quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Every time we predict the future…the future reveals our ignorance.

quote:

Originally posted by ANTELOPEDUNDEE:

~Ann

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:
I wouldn't assume you're safe from AI competition, no matter what your field. When I first heard of the issue, I thought freelance fiction writers were safe. An AI will never be able to produce creative works. Wrong! Cases of AI-authored fiction are appearing more and more often, some using stolen names.

What unscrupulous AI creators do is feed in a writer's work so the AI can reproduce that work, the style, plots, character depictions, and so on. Current copyright law provides real authors with no protection because the AI's output is considered an original work. At least that's prevailing opinion.

I suspect an AI took my name, reversed it so the last name was first, and is selling digital novels on Amazon. A search of my name turns up the AI's novels also. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jam...215&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Why do I think it's an AI? First, my last name, Sarafin, is not common: it's borne by only one in more than 800,000 people in the US. Use of Sarafin as a first name is even rarer. What are the odds of someone named "Sarafin James" becoming a fantasy writer?

Second is is the "author's" prodigious, incredible output of something like a novel every month or so. It takes most authors a year or more to produce a novel.

My last name is rarely used as a first name, and when it is, it's a male name. "Sarafin James" is described in her/its website as female.

It might be a real person who chose the name as a nom d' plum, a pen name, I guess. But why that name? In any event, it makes me mad and I don't know of anything I can do about it.

I expect lawyers and doctors to be next. Professionals will be replaced with AIs, and laborers with robots.

Maybe we'll all have to go on a living wage from the government.

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:
Your question doesn't have anything to do with the thread topic or my post, but that's typical of you.

I'm only responding now because your question has a factual basis, but is asked in a way to impugn me.

My Alaska law license was indeed suspended by the Alaska Supreme Court, and I am no longer allowed to practice...for nonpayment of bar dues. In Alaska, in order to practice law or hold yourself out as a lawyer, you must be a member of the state bar association. In order to be a bar member, you must pay annual dues of $600-700 per year (as I recall).

When I retired, I quit paying the dues. Didn't seem like a prudent expense. Oh, I gave up the "Bar Rag" newletter and the right to weigh in on active judges and judicial candidates; but I didn't care about that stuff anymore. Most retired Alaska lawyers make the same decision, sooner or later.

Since I quit paying dues, the bar association applied to the AK Supreme Court to suspend my license in a blanket application for more than a hundred lawyers, and the court granted the application. I was not disbarred and the suspension is not a sanction for misconduct. If I ever want to practice law again, applying for readmission as a practicing lawyer would be a formality. So long as I pay my dues.

Now that's the whole story, and I have no intention of answering any more of your questions or carrying on a discussion with you.

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:
I wouldn't assume you're safe from AI competition, no matter what your field. When I first heard of the issue, I thought freelance fiction writers were safe. An AI will never be able to produce creative works. Wrong! Cases of AI-authored fiction are appearing more and more often, some using stolen names.

What unscrupulous AI creators do is feed in a writer's work so the AI can reproduce that work, the style, plots, character depictions, and so on. Current copyright law provides real authors with no protection because the AI's output is considered an original work. At least that's prevailing opinion.

I suspect an AI took my name, reversed it so the last name was first, and is selling digital novels on Amazon. A search of my name turns up the AI's novels also. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jam...215&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Why do I think it's an AI? First, my last name, Sarafin, is not common: it's borne by only one in more than 800,000 people in the US. Use of Sarafin as a first name is even rarer. What are the odds of someone named "Sarafin James" becoming a fantasy writer?

Second is is the "author's" prodigious, incredible output of something like a novel every month or so. It takes most authors a year or more to produce a novel.

My last name is rarely used as a first name, and when it is, it's a male name. "Sarafin James" is described in her/its website as female.

It might be a real person who chose the name as a nom d' plum, a pen name, I guess. But why that name? In any event, it makes me mad and I don't know of anything I can do about it.

I expect lawyers and doctors to be next. Professionals will be replaced with AIs, and laborers with robots.

Maybe we'll all have to go on a living wage from the government.

quote:

Are you saying this Sarafin James' writings are an accurate representation of your work?

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Every time we predict the future…the future reveals our ignorance.

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Originally posted by TomP:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Every time we predict the future…the future reveals our ignorance.

Could it be that literacy is as bad as this article says?

https://www.zerohedge.com/poli...tudents-fail-society

Kind of says there is much of a generation with low skills that can't earn a decent living here and can't either afford to move where the low-skilled jobs are or thrive during the culture shock that comes with the move.

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:

quote:

Originally posted by TomP:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Every time we predict the future…the future reveals our ignorance.

Could it be that literacy is as bad as this article says?

https://www.zerohedge.com/poli...tudents-fail-society

Kind of says there is much of a generation with low skills that can't earn a decent living here and can't either afford to move where the low-skilled jobs are or thrive during the culture shock that comes with the move.

That article is disgusting and shocking. How can you go through twelve grades and not know how to read? Yes, blame should fall on the schools, but where were the parents?

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:

quote:

Originally posted by TomP:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Every time we predict the future…the future reveals our ignorance.

Could it be that literacy is as bad as this article says?

https://www.zerohedge.com/poli...tudents-fail-society

Kind of says there is much of a generation with low skills that can't earn a decent living here and can't either afford to move where the low-skilled jobs are or thrive during the culture shock that comes with the move.

That article is disgusting and shocking. How can you go through twelve grades and not know how to read? Yes, blame should fall on the schools, but where were the parents?

quote:

/sarc

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise...

/sarc

Deal with the public any length of time and you find out that there are lots of folks who are functionally and technically illiterate. The schools are watering down standardized exams because too many of the "right people" get bad scores. Social promotion is rampant, and grades are so inflated that what would be a 4.0 average when I was a student is now something like an 8.0 if they actually grade you...

We are told that we need to write out discharge instructions at a max level of 6th grade. Kind of hard when the concepts we are talking about are rather higher level. Most hospitals are now using automated software to write out the discharge instructions so that they cannot be sued for not using "understandable language" even though it won't help if the person doesn't get it- the health care team should know better...

Too many "kids" now days don't get real english and grammar, but utilize "texting" english which is mostly somewhat bizarre acronyms and make fun of you if you don't know them... (I rather pointedly have told family members I can google that crap if I really care, but if they can't figure out a legal paper or a medical discharge, google ain't going to help their sorry rears. A cousin called once asking what a "febrile reaction" was at 3AM. Once I woke up I deliberately used high level language to make my point and then said temp over 101.3. I then asked why they called me at 3 AM instead of during the day like a normal polite person... Honest to god, he said if I am up, you can be too... he just read it on a old piece of paper. And folks wonder why people turn their phones off ringer.)

Maybe we do need to get rid of the illegals... too many here don't have the skills for anything other than unskilled labor.

I don't disagree about the question of where are the parents, but it seems a lot of them are in the same lot.

The old saw of the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree certainly has some validity.