DownvotesStarWars
99465
625
33
https://bsky.app/profile/bookspotlight.bsky.social/post/3lqokqog2fs2u
Fuck this guy
Also, shout out to independent bookstores. Skip the Bezos Universe and support them instead for your next book purchase. They may have to order it for you, but it’s worth the wait to know that your money is going to a small business owner who cares about the product more than the bottom line.
vigilante397
You could pay me to touch the book. I would like some money please. In this economy I'd touch just about anything.
wozat
In many ways I find AI to be a useful tool, but this is just pure laziness on the writer's part. Write the damn book yourself!
HelikaformerNubisKnight9
Why shoukd we pay money for a book AI wrote when we coukd ask AI to write us a book for free? When I buy a book I want it to be the authors ideal, not soulless AI scribbles!
IhopeyougetstageIIIcoloncancer
That's a bold move to openly declare "I only wrote part of the book, and my writing style is so bland you won't be able to tell what was written by an auto-complete algorithm and what was written by me, a real human."
That's on part with showing up to a speed-dating event in a shirt that says "my penis may be small, but I'm also terrible at sex because I'm bad at empathy", and feeling MORE confident because you're wearing it.
YesButMaybe
"no one wants to work any more." /s . I'd read it if I'm paid enough to do so.
ByronGetronfree
I suspect he never recovered from that beat down Oprah gave him for telling fibs.
cuddleskunk
Wait...this motherfucker is still someone anyone cares about? The guy who scammed his way into the Oprah Book Club by lying about living a life of being abused then turning to drugs? How in the hell? He was utterly DISGRACED 20 fucking years ago!
Sloloem
So he doesn't have a copyright, does he? Or are they just banking on the "Some of this might be owned by a human" to muddy the waters enough?
Xenarion
Most likely the AI was used as a tool for smaller chunks of text, which were then edited and filtered. That should be enough human transformation for him to own the copyright.
ArchMagos
I would bet my house there's only minor editing for his contribution vs the AI.
Xenarion
Well at least he's consenting to the AI using his writing style.
Somethingwittyandunique
Why would anybody bother to read what no one could be bothered to write?
Dannyalcatraz
rotinaj
Getting a little obvious with your grift there, jimmy jam
worm61
He must be a dogshit writer if his writing is indistinguishable from an AI mimicking his style.
mondeca
"I consider this car to be mine, and I don't care if you don't."
"Sir, this car was reported stolen. Step out now."
Gogoglovitch
"No, you see, the garage I got this car from stole several hundred cars, and then assembled this entirely new and original car out of one or two pieces from each. So that's completely fine! I don't see why you can't understand it."
the9mm
Indie Book Spotlight (Rebecca Crunden) is an outspoken advocate against AI and a fellow struggling writer. You should grab her latest title. I know it would make her day https://mybook.to/D3rL5
the9mm
Itch link: https://rebecca-crunden.itch.io/the-wish-and-the-demon
BlueDsc
That cover looks like shit
railgap
Alibris will find the book you're looking for, at a price you can (usually) afford, and then you buy it from a small bookseller. F a bunch of Amazon and other big book peddlers; Alibris is the next best thing to borrowing it from the library.
koyote2033
Never heard of James Frey anyway
valjean
No loss. His previous claim to fame was fabricating a story and selling it as a memoir.
IntelligentLake
Instead of 'generated by AI' they should write 'plagiarized from other people'.
zylokun
So he didn't write it then.
Axelxdisepic
Wrap it up in a different cover, move some chapters around, and you can legally sell it yourself
idiotsonfire
Oh, so you didn't write it. That's not your book then.
Atomic2
Are they doing this to highlight how AI is being used and will continue to be used to deceive us? Or are they simply doing it because "more money, less work"? Props to the author for being upfront about it, and if they're using this as a platform to spread awareness of how powerful genAI has become, more power to them. If they're just using this to offset their own workload, well... fuck off.
Plagen
So you draw the line at "People using AI so they can work less"?
wyrmbear
The answer to those questions are not mutually exclusive. Both is a perfectly acceptable answer and quite likely the correct one.
Xenarion
Like any form of automation, it's a tool to increase productivity. So long as it's used that way, it's not an issue IMO. And if the author consents to his own work being used for training data, there's no issue on that side either.
floobynooby
James Frey is the guy who wrote a fake memoir and got it promoted by Oprah before it came out it was complete bullshit. He's always been a fraudster, this is just another stage for him.
BiscuitAndBeans
I'm pretty sure he was a towel.
DownvotesStarWars
Oh my god, he’s the dude who got busted for that fake ass book. Thanks for the reminder of just how much of a POS he is. +1
Atomic2
Oh he can fuck off then.
floobynooby
yeah seeing his name involved in AI slop is completely and utterly unsurprising
Dunes8
AI research? For the last time ChatGPT is not a search engine engine!
Beardedgeek72
I don't know, it worked out great for the guy who asked ChatGPT if the country he was flying to from the US required Visas. IT said no, so he had to turn around at the airport and fly home. With his entire family.
FromQueerToEternity
Beautiful.
floobynooby
How the fucking fuck does this lying piece of shit still have a literary career?
Hevach
The barrier to entry is so low now that there are more published authors in the world right now than there are readers.
beneaththewillowtree
Exactly what I thought when I read the author’s name
VodkaReindeer
Did you just ask why a liar makes a good fiction writer?
floobynooby
He's not and the only reason he's famous is because he tried to pass off his bad fiction as a memoir, got caught, but because he's now famous for that and can barely write passably readable work (when he's not trying to scam people into ghost writing for him: https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/69474/ ), he gets book deals. Look at all the celebrity schlock that gets a pass; he's no different.
sirbartonslady
Because we live in the bad end tineline where shitty people get away with shit while decent people get punished one way or another.
DemonDuJour
My locally-owned independent bookstore orders from Amazon because it's cheaper and faster than ordering from the publisher.
initforthespecs
Terrible
vicvalour
Sucks, but hard to not justify free next day shipping,
Xenarion
The amount of times I wanted to buy something directly from the manufacturer's website, only to see the price is at least 50% higher...
Then again, it's not that surprising. I learned over the past years of backing crowdfunded projects on Kickstarter and Gamefound that logistics is a huge chunk of the costs, and logistics is the biggest thing Amazon optimised and automated the hell our of.
Sensiblyinteresting
I used to try to order things directly from the company's store and I gave up after several times they would still be delivered by Amazon from the warehouse and just end up costing me more :(
[deleted]
[deleted]
myeyesthegogglesdonothing
This comment sounds like you can't read
koyote2033
Yet was remarkably relevant considering the context of the caption to not supporting Bezos/Amazon. It shows that it's possible that a local bookstore might actually be ordering it from Amazon rather than the publisher and thus, still supporting Bezos
Leetcheeks
Cool
fantabuloustimewaster
I wonder what (or if) the publishers think of this situation?
Leaps
"Damn, how can we make them sign an exclusivity contract so they can only order from us?"
KillingTlme
Amazon cuts a lot of corners to keep prices down and delivery fast. Publishers create corners to maximize their profits while minimizing what the author gets paid.
HandoB4Javert
initforthespecs
Worst of both worlds!
Plagen
So, apparently this guy is a shitty person? But that side, the main issue people have with AI is AI replacing humans artists. But if a human artist is using AI to supplement their own work and their work with AI is indistinguishable from their normal work, why is it a problem?
CorvidPrime
Okay, forget the shitty aspect of AI for a moment… If I can’t tell the difference between your writing and an AI’s, then you suck as a writer.
DownvotesStarWars
Right? Where is your self respect as a writer if you let a piece of software mimic you? I’m not a writer by any stretch but ffs, my rants are still my work, terrible and imperfect but mine.
But as the other comments point out, this dude is a known POS and a grifter so AI slop suits him just fine.
LadyNaween
I dont think self respect and him are even close to being on a talking basis.
BallDoctor
If you have enough work to actually train a LLM on your own writing, I suspect it'll produce prose pretty damn indistinguishable. Perhaps not an innovative piece of literature but it may be hard to tell. Some writers get pretty repetitive too.
Plagen
Or maybe the AI is good enough to do so.
Xenarion
Not really. AIs have gotten quite good at writing.
LtRooney
This is true if you're comparing the output of an LLM to a Markov bot, sure, the former will produce something that's coherent and actually readable. It's still going to be aggressively mediocre, without even the merits of being bad in an interesting way.
Fillask
That's not quite how it works? If you don't provide it with a proper prompt, or train it in some way, then it's going to be pretty bland, yeah. However, if you tell it to write in the style of something well-known (e.g. Tolkien, King, etc.) or train it specifically on your own texts, then it really shouldn't be a surprise that it can mimic a style. If an author has a 'style', they write in a predictable, recognisable manner. All LLMs do is prediction, so they're all about that shit.
Fillask
Catching downvotes for providing correct information. God, I love this website.
Fillask
This is predicated on the assumption that the result is still proofread and crap like obvious repetition and forgetfulness are edited out.
Crowlands
Yeah, A.I. can have use as a Basis for a bunch of things, potentially. Before heavy editing and fact checking.
Xenarion
This, plus it's likely that the AI was used to write small chunks based on specific prompts, not just "write a novel in X's style". Especially as most LLMs have a pretty limited amount of words it can write before forgetting what it wrote. The post mentions the author uses it as a "tool".
Fillask
Probably, yeah. Context size is getting bigger every day, and if you can host it locally, there are a couple with a chonky context size, but targeted prompts for specific sections, or for proofreading, are where it's at, yeah.
Pheehelm
Some of the younger folks here might not know what James Frey is famous for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Million_Little_Pieces#Doubts_on_its_authenticity
quzar
Ah, I remember the Law & Order version!
wadatahmydamie
Ah. So we won’t be able to tell it was AI because he sucks almost as badly
OhIfIMust
Oh, THAT fucking guy.
nobletrex
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlY3ZnNm5iNHVkandmc2ttZjNuZWk3Nmh5aTdwcm12azFiaGZzZDE0ciZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/l49JXgRo7W0vyg8h2/giphy.mp4
vmos
Isn't that just a case of the turd calling a turd a turd?
frygyd
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlazlvZzdmend2OGZ6Ymh6M21pNTFqYTR3Ynp2YjBqamxtMzRteGU4NSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/26ufomKqzQtWcgluE/giphy.mp4
RadioFloyd
Lmao…”mingy”
suckstoyourauntie
That's the thing. It all worked out fine for him. He wrote other books; My Friend Leonard and Bright Shiny Morning were best sellers. He wrote with a partner under a pseudonym a 10 book sci-fi series, and 'I Am Number Four' was made into a movie. The movie of 'A Million Little Pieces' came out in 2018. It's crazy, like he's embraced being a pariah. He doesn't care about authenticity, and it'll probably make him more famous. So, yeah, fuck this guy.
SirYumYum
Bastard is the living embodiment of this quote.
CALAMOSCOPYJANE
At first I thought, “Isn’t that a picture of Spinoza?” and I chuckled at your potential joke. But then I looked him up and yes, that is indeed Francois de la R. Would have been ironic af.
ThatQuietlySmirking
Without him, we wouldn't have gotten that Towlie episode of South Park. >:(
FoxPesdassi
Can we get him to write (well, prompt) the biography of George Santos?
CrabbyBlueberry
Fuck Oprah, and fuck all the morons in her book club that would flock to my B&N when I used to work there.
CALAMOSCOPYJANE
Haha the same thought occurred to me. He just wants attention.
Ninjainslippers
I sincerely can't tell if Oprah just doesn't vet guests at all or if she actually wants polarizing figures like this guy and "Drs" Oz and Phil.
vowofloudness
Which would make her more money?