The Byron AI crowdfund is proceeding well. We’re very close to 100 backers, the campaign has exceeded $30k, and the team is already seeing some positive results that indicate we’re on the right track. Moreover, the importance of what we’re doing, and the need for it, has been highlighted by a recent news item related to the actions of the AI giants:
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is now refusing requests to generate text that directly mimics the style of famous authors. When asked to do so, the popular LLM instead offers a response that draws on the “broad qualities” of those authors “while remaining distinct in its own voice,” for example.
This is just a PR move, which is obvious because a) there is no patent, trademark, or copyright protection for “style” or “look and feel” and b) the refusals apply to long-dead authors such as Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway. Remember, there isn’t even any legal protection for book titles, and you can literally reproduce the text of a public domain work exactly as it is or fold, spindle, and mutilate it as you please, as the cases of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or A Mind Programmed serve to demonstrate.
However, we can safely expect Claude and Gemini to follow suit. The AI backlash has already begun and Open AI is already looking for a government bailout, and so we can safely assume that the intrinsic degradation of texual AI’s pseudo-creative facilities will be turbo-boosted by these new stylistic guardrails.
Now here is the pitch for those of you who haven’t backed the project yet. Due to its importance, a major backer has offered to double the end total of the campaign. Which means that if you back for $50, the project will receive $100. So any support you can provide Byron AI will be twice as effective.
Our objective is to reach 250 backers; given that 100 people backed the project in the first week without this additional incentive, I’m optimistic that we can reach that total and that we are going to exceed our development objectives. Also, I should note that two of the three Custom Novels have already been spoken for, although I have not yet been informed as to what the backers wish them to be.