(Note: This following is best read in the internal voice of an angry old man yelling at kids skateboarding in his driveway.)
Goddamnit. A.I. is taking over the world and I hate it.
I hate A.I. because, by and large, it makes life easier, and things that are easy don’t go away. They grow. They refine themselves, continuing to make things easier and easier, until at some point we’ve lost all ability to think critically. That’s when the robots take over and kill us all.
And, by god, we’ll deserve it.
A recent article in The Atlantic made myself and all other novelists throw up in our mouths. Sorry, the article’s behind a paywall (though there’s a free-trial option), but the gist is that the overlords at Meta wanted to feed their A.I. model Llama 3 (a deceptively cute name) a massive amount of high-quality writing. So, basically, millions of published novels. But they were worried that, you know, GETTING PERMISSION would be too costly and time consuming. So why not just pirate the books instead? A much easier solution. But instead of doing the pirating themselves, they simply downloaded the contents of LibGen, a massive library of pirated publications (7.5 million books and 81 million research papers, as of March 2025). For complete clarification, LibGen is COMPLETELY ILLEGAL and was developed in Russia in 2008.
Meta admitted that incorporating the LibGen library into their Llama model posed “medium-high legal risk”, but, fuck it, let’s do it anyway. Their argument, at its cellular level, is that using copyrighted material to train A.I. models should be allowed, since it will be used to create something altogether different. But this overlooks the fact they still downloaded millions of pirated works and distributed them to others, which is so explicitly illegal it makes my teeth itch.
I searched LibGen. Nine of my ten novels are in there, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of weeks before my latest release is fed to the beast. This is also true for all my author friends. No published author is likely immune, and if they are, their books must really suck (no offense). And LibGen doesn’t just exist as a research source and tool. No, you can download pirated books for free. LibGen is Napster for novels.
All authors whose books have been pirated are automatically included in a class-action lawsuit, but I don’t expect hefty legal awards hitting my pockets anytime soon. Of course authors want and deserve to be paid for all their work, but the bigger issue here is…why?
A.I., WHY do you need my books? Is someone out there going to write a novella in the style of Carter Wilson and self-publish it on Amazon? You won’t get it right. You won’t know just the right place to put motherfucker in a line of dialogue, where it sounds both funny and devastating. And you’ll describe too many goddamn things. (A yucca plant stands, a sentinel of sun-scorched lands, its spears of green like frozen fire, piercing through the hush of sand). Fucking gross.
My biggest gripe with A.I. (old-man voice really loud now), at least in terms of writing, is that it removes problem-solving. Every book is a problem to solve, and the author’s job is to THINK REALLY HARD and make endless mistakes until they get it right (and often they don’t, which is part of the magic). Critical thinking is what keeps us alive as a species, and we all know what it looks like when the national frontal lobe gets lobotomized. Writing a book with A.I. is like googling the day’s Wordle answer, falsely solving it in one guess, then posting on social media what a genius you are. Hell, my college-teacher friends are now giving essay assignments that have to be completed in class with pen and paper, because otherwise all the students would use A.I. It’s making us lazy (lazier).
And if you’re an aspiring writer using A.I., good luck with that. Readers can spot soulless writing, even GOOD soulless writing.
And…and…
<<deep breath>>
Okay. I’m stopping myself here. Rant over.
Anyway, I do use A.I. for non-writing things and it’s awesome.
Now get off my lawn.
New episodes of my podcast Making It Up are out! Over the past month I chatted with:
- Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling novelist with 40 million copies sold
- Andrew DeYoung, domestic-thriller writer and author of The Temps, a speculative novel about the end of the world
- Sydney Leigh, cozy-mystery writer, member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers, and served on the board of Crime Writers of Canada
- Meredith Lyons, award-winning novelist, actor, and professional martial artist
All episodes are available on my website, my YouTube channel, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
REVIEWS
On the Page
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, Ben McIntyre (Crown, September 2018)
Coming up from air after several books of required reading (blurbs, event prep, etc), I picked up a copy of The Spy and the Traitor, a beautiful piece of Cold War non-fiction written by the author of Operation Mincemeat and Rogue Heroes.
From the publisher: If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation’s communism as both criminal and philistine. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States’s nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war.
What a read! McIntyre takes what, in reality, is a very dense plot with seemingly countless characters and makes this blaze like a thriller (which, of course, it very much is). The access to decades-old information is amazing, and no detail is left unwritten. The reader feels the pressure of the stakes: personal, political, global. And with all the high-tech subterfuge at hand, these spies are decidedly human, and the slightest mistake, the tiniest tell, could result not only in the death of the agent, but could trigger nuclear war. The story’s edge-of-your-seat excitement is dampened only by the reality all of it is true, a reminder of what a miserable species we can be.
On the Screen
Dope Thief (Apple+, 2025)
The premise of this brilliant new show is simple and intriguing (from IMBD): Long-time friends and delinquents who pose as DEA agents to rob a house in the countryside end up unintentionally revealing and unraveling the biggest hidden narcotics corridor on the Eastern seaboard.
This is the kind of premise that could easily be executed poorly. Whenever there’s an “on the run” kind of show, the main ingredient HAS to be the viewer’s emotional investment in the person doing the running; otherwise, all the action renders itself two dimensional. And when the folks on the run are delinquents, the writers set the bar rather high.
Fortunately, the writing is fantastic (edgy, realistic, just the right amount of humor), but the reason to watch this show is lead Brian Tyree Henry. If he doesn’t win an Emmy for this show it will be criminal. He so inhabits his character it’s like watching a documentary, and the final scene of episode 2 had my jaw on the floor. What a masterclass in acting.
Photo of the Month
Flashback to my last international trip—Iceland in November 2023. I’m feeling the need for a trip out of the country. Any suggestions where I can go and not break the bank? Let me know!
Update from my Kids
The Toledo Public Library hosted me for a lovely, sold-out event last month and my daughter was able to drive down from Michigan for it! It was so good to see her, and I’ll say the Toledo Main Library—at nearly 300,000 square feet, is one of the most impressive libraries I’ve ever seen.
Update from my Pets
Her first time in the hail (click to play).
Humor of the Month sent to me by a friend
All you writers!
This spring I’m offering two classes, one online and one in-person in Denver, called Commit to Your Novel. This four-hour workshop focuses not just on the craft of writing, but the commitment to it. Writing a novel is hard, but not impossible, and the more you write the easier it becomes. It takes consistency, a vulnerable mind, and being willing not just to fail, but to embrace those failures.
Topics covered in the workshop include:
- Finding time to write
- Overcoming fear of failure
- Being perfectly imperfect
- Ignoring the muse and writing every day
- Writing craft (style, pacing, story structure, character development, and editing)
- Understanding the publishing industry
- Navigating non-writing essentials (social media, newsletters, public speaking)
- Take four hours out of your life and learn how to get and stay on the path you were meant to be on.
That’s it for now!
Just a reminder to subscribe to my newsletter for more content and access to contests and giveaways. Oh, and if you follow me on social media you’ll see a lot more pictures of my goddamn pets. Until next month…
