95cbab0f-fbc0-4b67-8c1f-dbdc7d81c427&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk

I was only able to find this thanks to the United States Copyright search engine here: https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=1&ti=1,1&SAB1=Elisa%20Shupe&BOOL1=all%20of%20these&FLD1=Keyword%20Anywhere%20%28GKEY%29&GRP1=OR%20with%20next%20set&SAB2=Ellen%20Rae&BOOL2=as%20a%20phrase&FLD2=Keyword%20Anywhere%20%28GKEY%29&CNT=25&PID=KsAg2GziUD-KWXZ2p16doyefGFC9I_&SEQ=20240423225121&SID=8

The copyright office doesn’t seem to acknowledge Elisa as the owner of her “completed work” but merely in the “arrangement” in which those AI texts are placed. “This means no one can copy the book without permission, but the actual sentences and paragraphs themselves are not copyrighted and could theoretically be rearranged and republished as a different book.” - KATE KNIBBS, WIRED.COM – 4/18/2024 11:24PM

Now I don’t need to know and I don’t care why Elisa created a book with AI text, all I want to focus on is what this means for the future of storytelling and copyright?

For starters, since the book is free thanks to Kindle Unlimited, I can download it, and rip the text straight from the book but as long as I rearrange the words, I’m safe. First of all...how much of it needs to be rearranged for it to no longer count as stealing? Can I simply move words around or do I need to add in my own input? How much of my own input is needed?

I took a chapter from the book and rearranged it, here’s my version of the text which I got from said book which according to the copyright office, is legal.

[This is for educational purposes only]

The pallid light of an October morning spilt into the Wakefield kitchen, accompanied by the gentle rustling of leaves. Lily, ever observant, set her backpack down by the breakfast bar and looked closely at her mother. "Mom," she began, concerned, "you should sit down for a bit. You look tired."

Brenna forced a smile, appreciating her daughter's concern. The pressing nature of the situation bore down on her. "You know we have plans," Lily called out, her voice irritated and affectionate.

Brenna hesitated for a few seconds, yesterday’s meeting still fresh in her mind. "Thank you, sweetie. I'll be okay. Just one of those days, you know?" Brenna leaned down, despite her pain, “Tell me about that darkness.”

“Alright,” she conceded with a smile. "Let's just say I have my ways considering how many Confederate prisoners died,” Lily's expression brightened.

Brenna snapped, “This is me trying to make things right and,” Brenna's eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?”

“A forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera. Top of the line. It can detect the slightest temperature variations.”

“How did you manage to get this?" Brenna took the camera, sensing its heft in her hand. The reality of what they might discover tonight suddenly felt more tangible. "Thank you," she whispered back.

***

I would like to point out I didn’t add any of my own words, I merely rearranged Elisa's to create a new story which is different from hers. Under normal copyright laws I would consider this stealing because I literally stole Elisa’s words, rearranged them, and added none of my own input and if you agree with what I did is considered stealing, congratulations, that’s how AI text is made.

If the copyright office allows these kinds of stories to be copyrighted then we’re gonna see more and more text which are stolen from authors used in stories under the AI machine. Again, I ask, how much-stolen work will the copyright office allow to be used if we could go with the excuse “A machine made it but I changed it.”

[This is for educational purposes only]

Me - Give me two paragraphs which use text from Warriors Into The Wild, Lord of the Rings, and Wings of Fire

AI - Here's a mashup of two paragraphs using text from "Warriors: Into the Wild," "Lord of the Rings," and "Wings of Fire":

In the heart of the forest, Firepaw watched as the shadows lengthened, casting a darkening cloak over the land. The whispering wind carried tales of ancient battles and forgotten realms, stirring memories of a time when the world was young and filled with magic. As he gazed into the depths of the woods, Firepaw felt a sense of foreboding, as if unseen eyes were watching his every move, waiting for the moment to strike. He knew that danger lurked in the shadows, but he also knew that he was not alone. With the courage of a warrior, he pressed forward, determined to face whatever challenges lay ahead, for he was destined for greatness

***

AI steals from authors, I didn’t create any of the text you just read, but thanks to Elisa and the copyright office, all I’ll have to do is most likely change Firepaw’s name and I’ll be golden, despite telling AI to use stolen text.

Let me be very clear, AI doesn’t create anything new, it’s a machine which was created using stolen works and if for some reason you don’t believe me, take it from Open AI themselves. “OpenAI said it could not train large language models such as its GPT-4 model – the technology behind ChatGPT – without access to copyrighted work.” - The Guardian, 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/08/ai-tools-chatgpt-copyrighted-material-openai

If you use AI to create a story, it shouldn’t be copyrighted because the “words” you use to create a story didn't come from you. I understand creating a story is hard, and for those who suffer from a disability where it’s difficult to create a story the normal way, I can see the appeal of using AI. However, please don't use it until AI can be made where it’ll NEVER steal from others.

“I fired a nuke at the US Copyright Office this morning,” - Elisa Shupe (2024)

I can’t deny that, because I can only see this snowballing into more AI-written books trying to get copyrighted and while Elisa admitted to using AI text, not everyone will. Here’s another article by Kate where she goes into detail about how Amazon has an AI book problem so the problem is already here and it’s getting worse thanks to Elisa’s book making it through the copyright office: https://www.wired.com/story/scammy-ai-generated-books-flooding-amazon/

It’s nearly impossible to figure out who’s using AI text unless they tell us. But if someone gets caught using AI text, they can simply claim they changed enough of the AI version to justify putting their own “spin” on things.

“You don't just hit ‘generate’ and get something worthy of publishing. That may come in the future, but we're still far from it,” she says, noting that she spent upwards of 14 hours a day working on her draft … On a sentence level, she adjusted almost every line in some way, from changes in word choice to structure. One example describing a character in the novel: “Mark eyed her, a complex mix of concern and annoyance evident in his gaze” becomes “Mark studied her, his gaze reflecting both worry and irritation.” - Elisa & Kate (2024)

Anyone can claim this. Anyone who uses AI text can say they spend 14 hours a day, going over AI written text and changing it, but it still doesn’t eliminate the fact that Elisa used stolen text to help create a story. It doesn’t change the story she "created" is now copyrighted and being sold to others with protection.

I honestly don’t know why Elisa used AI text because in her own words, “firing a nuke at the US Copyright Office” is so good, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Those words came from a person, they were created by thought, and it describe this situation so perfectly, that I have to give credit to the person who created it, Elisa Shupe.

I guess only time will tell how the United States Copyright Office will handle AI-created stuff but if they agree with one person using it, others will follow. If your argument is that you need AI to help write because of your disability, then please speak with disabled writers. I give out free writing advice all the time because I enjoy writing and I want others to enjoy it as well.

What makes writing beautiful is that it comes from a human. Humans with their own thoughts, ideas, and personalities. I could end this article by saying something profound that’ll reflect on the themes of what you just read, or...I could say something stupid but regardless of how this article ends, it ended as it began, with a human thought...pickles.

Writing Advice: Resurrection Trope

I was reading a story where the main character dies but gets brought back to life and this is such a common trope I shouldn’t be surprised when I see it but yet I still am. I’m not sure if this is a good trope, but I guess many people like it enough that it gets included in everything.

Here’s why I don’t really care for this trope if you can bring a character back to life, then death has no weight. The moment you do this, you’ll have to explain to the reader “No, seriously, they won’t come back again, trust me.” But how can we trust you after the first time?

I’m not talking about fake-out deaths where we think a character is dead but they’re just off-screen preparing to emerge from under the rubble of a fallen building. Gandalf is a great example of what I'm talking about where we only see him fall but never the body until after he comes back. The kind of resurrection trope I’m talking about is where the heart stops beating their soul is gone just for them to come back for round two a few pages later.

I understand these scenes are very emotional for the characters, but this trope is so common that if I see the main character die halfway through a book, I don’t feel anything because I know they’ll come back on the next page. Honestly, I’m more shocked to see someone not come back. I’m like, “Damn...they dead, dead...wasn’t expecting that.”

You might be asking yourself “How can I write a scene where a character dies, but later comes back to life without losing any of the emotional weight? Also when I do kill off the same character, how can I convince the reader they won’t come back?”

And honestly...that’s a pretty big question because it’ll depend on your setting, lore, and world.

In most cases, if the hero gets murdered and comes back to life, that’s to be expected. However, if the hero sacrifices themselves, then they stay dead. I’m not entirely sure why most of these death scenes are written this way but that’s typically how it plays out and if you’re creating that, you’ll need to convince the reader that a sacrificial death is different than getting murdered. Most of the time these sacrificial deaths have to deal with the hero turning into balls of light, but that also doesn’t mean they won’t come back because I’ve seen balls of light bring characters back. (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon)

You can inform your reader that a higher being said the next time the hero dies, they won’t come back, however, I’ve also seen the same higher beings go back on their word. There’s nothing you can say that’ll convince me, yup the hero won’t come back this time, because I’ve seen it so much that like I said before, I’m more shocked when the hero stays dead.

I’m not saying you can’t do this trope, but I will say it’s very hard to do right. Dragonball, God of War, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, Any superhero comic, Tangled, Warriors, Mass Effect 2, Bio Shock 2, Teen Titans, Avatar The Last Airbender.

I don’t think any of these are bad stories...for the most part, but I also don’t feel anything when a character dies just because I’ve already seen them come back to life so death no longer holds any weight.

I’m not saying you can’t write the resurrection trope, just understand having a character come back to life, might lessen the impact of when another character fully dies in the future. I would suggest, before you bring someone back, just create a version where they don’t and see how your story continues after the characters stay dead? What’s the tone after said death? Just an idea to think about if you’re thinking about bringing someone back to life.

Writing Advice: Reel It In

So, this is something I need to learn and I can thank my beta readers for pointing this out but I need to be able to reel in my story and here’s what I mean. I’m creating a cyberpunk story and it’s the first time in many years since I’m stepping away from my dragons (no need to fear if you’ve been waiting to read my dragon story, it’s coming but I’m creating another book series while I wait for that one to get finished.)

I accidentally added a bit too much of everything in my story and now I need to reel it in. I added too much lore, filler, and foreshadowing, I added everything except the actual plot.

Reeling it in is a common mistake, especially if you’re creating the first book in a series. There’s so much you want to talk about, show the readers, and set up for the next books where it feels like if you don’t do it, they’ll miss out and I’m here to tell you, reel it in.

Focus on the story first, then the characters. All of the lore you built, the world, the foreshadowing, none of it matters if your readers won’t enjoy the story. It’s very rare for someone to read a story just for the world-building.

Also, it’s much better to reel in a story than to fill it up. Reeling it in means you have too much stuff and you have to take things out. You can take things out a little at a time until your story begins to feel just right, but having to fill in your story is trickier since you need to create new content or expand on things you weren’t attending to and sometimes you might overfill your new story and now have to reel it in any way.

The only way you can figure out if your story is bloated is if you give it to beta readers. They’ll inform you what they find pointless and what kind of information they want to see get expanded upon. This kind of information will be up to personal taste so make sure to think over what they said and ask yourself “Why do they think that part of the story was unnecessary?” Or you could ask them that question as well.

Just remember, anything the reader deems not important, they’ll forget about it so you want to make sure everything in your story is not only important but the readers are aware it’s important as well. I know you’ve been dropping some clues as to what’s gonna happen in the next book, just make sure your readers are paying attention to the one they’re currently reading as well

DragonFire: (Book 2) Fallen Star Review

TLDR

That kind of sums up my experience, too long, didn’t read. I got 80% of the way through this story before I gave up which is a shame because the beginning was good but then it kind of fell apart.

In the beginning, Blaze is hyper-fixing on figuring out who/what he is, all the while Risha really needs some loving, like girl, if he hasn’t noticed your advances for an entire year, best to move on. Anyway, it felt like LJ Davies has a better understanding of his characters, they feel more fleshed out (except for Risha) and I’m enjoying it. The problem started in the first fight scene.

I know I have aphantasia and I have difficulties imagining most things, but that first fight scene, and every other fight scene not only felt pointless but I couldn’t see anything. Again, I know I have aphantasia, but even I can at least keep track of a fight if it’s written well enough. These fights felt like they were filler even though several characters died, the story moves on like nothing happened and we get no time to reflect on the loss of any of these characters.

Sure the story tries to reflect on one of the character's death, but it reflects it by saying “We’ll just give them space” and before the dragon who’s affected by someone’s death gets to speak about their feeling, they get captured but not until after getting angry at Blaze and Risha for having a nice romantic moment the SAME NIGHT one of their friends died.

It feels like LJ Davies forgot to add in a few moments and decided to throw these things in because none of them felt right.

Blaze and friends escape their village, while escaping, Blaze and friends, (except for Pyro) begin to play games WHILE ON THE RUN and are confused as to why Pyro is telling everyone to knock it off.

Blaze kills a dragon and is confused, upset, and hurting, thinking he’s a monster, at the fact he killed one of his own kind and feeling disgusted by it? That never gets brought up again.

One of Blaze’s friends gets killed? Let’s have Blaze and Risha spend a nice moment together the same night.

There are just so many moments that either feel off or are just never expanded upon it took me out of the story because I honestly don’t know which moment was gonna be important and which one was filler.

I don't even want to get into the fact of how Blaze was in the wrong, Pyro was right, but the story made it feel like Pyro was in the wrong. You see what happened was that Blaze saw a village getting attacked and wanted to save them. Pyro said they're currently on the run and need to get to their destination, it'll be a foolish idea to try and save a random village because they might get killed, so what did Blaze do? He goes to the village and nearly dies but only to get rescued by his friends at the last minute putting everyone at risk and it's because of him (which the story doesn't bring up mind you) that led to the death of one of his friends.

Also...what was the plot of this book? I stopped reading at the 80% mark, I feel like I should know what the main plot of this story was. The first book was simple, save Tarwin. This one...save Blaze’s friends? That’s not the plot of the story, they all get captured trying to get to their location but they get taken to the same place they were heading to anyway which was to do what again? Was it to clear Blaze's name? Stop the invasion? Who was invading?

Who’s the main villain of this story?

I need to read a different review or google the summary of this book just to have an understanding of what I read because this book was really...really boring and it felt like there was a lot of filler.

The chapters were long and with my slow reading speed, it took me days to get through one of them. They just wouldn’t end and I like to read at least one chapter a day, if it takes multiple days to read one chapter, I’m not enjoying the story.

To be honest, I’m most likely not gonna read any other books in the DragonFire series because I’ll most likely need to have an understanding of this book to read the next one and I can’t be bothered.

The first story was simple, save Tarwin while also showing off the world. There’s a monster that keeps appearing which all leads to a showdown at the end. It’s not the best book I’ve read, but it got the job done, I truly can’t tell you anything about this story and I just put it down yesterday.

What I can tell you is there’s a shadowy demon thing who’s planting seeds into Blaze’s mind that he’s a monster? I have no idea how it got inside Blaze’s skull, nor why it’s there. Its sole purpose is to inform Blaze he’s evil and that’s it. However, all of those “You’re evil” lines are useless if you remember Blaze is the poster child for being a good boy. Honestly, the story would be better if the shadow monster wasn’t there and Blaze is telling himself this, not an outside source.

There are also knockoff goblins who all sound the same and their sole purpose is to be evil and serve the dark lord I guess? There are two different goblins (let’s be honest, that’s what they are even if they aren’t stated that in the books). There are two of them who are named and not only can I not remember them, but they sound the exact same. One is supposed to be the leader of the other and I can’t tell you which.

I like the beginning. I wish I could’ve seen more of the Princess, heck, maybe even throw in a love triangle (not the one with Boltock, Ember, and Pyro). I just needed to connect with Blaze and his friends and taking them away from Blaze, even if it’s for a moment really didn’t help the story because I knew nothing bad was gonna happen to them despite the story saying something bad was about to happen one of them, I just couldn’t care so I’m moving on.