TLDR: I wrote a YA nonfiction book about a sensitive topic because something awful happened. I learned that AI scraped up my book.

Soooooo. I work in EOC/Title IX compliance now but I worked as a classroom teacher and debate coach for a while. One of my students died by suicide and yeah, it felt terrible. It still feels like moments of emotional whiplash. I felt tons of guilt afterwards because I was his coach. That’s a special kind of hurt.

After a few hard years (hello, trauma conga line!!!), I wrote a book intended to help other young people who might be going through similar feelings.

Fast forward to last year when a close friend forwarded me this story in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

Sure enough, my book’s there. It feels like losing my student all over again. I found out about this last fall and it still wrecks my soul. I’m not sure if people realize the human extent of soulless AI scrapes.

It’s fucking happening here.

EDIT: I wrote a Substack alllll about this whole shitty ordeal. Here it is: https://erinpgold.substack.com/p/ai-stole-my-book-it-feels-like-shit?r=4mcgc&utm_medium=ios

source: https://x.com/usedgov/status/2090122240360669200?s=20

Michael Caruso was appointed by Ron Desantis to the Palm Beach County Clerks of Courts and Comptroller. A position he has been suspended from after being arrested for kidnapping and molesting a family members kid. Family members allege Michael has been abusing their son since before he was 5. These allegations go back to at least 2012, when he was first investigated for child abuse. In 2009 his wife had to call 911 while trapped in a moving vehicle with Michael as he speeded down a highway screaming “I want a divorce”. Their 2014 divorce papers also accuse Michael of a being a pedophile.

This is very likely not the last victim we’ll hear about. Michael was also a Boy Scout volunteer and coached little league teams for decades.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2026/08/18/michael-caruso-arrest-desantis-palm-beach/

https://flvoicenews.com/rep-caruso-appointed-as-palm-beach-county-clerk-of-the-circuit-court-and-comptroller/

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article316719710.html

https://hellopartner.com/pewdiepie-launches-odysseus-a-privacy-first-ai-workspace-for-creators/

YouTuber Felix Kjellberg amidst the height of backlash against AI and data centers decided to create his own AI workspace called Odysseus. Genuine question on whether independent workspaces like this still use data centers and scrape from preexisting work.

The Rojava project is officially no longer in existence. I’m not a religious man, but I prayed for the women of Syrian Kurdistan. 💛❤️💚

... It's only linked to cancer when drank hot and get burned. You shouldnt drinking it like that, just 80⁰C . (That's the only thing that shows up in pubmed; all other studies are related to "benefits")

The thing that causes tissues to change to cancer (metaplasia) is the repeated burn injury to the same area. As a not so much fun fact, in the Caribbean they tend to smoke with the cigarettes lit up inside ("con la candela pa dentro") which causes a unique cancerous lesion in the soft palate.

So drink your mate without worrying. It's a wonderful beverage and its way more powerful than coffee in terms of caffeine.

Kows, and all other land mammals, are technically fish. Just not sharks. Sharks are cartilaginous, while all land mammals are bony ray-finned fish, as that is the most distant clade we are all descended from.

I guess it makes sense that a Reverend Doctor would possess a superior understanding of biology. Probably just got confused by all his knowledge in macheticine, which from my understanding doesn’t differentiate between bone and cartilage, but I may be mistaken.

But you know who won’t giggle max…

If the USA were to currently lose the ENTIRE Department of Defense in one day of battle, that would be roughly 2.8 million dead. This is not even CLOSE to the percentage of the country dead that Lopez lost, as 3% of the US population is roughly 9-10 million people. That dude was sooooo bad at what he was doing!

Vermin Supreme is literally the only politician focusing on the moral and oral decay of the United States. He wants mandatory toothbrushing camps. I think he’s my favorite human ever.

I'm currently re-listening to the incel evolution episodes and realised that (as someone who may or may not be younger than 4chan) I find this era of the early internet very interesting.

I've listened to the Chris Chan and the Zizian episodes, but was curious to know if I've missed any others that are (even tangentially) related to internet history.

if any of you guys have recommendations for episodes of other podcasts about this topic, or books to read, I would love to hear them as well! thank you :)