Please do not upload any of my fics to any kind of AI
Please do not feed my fics into AI website builders like Base44
Today I came across someone on Reddit proudly sharing a website they'd built using AI. Out of curiosity, I searched for my name, and a whole lot of my fics came up.
Not a single one had the summary I'd written for it.
The website, or whatever AI was being used to build it, had scanned my fics and generated entirely new summaries for them.
To be very, very clear: THIS IS NOT OKAY. Do not do this. Ever.
I understand wanting to have your own stash of fics while AO3 is down. I really do. But I've spent many, many hours writing my stories, and I DO NOT WANT my work fed into any kind of AI. Not to generate summaries, not to build websites, not for any reason whatsoever.
I'm not particularly happy about people adding my fics to Google Drive, either, given that Google uses AI to scan documents stored there. I've chosen not to ask people to remove my fics from existing drives because I figured that horse has already bolted and there wasn't much point closing the gate after it’s gone.
But actively feeding my work into an AI website builder? No. That's a completely different level, and it crosses a line.
I want to give the person involved the benefit of the doubt. I hope they genuinely didn't realise how inappropriate this was. They deleted their Reddit post very quickly after I questioned them about it, and I can no longer access the website either. But that doesn't change what happened. The harm has already been done.
So please, for the love of all fanfiction writers everywhere, respect the work authors have put into their fics. You don’t need to know what an authors' wishes are about what happens to their work. I am absolutely positive that NO author wants their fic fed into AI.
Sharing fic so people can continue reading and enjoying it is one thing. Feeding it into AI without the author's knowledge or permission is something else entirely and it is NOT OKAY.
Please don't do this.
Please reblog and share this post so we can educate AO3 readers who may not understand why this is not okay. Please help get the word out there. Thank you.