Bloomsbury Chief Warns of AI Threat To Publishing – Slashdot

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Taylor Swift’s political opinions are irrelevant (even if I agree with them).
With this mentality you might as well take voting out of the hands of citizens and hand it over to the ‘professional’ politicians, since the political opinions of the professional race car driver, violinist, or neurosurgeon are just as irrelevant.
Only their job defines their value.

I notice a lot of hate toward Tolkien and Lord of the Rings
They aren’t very good books. The author uses WAY too many words on things. To much in the way of descriptions.

Then there is the complaints about Scifi being woke and women writing like women. That is like complaining that the sky is blue.
Read the back of the book first to make sure its the one for you.

I notice a lot of hate toward Tolkien and Lord of the Rings
They aren’t very good books. The author uses WAY too many words on things. To much in the way of descriptions.
The weight of history appears to disagree with you, since they are – literally – the defining classics of the genre. Tolkien may or may not have been the best writer, but he was a gifted storyteller. (The same can be said of J.K. Rowling.) The difference matters.

Then there is the complaints about Scifi being woke and women writing like women. That is like complaining that the sky is blue.
The complaint isn’t that it’s women writing like women, or even that they’re writing “woke” stories. The complaint is that being “woke” is the only thing they’re doing. They sacrifice entertainment values for “enlightenment.” It’s boring to read, especially for those of us who read (fiction) solely for entertainment.
If I want to be enlightened, I’ll read philosophy. If I want to be educated about how the world is, I’ll read the news. When I read fiction, I want an entertaining story. And far, far too many sf writers these days simply don’t provide that.
You could say the defining classics of still life in the visual arts are the Lascaux cave paintings. That does not make them some great pinnacle of achievement, historically remarkable sure, but great? I don’t know.
I like LOTR but I would say there has been better fantasy written since. JRRT’s level of detail careful attention to all those details are what make the story so immersive and make the universe its told in one that is rich and complex, you know like the real world where things like the conflict

You could say the defining classics of still life in the visual arts are the Lascaux cave paintings.
You could, but a lot more people would agree with me than with you.

Wah! Wah! Someone wrote a book I don’t want to read! Wah! Wah!
If you don’t like it, read something else and quit crying about it! Christ, you right wing freaks are the biggest fucking snowflakes on the fucking planet.
Get over yourself. It’s not like you morons actually read books anyway. Your shelf full of performative crap by Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly’s ghost writers isn’t fooling anybody.

If you don’t like it, read something else and quit crying about it!
Since that is precisely what I said I do, I’m not sure why you’re so hostile towards someone you agree with. Perhaps it’s because it’s not about what someone says, but rather just you waving your tiny little dick at the world to prove what a loser you are.

Christ, you right wing freaks are the biggest fucking snowflakes on the fucking planet.
Get over yourself. It’s not like you morons actually read books anyway. Your shelf full of performative crap by Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly’s ghost writers isn’t fooling anybody.
There’s your mental illness peeking through: You literally cannot conceive that someone could disagree with you in any way unless there’s something wrong with them (which is to say, you project your illness onto others in a feeble attempt to feel “normal,”
I agree with MIPSPro’s stated point. Most fiction published today, at least in the sf & fantasy genres, is political propaganda, and is badly written garbage that provides less entertainment values than the black filler between the commercials. (The sort of books you mention are, in fact, even worse written garbage, indistinguishable from the lefty-woke garbage because it’s just as unreadable). Nearly all commercial fiction is written by no-talent hacks, but that’s nothing new.
But my all time favorite

my all time favorite novel is Cordelia’s Honor
That is such a good book! I love that mentioned it. That whole saga is pretty good. Might be a female author, but totally not the type I’m put off by. The ones I have issue with are the ones who write really detailed political intrigue style novels. As someone suggested, I read the back cover, and often put those back on the shelf. However, if it appeals to me, I’m not going to put it back on the shelf just because it was written by a woman.
So … You got your panties in a twist because a woman dared to write a book and while you insist that your indignation is justified, you realize that it’s a stupid thing to get worked up about and so you’re claiming that you’re not so far gone as to let that dissuade you from reading the book anyway.
Do you think this is normal?
I hate to break it to you kid, but science fiction and fantasy has always been “political propaganda”, or what the rest of us call ‘social commentary’. The fact that you completely missed this simple and obvious fact says a lot more about you than it does about allegedly “woke” authors.
You’re really embarrassing yourself here.

I hate to break it to you kid, but science fiction and fantasy has always been “political propaganda”, or what the rest of us call ‘social commentary’.
It has, indeed, but it used to also be good storytelling, or at least try to. Now, the only thing it is is political propaganda and indoctrination, which talented, skilled authors won’t bother with, so all they’re left with is no-talent hacks.. So the subject matter is uninteresting, and the writing is garbage.
It’s just bad writing.

The fact that you completely missed this simple and obvious fact says a lot more about you than it does about allegedly “woke” authors.
You’re really embarrassing yourself here.
The fact that I explained before and you pretended to not understand says a lot about you, and none of it is complimentary. The only possible conclusions a rational person coul
What you mean is that any “propaganda” that I don’t like makes for bad story telling. Probably because the bad guys share your regressive attitudes and values.
See, it’s not a few nasty feminists pushing a woke agenda, it’s the the world is woke, and you’ve just found yourself on the wrong side of history.
You’re under no obligation to read books you don’t like, you know. Quite crying about it and go read some of that weird alt-right power fantasy nonsense. It seems to be right up your alley. The hero is

I want original ideas, clever plot twists, and novel descriptions.
What makes you think that AI will not be able to deliver that – if not now then eventually? Often “original” ideas are simply old ideas repackaged in a new format for a new situation leading to new and interesting consequences. This is something AI should be pretty good at.

As for not liking the trend in modern storytelling again, I would see AI as the solution. By making it much easier to produce a novel it becomes much easier for small publishers to provide content for a more diverse range of tastes an
There is no evidence that AI content can improve, let alone that it will improve.

For example, I’m always initially suspicious of female authors
OK, I’m gonna take your temperature… C.J. Cherryh, yea or nay?

I notice a lot of hate toward Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. A number of academics have targeted his work for being “racist”. Every time, I see that big red leather-bound copy on my book shelf I smile and think “There’s a lot of woke censors who’d love to see you burn, but you’ll never burn. You’re mine.”
Ironically (or not, because you’re being willfully ignorant) the only people that ever talked about and actually banned your precious LOTR book were Christian groups, for the obvious satanic panic reasons.
You’d probably consider the Stormlight Archive series “woke”, and that’s just sad. Ohhhh noooo, both sides of complex moral issues, social nuances, the horror! What a waste.
..publishers who profit from endless remakes, reboots, sequels and other artless, derivative works
Creative people making original stuff are still safe
Thirty Six [wikipedia.org]

..publishers who profit from endless remakes, reboots, sequels and other artless, derivative works
Creative people making original stuff are still safe
ANY competition is a threat I guess..
Buggy whip makers of the world unite!
Neal Clarke had to SHUT DOWN submissions to Clarkesworld for months. He’d *been* getting as many as 1200 submissions/month, and then the chatbot was opened to public use, and suddenly there was such a flood of crap that they couldn’t deal with it all, and they’re not a Big Money publisher.
As it is, the publishing industry has been taken over by capital funds, who don’t read, and only see it as a point of entry into your wallet. I’ve been reading that agents are quitting the field, because the majors are buy

As it is, the publishing industry has been taken over by capital funds
The 80s called, and want their news back.

And, since AI-produced crap isn’t copyrightable, no publisher wants to touch it with an eleven-foot Finn (never mind a 10′ pole).
Not copyrightable if you just take what is generated, but if you modify it enough, it can absolutely IIRC – making it not useless per-se (depending on how much human touch is needed).
Why is bloomsbury not hiring an army of ML and general software people to come up with a highly refined model, trained on the massive library of content they must own privately, but is also out of print and therefor unique to them, etc that produces better novels than anyone other LLM system out there?
If the could ‘generate’ truly good books, they’d literally have a license to print everything short of the money itself. If publishers are worried its because they are run by people without even the most basi
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