RA Salvatore just dumped ALL of his books into the LLM machine via the ironically named "Authors First" AI BS

1. No AI means ZERO AI. This should be a negotiation point the union uses

2. The Salvatore Icons book is at risk for so many reasons now. He's no longer an icon, but a traitor to his fandom & to DND.

3. Drizzt is AI Garbage now. Do we dump him & go back to Ed Greenwood, do we drop shitty Menzobazzaran lore, what do we do from here?

I am not aware of what this is. Do you have a link? If this is true, that will sour me to Salvatore's books for sure. Not that I am a lifelong fan, but I did recently pick up one to dip my toe into the Drizzt lore. 

https://bsky.app/profile/ravenswordpress.com/post/3mxmcbfcpp223

Well, that's disgusting.

I am so immensely disappointed.

Okay, let's get everybody on the same page so we're all mad at the right thing for the right reasons.

This particular garbage AI tool is marketed as a way for authors to create screen adaptations of their books exactly as they envisioned them. Setting aside the AI part, the idea of taking a story and creating a film or TV version exactly as the writer imagined it seems like a good idea right up until we remember that prose writing and film/TV writing are very different animals to begin with, and then shot composition, angle, lighting, focus, and all the other myriad parts of cinematography are also outside the typical author's wheelhouse. There are good reasons most movie and TV adaptations give the original author credit but keep them at arms length from the actual production.

But this being a generative AI tool puts a funny spin on that. These authors think they're going to make cinematic adaptations of their works that bring them to life the way they imagined them in their heads. But we all know that genAI is a mindless, soulless plagiarism algorithm. So it's not going to generate the video the way these authors are expecting. Because it's going to copy cinematography from a bunch of other movies and TV shows and not do whatever original things these authors think would work better.

As for RA Salvatore, I strongly suspect WotC isn't going to sign off on Bob making AI video adaptations of any of the D&D novels he wrote for them. The intellectual property for those belongs to WotC, and while Honor Among Thieves didn't perform quite as well as expected I doubt they're willing to just let their authors go ham making video adaptations with no oversight. So if Salvatore is going to put anything through the water theft machine, it's going to be non-D&D novels. And while all genAI is bad and no one should use it, this tool as it is marketed is for taking already written works and generating video from them, not for generating written works. So if this is going to put you off of buying any RA Salvatore books I don't blame you, but this announcement isn't evidence that Salvatore is using any genAI in the upcoming D&D 5.5E expansion book.

Quote from MaedraDawnkeeper >>

https://bsky.app/profile/ravenswordpress.com/post/3mxmcbfcpp223

 Major ick. Glad I only got one book before learning of this awful news. I regret that I already purchased one of Salvatore’s books but it will be my last at least. Thank you for sharing.

To clarify, I do not believe the book I bought was AI generated, but I refuse to support creators who throw in with the AI machine that is killing art, consuming our water, and stealing our jobs.

Quote from ApplePaladin >>

Okay, let's get everybody on the same page so we're all mad at the right thing for the right reasons.

This particular garbage AI tool is marketed as a way for authors to create screen adaptations of their books exactly as they envisioned them. Setting aside the AI part, the idea of taking a story and creating a film or TV version exactly as the writer imagined it seems like a good idea right up until we remember that prose writing and film/TV writing are very different animals to begin with, and then shot composition, angle, lighting, focus, and all the other myriad parts of cinematography are also outside the typical author's wheelhouse. There are good reasons most movie and TV adaptations give the original author credit but keep them at arms length from the actual production.

But this being a generative AI tool puts a funny spin on that. These authors think they're going to make cinematic adaptations of their works that bring them to life the way they imagined them in their heads. But we all know that genAI is a mindless, soulless plagiarism algorithm. So it's not going to generate the video the way these authors are expecting. Because it's going to copy cinematography from a bunch of other movies and TV shows and not do whatever original things these authors think would work better.

As for RA Salvatore, I strongly suspect WotC isn't going to sign off on Bob making AI video adaptations of any of the D&D novels he wrote for them. The intellectual property for those belongs to WotC, and while Honor Among Thieves didn't perform quite as well as expected I doubt they're willing to just let their authors go ham making video adaptations with no oversight. So if Salvatore is going to put anything through the water theft machine, it's going to be non-D&D novels. And while all genAI is bad and no one should use it, this tool as it is marketed is for taking already written works and generating video from them, not for generating written works. So if this is going to put you off of buying any RA Salvatore books I don't blame you, but this announcement isn't evidence that Salvatore is using any genAI in the upcoming D&D 5.5E expansion book.

 It'll effect sales of the 5.5 book now that he's(seemingly, let me have my copium that he might not be) a AI scab.

Because the internet made association a worse crime than any other.

I'm hoping & praying that this is him being scammed or someone using his name & works w/o permission(The list of suspiciously specific authors are all hated by the same leftist BookTokers), but it's not looking good.

Quote from ApplePaladin >>

Okay, let's get everybody on the same page so we're all mad at the right thing for the right reasons.

This particular garbage AI tool is marketed as a way for authors to create screen adaptations of their books exactly as they envisioned them. Setting aside the AI part, the idea of taking a story and creating a film or TV version exactly as the writer imagined it seems like a good idea right up until we remember that prose writing and film/TV writing are very different animals to begin with, and then shot composition, angle, lighting, focus, and all the other myriad parts of cinematography are also outside the typical author's wheelhouse. There are good reasons most movie and TV adaptations give the original author credit but keep them at arms length from the actual production.

But this being a generative AI tool puts a funny spin on that. These authors think they're going to make cinematic adaptations of their works that bring them to life the way they imagined them in their heads. But we all know that genAI is a mindless, soulless plagiarism algorithm. So it's not going to generate the video the way these authors are expecting. Because it's going to copy cinematography from a bunch of other movies and TV shows and not do whatever original things these authors think would work better.

As for RA Salvatore, I strongly suspect WotC isn't going to sign off on Bob making AI video adaptations of any of the D&D novels he wrote for them. The intellectual property for those belongs to WotC, and while Honor Among Thieves didn't perform quite as well as expected I doubt they're willing to just let their authors go ham making video adaptations with no oversight. So if Salvatore is going to put anything through the water theft machine, it's going to be non-D&D novels. And while all genAI is bad and no one should use it, this tool as it is marketed is for taking already written works and generating video from them, not for generating written works. So if this is going to put you off of buying any RA Salvatore books I don't blame you, but this announcement isn't evidence that Salvatore is using any genAI in the upcoming D&D 5.5E expansion book.

This is simply one set of creatives thumbing their noses at another; "I won't touch AI creation of things I'm good at, but I'll use it for the creation of things I'm not" is exactly what the AI CEOs want everyone to think. Even if DnD is largely siloed off from this, it's a bad look for the authors that signed onto it themselves.

I think this is the wrong choice and I am disappointed in Salvatore.  I would love to see him walk back from this choice, particularly since a name as iconic as his lends legitimacy to this fairly gross product. 

But I think it is worth keeping a few things in mind.  First, many authors love to see their works adapted into other media, but not every author gets that chance.  Salvatore is at the top of his field, and he has routinely been passed by for adaptations as other works get picked up instead.  There have been musings of Forgotten Realms multimedia projects building on his content for years… and never have they gotten out of development hell. I expect that has been fairly hard on him - to have earned adaptation and gotten close multiple times, only to be consistently let down.

Fantasy has also suffered drastically recently in adaptation.  The unwatchable Wheel of Time and LotR shows that turned great novels into dull, exposition laden slogs. Everything that’s been going on with the ending of GoT and House of the Dragon.  The numerous other, less famous shows that might have gotten some adaptations, but ended up dying on the vine after a season or two.  So much of fantasy is wrapped up in an author’s vision, and far too often others supplant the original author’s vision with their own, resulting in poor adaptation and disastrous products. 

I disagree with this choice, and think he is in the wrong, but I understand why he made it. And with that basic level of empathy, it makes it really hard to be angry at Salvatore.  Angry at the company, sure - they seem to be preying on the desires of authors with few other options to see their visions come to life.  But angry at Salvatore?  No, that I can’t muster. 

I would implore people to be empathetic.  Share in disappointment, but let’s maybe try to leave off the aggression toward a man who has brought so many joy, but who maybe hasn’t had all his own dreams realized.  There is enough anger in the world without directing it at folks who have brought the world substantial net happiness. 

Quote from MaedraDawnkeeper >>

I'm hoping & praying that this is him being scammed or someone using his name & works w/o permission(The list of suspiciously specific authors are all hated by the same leftist BookTokers), but it's not looking good.

Given that I can't see it mentioned on the social media of any of the relevant authors, there is a decent chance 'authors first' is namedropping some people who they have talked to, rather than people who have actually committed to anything (as for the list, if they have similar politics them showing up on the same list is not particularly indicative of anything other than them likely going to the same meet and greet).

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

Quote from MaedraDawnkeeper >>

I'm hoping & praying that this is him being scammed or someone using his name & works w/o permission(The list of suspiciously specific authors are all hated by the same leftist BookTokers), but it's not looking good.

Given that I can't see it mentioned on the social media of any of the relevant authors, there is a decent chance 'authors first' is namedropping some people who they have talked to, rather than people who have actually committed to anything (as for the list, if they have similar politics them showing up on the same list is not particularly indicative of anything other than them likely going to the same meet and greet).

 Don't give me hope.

Salvatore HAS been pinged by people, & hasn't responded.

The others as well.

& given all of those authors have been accused of bigotry of some kind in their writing(Justifiably or otherwise) by BookTok & others, I wouldn't be surprised if this is an opp by some angry TikTokkers & an eager AI bro to cancel some authors & scam some suckers at the same time. This being brought up when a VERY specific author HEAVILY criticized by BookTok HAPPENS to be at NYCC & HAPPENS to have been publicly booed right before the poster posted for this AI garbage in particular is also suspicious...

But don't give me hope.

Quote from ApplePaladin >>

Okay, let's get everybody on the same page so we're all mad at the right thing for the right reasons.

This particular garbage AI tool is marketed as a way for authors to create screen adaptations of their books exactly as they envisioned them. Setting aside the AI part,....

 You can't just "set aside" the AI part though, as that's the whole issue. I personally am never going to "set aside" AI in any matter because I believe that AI (as it's being used in this context, more on context later) is a fundamental negative to humanity in multiple spheres. I don't care what it lets people do, I'm opposed to it and will not and cannot set it aside.

Context: when talking about AI in this above, I'm referring to general, multipurpose, commercial, public facing large language models. Specifically Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and their ilk. The kinds that:

• Use stolen data
• Run in data hypercenters that guzzle drinkable water and deplete non-industrial power grids
• Produce misinformation and hallucinate naturally, can be tasked with producing disinformation, and can also be used to produce harmful material such as CSAM images and the like

I'm not talking about local, bespoke built, black-box, proprietary research models. The kind running locally on research data clusters, using in-house training models, and trained on first party and public domain research data points. The sorts tasked with producing specific, verifiable, narrow scope data outputs.

(Wild I've had to spend more words explaining that than expressing my opinion, but bad faith actors will often respond with "You hate AI? Oh, so you don't want us to cure cancer?")

Davyd, it's interesting how you overlooked that I literally said "all genAI is bad and no one should use it" to hyperfixate on part of one paragraph where I talked about why authors don't typically have full control over adaptations of their works for good reasons just because I said "setting aside the AI part" in that paragraph. You squandered what could have been a great chance to self-check against the kind of misreading and misrepresenting you attribute to bad faith actors.

Quote from ApplePaladin >>

Okay, let's get everybody on the same page so we're all mad at the right thing for the right reasons.

This particular garbage AI tool is marketed as a way for authors to create screen adaptations of their books exactly as they envisioned them. Setting aside the AI part, the idea of taking a story and creating a film or TV version exactly as the writer imagined it seems like a good idea right up until we remember that prose writing and film/TV writing are very different animals to begin with, and then shot composition, angle, lighting, focus, and all the other myriad parts of cinematography are also outside the typical author's wheelhouse. There are good reasons most movie and TV adaptations give the original author credit but keep them at arms length from the actual production.

But this being a generative AI tool puts a funny spin on that. These authors think they're going to make cinematic adaptations of their works that bring them to life the way they imagined them in their heads. But we all know that genAI is a mindless, soulless plagiarism algorithm. So it's not going to generate the video the way these authors are expecting. Because it's going to copy cinematography from a bunch of other movies and TV shows and not do whatever original things these authors think would work better.

As for RA Salvatore, I strongly suspect WotC isn't going to sign off on Bob making AI video adaptations of any of the D&D novels he wrote for them. The intellectual property for those belongs to WotC, and while Honor Among Thieves didn't perform quite as well as expected I doubt they're willing to just let their authors go ham making video adaptations with no oversight. So if Salvatore is going to put anything through the water theft machine, it's going to be non-D&D novels. And while all genAI is bad and no one should use it, this tool as it is marketed is for taking already written works and generating video from them, not for generating written works. So if this is going to put you off of buying any RA Salvatore books I don't blame you, but this announcement isn't evidence that Salvatore is using any genAI in the upcoming D&D 5.5E expansion book.

 
I think Apple nails it here.
They are not Condoning this Deal with the Devil, they explicitly codemn it, they are just explaining the bait that made Salvatore fall for the trap.

We can still be disappointed in Salvatore even when we understand why he was duped. 

Quote from ApplePaladin >>

Davyd, it's interesting how you overlooked that I literally said "all genAI is bad and no one should use it" to hyperfixate on part of one paragraph where I talked about why authors don't typically have full control over adaptations of their works for good reasons just because I said "setting aside the AI part" in that paragraph. You squandered what could have been a great chance to self-check against the kind of misreading and misrepresenting you attribute to bad faith actors.

I didn't overlook it, I'm just saying that in a discussion about authors feeding their works into AI, I can't set aside the AI part for any reason. Your following paragraphs seemed to express a sentiment of "AI doesn't work very well so I'm sure they'll regret it". My objection precedes that—once they've fed the machine and collected its excrement, the damage has been done.

Maybe I misconstrued and you were trying to say "I get authors wanting more creative control, but AI is not the way to go" based on your "setting aside" phrasing

Quote from MaedraDawnkeeper >>

& given all of those authors have been accused of bigotry of some kind in their writing(Justifiably or otherwise) by BookTok & others, I wouldn't be surprised if this is an opp by some angry TikTokkers & an eager AI bro to cancel some authors & scam some suckers at the same time. This being brought up when a VERY specific author HEAVILY criticized by BookTok HAPPENS to be at NYCC & HAPPENS to have been publicly booed right before the poster posted for this AI garbage in particular is also suspicious...

I doubt that it's a scam per se (well, other than the whole concept being dubious), but it's odd to allow someone to use your name for advertising purposes without also saying something yourself, which makes me think that the business relationship is a bit more tenuous than "authors first" wants to admit, with a significant risk that it will turn into nothing whatsoever.

Fair disclaimer: I don't think Salvatore has written a good book since the 00s and have no intention of buying his new book. I'm just skeptical about the company.

Quote from Davyd >>

I didn't overlook it, I'm just saying that in a discussion about authors feeding their works into AI, I can't set aside the AI part for any reason. Your following paragraphs seemed to express a sentiment of "AI doesn't work very well so I'm sure they'll regret it". My objection precedes that—once they've fed the machine and collected its excrement, the damage has been done.

There are options for running an AI without your data being used for training purposes, though the odds are that all of his novels have already been used for training because, even after they stopped using pirate databases for data sources, next step was to buy books, rip them up, and scan them.