Autobiography AI Archives

Study Confirms Ambivalence to New Tech, and How to Opt Out of Facebook AI: The Self-Publishing News Podcast with Dan Holloway

In this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway discusses the controversy surrounding Facebook AI, specifically Meta's decision to use user content to train its AI platforms unless users opt out. He highlights a helpful guide on how to opt out, examines a new study revealing authors' ambivalence toward AI, and introduces an app that helps users write their autobiographies. Dan also covers the legal battle between the New York Times and the creators of the game Worldle.

Self-Publishing News: Autobiography by AI Launched and Oxford University Study Reveals Writers Conflicted About AI

One of the interesting things about the recent Society of Authors survey on AI was that it captured the complexity and what I might call practical ambivalence we have toward this growing technology as a group. By complexity, I mean that AI is not just one thing. Generative AI, such as large platforms like ChatGPT and Midjourney, is only one part of a picture that includes grammar checks, metadata optimization, and even tools to help write an autobiography. By practical ambivalence, I mean that while many of us are very worried and actively critical about some parts of the technology (especially generative AI), we nonetheless use many other parts. Even some of us use the parts we also criticize.