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Andrew Dickens: Should authors be punished for using AI? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: So there's a bit of controversy in the Ockham New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand Book Awards as two books by notable authors are
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  Speaker 1: withdrawn from competition because their covers were created using AI.
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  Speaker 1: Shame on them. Stephanie Johnson's collection of short stories called
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  Speaker 1: Obligate Carnivore and Elizabeth Smiths collection of Novella's Angel Train
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  Speaker 1: are the two books canceled so their covers were created
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  Speaker 1: using AI, and the Book Awards are on high alert
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  Speaker 1: for anything that takes the place of human activity in
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  Speaker 1: the creative field. The decision to amend the criteria around
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  Speaker 1: AI was spurred by a desire to support creative and
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  Speaker 1: copyright interests of the country's writers and illustrators. So look,
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  Speaker 1: I understand the concern from the creatives about the rise
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  Speaker 1: of AI, but I don't think they really understand how
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  Speaker 1: AI was used in these circumstances. So you make a cover,
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  Speaker 1: A graphic designer does that. Sometimes they might commission an
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  Speaker 1: artist to draw the cover. That's all good. More often though,
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  Speaker 1: they've been creating images using computer programs like Photoshop or Adobe.
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  Speaker 1: But in all cases a human is in charge and
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  Speaker 1: it's the same here. Elizabeth Smithers team had a specific
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  Speaker 1: image of mind combining a steam locomotive and an angel
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  Speaker 1: inspired by Mark Scheghale, And then a human asked AI
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  Speaker 1: to do it. It popped it out. Then a human
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  Speaker 1: refined it is that any different to a graphic designer
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  Speaker 1: pulling it together in Adobe? But AI is spooking the
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  Speaker 1: creatives right. AI bands have had hit albums. Now, Paul
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  Speaker 1: McCartney is releasing a single two minutes forty five seconds
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  Speaker 1: of complete silence in protests at all the AI that
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  Speaker 1: is stealing a sound. Morgan Freeman is rating against AI
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  Speaker 1: copies of his voice. But Elizabeth Smithers and Stephanie Johnson
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  Speaker 1: wrote their books, and in Stephanie's case, the short stories
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  Speaker 1: have been written over twenty years. But now her work
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  Speaker 1: has been canceled because of a virtue signaling protest against progress.
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  Speaker 1: She must be heartbroken. AI is out of the genies bottle.
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  Speaker 1: It's important that whenever it's used, its influence should be credited.
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  Speaker 1: But it still can't do its own thing. It still
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  Speaker 1: needs a human to guide it and set it on
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  Speaker 1: its way. So it's just like any other tool, including
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  Speaker 1: a pen and a piece of paper. Meanwhile, on AI
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday, we hear the Nvidia result. Now, Nvidia is
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  Speaker 1: the bell Weather stock of AI is the chips that
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  Speaker 1: they use to fire this whole thing. And there are
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  Speaker 1: bears and bulls and people talking about the bursting of
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  Speaker 1: the AI tech bubble as being a thing. And I
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  Speaker 1: just want to warn that AI is interesting. AI is good,
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  Speaker 1: but AI is still in its infancy and there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot a long way to go before it becomes a
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  Speaker 1: terminator film. And I have to say, what interesting times
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  Speaker 1: we live in. And I don't agree that Ockham New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand Book Awards should actually cancel. Stephanie Johnson and Elizabeth
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  Speaker 1: Smithers for more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen
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