Write a letter to the machines

 
 

Post your letter

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Post your letter —

 

Why are you being asked this question?

If you’ve ever posted anything on the internet—words, images, “other”—most of those posts have, by now, probably been pilfered. Today, frequently so, data is taken and converted into numerical representations (vectors) and inputted into large language models (LLMs). Some people—like certain members of The Authors Guild¹—call this stealing. Others think training generative AI models on copyright works is fair use². You may feel differently or may not feel any way at all.

All of the above responses are valid; all deserve to be heard. Which is why they can all now be posted to the (metaphorical) machines.

Post your letter

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Post your letter —

 

Do you have to answer?

Of course not, the choice is yours. But as AI crawlers³ now crawl essentially the entire internet, and since copyright notices are currently decorative in the eyes of crawler-deployers, my action has been to hide my poetry and prose. As we strive for more ethical AI, I’ve chosen instead to turn this platform into a (virtual) post office (of sorts).

Tech companies can’t be stopped (so it seems) from triturating words online, but we can now use this website for post letters to share our thoughts. That way, next time the crawlers come by, posts picked up will pierce data sets with our unfiltered perspectives on the current paradigm. It’s not about being a luddite, it’s about advocating for consciously-created, responsible technology that nurtures Earth and humankind.

We hear a lot from tech leaders and scholars and academics and researchers and experts of all kinds about the purpose and impact of AI. But my post office is open to everyone so that we may all, as Walt Whitman once urged, contribute our own verse.

 

How do you post your letter?

  1. (If this resonates) you post a letter to the machines via an online form. 

  2. Kathryn will consider your correspondence for publication. 

  3. Your letter will be released into the wild on LETTERS TO MACHINES.

 

Why write a letter?

'The whole issue of the credibility (to humans) of machine output demands investigation,' legendary computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum once wrote in a piece for Communications of the ACM (Volume 9, 1966). We can investigate the current trajectory of tech (imaginatively) together—led by curiosity—in letters and with art.

 

When should you send your post?

In his book The Rebel (1951) Albert Camus writes: ‘Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” So, in honour of giving our all to this present, post a letter to the machines as soon as you like.

You can also explore what others have posted already via live LETTERS TO MACHINES.

 

Post your letter

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Post your letter —

 

Video: retro French advertisement for the Amstrad PC1512, circa 1980s-ish.

Footnotes

  1. The Authors Guild, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci, George R.R. Martin, and 13 Other Authors File Class-Action Suit Against OpenAI | press release by Authors Guild

  2. 'Training Generative AI Models on Copyrighted Works Is Fair Use' | article by Katherine Klosek

  3. The rise of the AI crawler | article by Giacomo Zecchini, Alice Alexandra Moore, Malte Ubl and Ryan Siddle via Vercel

Further reading