I miss the days where we could count on Google to take our very coherent translation requests and turn them into something you might find on a Tori Amos album. It was completely nonsensical, obviously, but at least it was consistent

#supercorp as a tragedy told in… four hands

I feel bad about my art (or lack thereof) pretty frequently so just know if you also feel bad about your own art, you’re not alone. Every single artist I know no matter how *amazing* they are still questions their skills, creativity, etc. The doubt means there’s growth and change and that’s okay.

another day, another scammer. check your work my friends ❤️

authorsguild.org/news/meta-li... Advice for pirated authors.

in some ways it’s hard to create new things right now — and in other ways it’s the easiest, most necessary choice, to stay sane and remember who you are and have the energy to keep fighting. the world is hard. keep making beautiful messy powerful honest things anyway.

Google joins the call to gut our legal protections, pushing for a world where Big Tech gets to profit from all your innovations & works for free, and that theft is ok’d by law. No joke IF they get this, the US will likely face irreparable harm as pivotal creative economies crash.

Replacing human narrators has been the idea all along. #speechify has been bragging about this plan for at least a year:

ABSOLUTELY NOT FUCK THIS SHIT ABSOLUTELY NEVER OVER MY DEAD BODY

A plea to the #writingcommunity: please stop using AI-generated art to promote your book or for cover art. It looks terrible, and AI companies create the images by stealing from legitimate artists. Without exception, the AI art I've seen looks stale, lifeless, and generic. Do better for your book.

Well, guess I can't use Speechify anymore. Such a shame, it was a good tool for reading back my wips. #writingcommunity www.reddit.com/r/selfpublis...

STEAL THIS THREAD. 1/3 #Speechify

Publishing doesn’t have to be a popularity contest. It can be an act of radical community. And that is what we are trying to do at Left Unread. We are fighting for Black and brown authors TOGETHER. But we need your help. Consider subscribing for $5 right now. Leftunreadbooks.binderybooks.com

it’s barely been two months this time, between #speechify ‘s CEO attempting this without informing writers & this scam. “Oh no! Writing fanfiction isn’t making anyone any money!” #cliffweitzman , is that you??

by talos! etc.

hey i know we all have fires to put out all over but if you’re feeling restless and angry and unsure how you can make a difference today here is a small bit of #goodnews that YOU helped make possible: (1/6)

I never thought I was very good at the "Yes, And" exercise in improv class, but I need you to know that the written version of it, where you go back and forth in DMs with ever more ridiculous or angsty or horny ideas, is probably my *favorite* part of fandom

To be clear, this isn't the same thing as generative AI that's being forced down our throats. This is what happens when you train AI to do something people have a hard time doing.

🚨 since we’re all finding our footing here and starting out fresh: if you post artificially regurgitated text or images (AI ‘writing’ or AI ‘art’) I’m blocking you. I’ll give some grace to people who unknowingly share another person’s post, but if it’s a frequent thing, we’re not going to get along.

Wherever there are attempts at mask bans, people need to rise up and wear masks. The more people who do this, the more it is normalized, the harder it is to enforce these harmful and often deadly bans. Do not comply with these bans. Please fight back for the safety of all of us. #MaskUp.

the idea of “unnecessary sex scenes” seems like a skill issue to me tbh. i love writing sex as a framing device for people because it’s such a great way to show people at their most complex and vulnerable, and how that might interact with someone else’s complex vulnerability

I was making excellent progress on my (supposedly) short story, but then a #ToriAmos song came on so now I’m having several epiphanies at once & yearning to go out and find ways to live a more meaningful life again. Very inconvenient

Occasional reminder: If you only read trans books found in bookstores or libraries, in most cases you’re getting a ✨tiny✨ selection carefully curated for maximum monetization by publishing companies. Read trans indies. 🏳️‍⚧️ 📚

here’s to not letting go of hope, courage and creativity

Currently reading: the Fanlore page about Cliff Weitzman and WordStream (of Speechify fame) stealing fanfiction fanlore.org/wiki/Theft_o...

Still super mad we’ve been told since the invention of the home VCR that copyright infringement is the worst crime imaginable and now the worlds richest companies just do it as part of their business with zero consequences.

In December 2024, #Speechify's CEO #CliffWeitzman scraped stories from #AO3 without authors' permission and put them on his new, for-profit platform #WordStream. When faced with backlash from the fan community, Weitzman quickly hid these works from public view. 🧵

While we’re all reflecting on the year and sharing accomplishments, I wanted to post this doodle I made a while back as a gentle reminder that it’s okay and normal to feel like you haven’t grown much this year. I promise you have, you just might not be able to see it yet. 🌱

One of Cliff Weitzman’s arguments that his theft was somehow defensible was the idea that word-stream was ‘only in beta’. Really, Cliff? Then why were you already advertising the operation on your main platform two days before we discovered it? Why was its payment system fully functional?

hello all, I’m getting reports that works that were accessed on word-stream before they were hidden by #CliffWeitzman can STILL be accessed in full, both as text and as AI-generated audio. make sure to check the latest additions to the tumblr post via this link: www.tumblr.com/ekingston/77...

Really comprehensive breakdown of Speechify using AI to scrape thousands of popular, finished works off AO3 to list them on their own for-profit website/app.

Shifting Gears is now available for pre-order in e-book format!!! www.ylva-publishing.com/product/shif... This is my first book, and it's been an adventure to write and edit and learn the process of it all! I'm excited and also nervous to finally share it 📖

I tried to summarize the whole #CliffWeitzman #word-stream situation as it transpired the best I could over on tumblr. Please share this post instead of my original updates if you can, it has all the most recent & relevant information in one place: www.tumblr.com/ekingston/77...

I know academics who use AI regularly, for work and play, and I'd really like them, and universities, to tell me how they contend with AI's bottomless appetites for power and water. Is asking ChatGPT to interpret a Xmas song or making it write your syllabus worth this to you?

PSA from reddit: check if your fics have been used to feed AI

Also check out the tumblr post www.tumblr.com/ekingston/77...

Attention #AO3 #fanfic #writers A new thieving website is charging people to have AI voices read your stories. See this reddit post for more info: www.reddit.com/r/AO3/s/bfPd... URL is https: //word - stream . com/ (remove spaces) FANDOM IS FREE AND MUST STAY FREE. FANDOM BELONGS TO FANDOM. 🖕🖕

can we nominate Bound 1996. Now that we know she loves the Wachowskis