NaNoWriMo and AI

Nonprofits are often reliant on sponsors to help fund things that are part of the nonprofit's mission. Sometimes, the sponsor wants the nonprofit's audience, but there's a real or perceived disconnect in what the sponsor actually does and the health/welfare of the nonprofit's audience.

Such is the case with the current heat regarding National Novel Writing Month's position on AI and having AI sponsorship. 

Matthew Dow Smith posted on Bluesky:

I understand why an "AI" "writing" app would want to sponsor a writing event, but for the life of me, I can not understand why any event based around actual writing would accept the sponsorship of an "AI" company.

screenshot of NaNoWriMo's position on AI, taken Sep 2, 2024

On Sep 2, 2024 NaNoWriMo edited their "Position on AI" to include this:

we have edited this post by adding this paragraph to reflect our acknowledgment that there are bad actors in the AI space who are doing harm to writers and who are acting unethically. We want to make clear that, though we find the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic for the reasons stated below, we are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values. We also want to make clear that AI is a large umbrella technology and that the size and complexity of that category (which includes both non-generative and generative AI, among other uses) contributes to our belief that it is simply too big to categorically endorse or not endorse. 

We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege. 

At issue is the unlicensed scraping/stealing of the copyrighted work of writers (and other creatives) that the large AI programs have done to enable them to "generate" text -- though, as I've written before, I think that's a misnomer, and we should use "regurgitate" to better describe what they're actually doing.

Here's an April 2023 example of how NaNoWriMo is suggesting folks might use AI to help with their writing (see point 3).

Another post on Bluesky, by Becky & Frank:

The NaNoWriMo AI statement stings. I’ve been working as a writer for over a decade and have never completed that challenge. Writing is hard work and what I have to fight daily to do my job often feels insurmountable. Stealing the hard fought words of others to complete your stories is sick and sad.

One of the challenges of social media is that often it's a place of heat and not light. But one of the cool things is that it lets you know when something's happening, and you get to figure out how you feel about it.

Final thought on this to share from Bluesky is from Sarah Guillory:

I’m a runner. I love what it does for my mind, body, & soul. So people who fake running (who hire people to run logged into their Strava account) baffle me. What is the purpose? The same is true for using AI. Why pretend you are a writer when you are not writing? The creative process is the point.

What's your take? Is there a % of AI assistance that's feels right for you?

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

"Break Up With Your X" - Can you do it without hurting your #kidlit career? Brian Kirby has receipts (a.k.a., the stats.)

So I spent years growing a following on Twitter (now X). In the beginning it was really cool, and I could connect with so many other #kidlit folks about our shared enthusiasm, about writing, about inspirations, about a career in children's books...

But about three years ago I left. It felt like an unsafe space, more about heat than light, and made me actively anxious and unhappy every time I logged in. 

I do not believe it's gotten better since becoming X. Most of the conversations I've had about leaving that platform involve some response like "but everyone's there!" and "how can I leave if all the agents and KidLit gatekeepers are still there?"

Since its new ownership and rebranding, there's been quite the exodus from X. And in the last few months, folks have been leaving (or vastly curtailing what they post on) Instagram -- particularly illustrators. The Andrea Brown Literary agency announced on Jun 13:

Due to Meta's AI policies, the ABLA instagrams have been cleared until we can fully assess how best to support and protect our artists and creators here moving forward! In the meantime, head on over to our website and find us on BlueSky.

I'm not an illustrator, and still on Instagram (and Facebook, both of which are owned by Meta), but I have been spending more time on BlueSky (where there are a LOT of illustrators) and it reminds me of those early days on twitter, where you could follow a hashtag and be in a KidLit community not mediated by algorithms. (I basically just look at the KidLit Mega Feed.) 

Back to the numbers... Brian Kirby did this amazing analysis: "Break Up With Your X" looking at what you'd actually be missing if you left X. 

Just one amazing example:

A publishing company has 236,000 followers on X. A recent book announcement post of theirs got zero retweets, 2 likes, and reached 897 accounts.

My favorite line of Brian's analysis:

Posting on X is "getting the sort of response a flyer on a coffee shop bulletin board would get, if soulless robots drank coffee."

Read Brian's full post here.

...so maybe we'll see you on Bluesky! 

(If you're heading over to Bluesky, first thing to do is follow Debbie Ridpath Ohi who is leading our #kidlit community there (Debbie has 21,000 followers on Bluesky. People are there. KidLit people. Brian has been posting about these stats there as well.)

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee