The End of an Era
An author reflects on the changing landscape of the publishing industry, noting how AI is now capable of writing at a human level. The piece contrasts the 'golden age' of self-publishing with the current existential crisis facing human writers.
Why it matters
The rapid advancement of generative AI is fundamentally disrupting the creative economy and the traditional value proposition of human authorship.
Some of us have known for decades, have been writing and pontificating about this since Ken Jennings lost at Jeopardy and Kasparov lost at chess. The writing was on the wall, and now the writing is everywhere. Literally. Artificial Intelligence is writing about as well as humans — at least well enough to cause confusion and speculation — and that’s creating an existential crisis among authors, confusion among readers, and legal action within the industry.
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