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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Wednesday 16 august 2023
Fiction writers fear the rise of AI, but also see it as a story to tell

By HILLEL ITALIE pandemic and in her per-
AP National Writer sonal life; she was recently
NEW YORK (AP) — For a vast divorced and had begun
number of book writers, arti- using dating apps.
ficial intelligence is a threat “It’s so weird how, with
to their livelihood and the apps, you start to feel as
very idea of creativity. if you’re going person-
More than 10,000 of them shopping,” she said. “And
endorsed an open letter I thought, wouldn’t it be
from the Authors Guild this great if you could really
summer, urging AI compa- pick and choose the best
nies not to use copyrighted parts of all these people
work without permission or you encounter and sort of
compensation. cobble them together to
At the same time, AI is a make your ideal person?”
story to tell, and no longer “Of course,” she added, “I
just in science fiction. don’t think anyone actu-
As present in the imagina- ally knows what their ideal
tion as politics, the pan- person is, because so much
demic or climate change, of what draws us to mates is
AI has become part of the the unexpected, the ways
narrative for a growing in which people surprise
number of novelists and us. That said, it seemed like
short story writers who only an interesting premise for a
need to follow the news to novel.”
imagine a world upended. Some authors aren’t just
“I’m frightened by artifi- This combination of images released by Little, Brown and Company and Astra House show writing about AI, but openly
cial intelligence, but also cover art from “I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks” by code-davinci-002 and “Do You working with it.
fascinated by it. There’s Remember Being Born?” by Sean Michaels. Earlier this year, journalist
(Little, Brown and Company/Astra House via Associated Press)
a hope for divine under- Stephen Marche used AI
standing, for the accumu- recently signed Fred Lunz- reaucrat and a fact-check- ing AI to address the most to write the novella “Death
lation of all knowledge, but ker’s novel “Sike,” featuring ing program with the power human questions. of An Author,” for which he
at the same time there’s an AI psychiatrist. to change facts; and A.E. In Sierra Greer’s “Annie drew upon everyone from
an inherent terror in being “It’s the zeitgeist right now. Osworth’s “Awakened,” Bot,” the title name is an Raymond Chandler to Ha-
replaced by non-human And whatever is in the cul- about a gay witch and her AI mate designed for a hu- ruki Murakami.
intelligence,” said Helen tural zeitgeist seeps into fic- titanic clash with AI. Crime man male. For Greer, the Screenwriter and humor-
Phillips, whose upcoming tion,” Doherty said. writer Jeffrey Diger, known novel was a way to explore ist Simon Rich collabo-
novel “Hum” tells of a wife Other AI-themed novels for his thrillers set in contem- her character’s “urgent rated with Brent Katz and
and mother who loses her expected in the next two porary Greece, is working desire to please,” adding Josh Morgenthau for “I Am
job to AI. years include Sean Mi- on a novel touching upon that a robot girlfriend en- Code,” a thriller in verse
“We’ve been seeing chaels’ “Do You Remem- AI and the metaverse, the abled her “to explore de- that came out this month
more and more about AI ber Being Born?”, in which outgrowth of being “con- sire, respect, and longing in and was generated by the
in book proposals,” said a poet agrees to collabo- tinually on the lookout for ways that felt very new and AI program “code-davin-
Ryan Doherty, vice presi- rate with an AI poetry com- what’s percolating on the strange to me.” ci-002.” (Filmmaker Werner
dent and editorial director pany; Bryan Van Dyke’s “In edge of societal change,” Amy Shearn’s “Animal In- Herzog reads the audio-
at Celadon Books, which Our Likeness,” about a bu- he said. Authors are invok- stinct” has its origins in the book edition). q

Madonna reschedules tour after ICU stay, North American dates

kick off this December

By MARIA SHERMAN Vegas. It was postponed as Francisco, Las Vegas and
AP Music Writer she recovered. Phoenix as well as Tulsa,
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ma- Her tour will now start on Oklahoma, and Nashville,
donna ‘s rescheduled Cel- October 14, at London’s Tennessee have been
ebration Tour will kick off O2 Arena. canceled due to schedul-
in Brooklyn, New York, in a On Tuesday, Live Nation ing conflicts. Refunds will be
matter of months. announced that the ma- available at point of pur-
In June, Madonna suffered jority of Madonna’s North chase. At the time of the
what her manager called American tour dates have initial tour postponement,
a “serious bacterial infec- been rescheduled. They Madonna shared a mes-
tion” that led to her hos- immediately follow a stint sage on Instagram. “I’m on
pitalization in an intensive in the U.K. and Europe, the road to recovery and
care unit for several days. kicking off on December incredibly grateful for all
The North American leg of 13 at Barclays Center in the blessings in my life,” the
her Celebration Tour was Brooklyn, New York, and pop superstar wrote. “My
originally scheduled to start running through April 24, focus now is on my health
July 15 in Vancouver, Brit- 2024, when it will conclude and getting stronger and I
Honoree Madonna appears at the 30th annual GLAAD Media
Awards in New York on May 4, 2019. ish Columbia, and to run at Mexico City’s Palacio de assure you, I’ll be back with
Associated Press through October 8 in Las los Deportes. Dates in San you as soon as I can.”q