Andy Baio

RE: https://xoxo.zone/@waxy/116772625748491745

I wrote about how I discovered that a new site for The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig's long-running Tumblr project-turned-book, was a bootleg made by a marketing agency. They published the complete book verbatim, then added AI-generated art and new AI words, entirely without permission.

Jun 18 at 7:54pmWeb
Show threadAndy Baio2d ago
I confirmed from Koenig himself that he wasn't involved, and found Simon & Schuster issued DMCA takedowns to Google with little effect. The AEO/SEO-optimized site dominates every search related to the book, including the book title and author's name. ChatGPT and Gemini say it's the official site.
Show threadAndy Baio2d ago
There's so much to dislike here, it's hard to know where to start. The "Submit Your Sorrows" feature is particularly galling, in which you describe an emotion or feeling and an AI generates a word, definition, and slop art for it.
Show threadlower-value human capital2d ago
@andybaio This is... surely illegal?
Show threadShadSterling2d ago

@sennoma @andybaio this sort of thing is why we need to stop making laws that can only be enforced when the victim is rich enough to win a lawsuit against the perpetrator. Either by replacing each enumerated right of action with a crime and empowering law enforcement to enforce them directly, or by establishing a civil analog to the public defender which will sue on behalf of all victims.

(Tho we might have to tax the rich to pay for either of those)

Show threadDave Rahardja2d ago
@andybaio Gawd what a perfect encapsulation of the kind of cheap, superficial slop and nonconsensual use of human works (i.e. theft) that today’s #AI proponents are promoting.
Show threadRobert Kingett2d ago
This is frankly why I fully understand writers that don't publish online, but instead just send their stuff to friends and family because to these #AI Bros, Plagiarism is cool, because artists are lame little shits that need to get good, in their minds anyway. @drahardja @andybaio
Show threadKazriko2d ago
@andybaio Not the first time I've seen AI just wholesale set up camp on someone else's ideas, after RH Junior died, someone grabbed his domain and made half-conceived AI versions of all his comics.
Show threadAndy Baio2d ago
@kazriko That's ghastly.
Show threadMisty2d ago
@andybaio Ugh, what an awful situation. Thanks for writing about it.
Show threadbilly joe bowers 🗽2d ago

@andybaio

Violence is the answer.

Show threadJeroen Ruigrok van der Werven2d ago
@andybaio I flagged the Qontour site as AI slop in Kagi. So that will at least get one search engine to take action.
Show threadeuroplus 2d ago
@andybaio @glennf @waxy fuckers. Grubs.