Naughty AI has generated (pun intended) a lot of column inches this week. I want to start with a really important longform piece in the Guardian, which shows that mainstream media is catching on to the most obviously predatory use of the new technology.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
“Self-Publish and Be Scammed” reads the title of a piece that could have been written, to be honest, at any time in the past twenty years but has become much more urgent with the involvement of AI in the eponymous scams.
The article is written through the lens of one writer who lost thousands of dollars to thirty-two separate scams, but it goes into welcome depth on the nature of those scams. A lot of my writer friends are very aware of what is and what isn't a scam and share stories of targeted emails seemingly from people they couldn't possibly be from with an insouciant shrug.
But there are hundreds of thousands who have not been in the game so long who are desperate for success for something they have poured years of their life into. And the scammers know that. Shining a light on the scams has to be a great step.
How AI Scams Target Authors
In short, the most insidious AI-generated scams send targeted emails that really seem to know which buttons to push. And many of them hook people by pretense—either of being a famous author or of being from a reputable company (but actually from one with a very similar name, meaning the actual company is a further victim).
Grammarly's Expert Review Controversy
The other big AI story this week is about everyone's favorite electronic assistant, Grammarly. It focuses on the “Expert Review” feature offered to paying subscribers. The feature offered “in the style of” feedback to writers.
That is to say, you could ask it what some writer you really admire would say about your work, as a way of getting, I guess, different perspectives on the same piece and then balancing them to decide your way forward. Except the articles I've read are “somewhat” critical of the actual quality of this feedback.
But not half so critical as the writers whose style the feature claims to mimic. Kara Swisher's response in this TechCrunch piece is priceless and, dare I say, inimitable. One writer alluded to in Expert Review, Julia Angwin, has filed a class action that others affected can join.
Grammarly has since discontinued the feature. Authors have not, to my knowledge, discontinued their legal pursuit.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and our own ALLi team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi's Self-Publishing Advice Center.
