Give and Take

Not long ago I learned, as so many writers have, that a book I published decades ago is among the 183,000 titles in one of the data sets used to train artificial intelligence systems and, by extension, the capacity of various programs to write whatever they’re prompted to write.

Unlike many writers, however, I’m not bothered by this (unauthorized) use of Stung: The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony. And that’s for a number of reasons. I understand the copyright issue and the consent objection, but I also know that my own writing often borrows from, and builds on, the work of others in ways that fall short of plagiarism but nonetheless owe a debt to those others — a debt usually unacknowledged. Ultimately, in visual art, music, and writing, everything is grist for someone else’s artistic mill. The tech companies are just doing at scale, and now in public view, what we all do.

Writers are magpies, gathering shiny words and ideas to add to their...