This Week in Culture
Prominent Authors Sue OpenAI for Copyright Infringement
The future of the writing industry hangs in uncertainty as artificial intelligence becomes widely accessible to the public. With a simple click of a button, chatbots can generate three-thousand-word texts in mere seconds, making it easy for anyone to exploit this system. In response to this dilemma, more than a dozen authors have initiated a legal battle against OpenAI, leveling allegations of copyright infringement. Their claim asserts that OpenAI unlawfully employed their literary works to train its ChatGPTchatbot, without securing permission or compensating the original authors. It might not seem particularly harmful at first glance, however, this method of training chatbots allows them to create imitative works that both mimic and replicate books in their entirety. This reality has already manifested itself in the form of an alarming rise in AI-generated books on the Amazon marketplace. Despite Amazon taking steps to limit this quantity by reducing the number of self-published titles to three a day, the issue of copyright infringement remains unresolved. Among the authors filing this lawsuit are John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, and Elin Hilderbrand, three prominent and influential novelists who could potentially win over the support of public opinion. The real question is, do they stand a chance at winning against a billion-dollar company?
Jens Haaning, an Artist Who Took His “Take the Money and Run” Piece Very Literally
Jens Haaning was granted a loan of $76,000 by the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark in 2021 to create updated versions of his previous artworks: These frames, featured in an exhibition about the future of labour, were filled with banknotes displaying the average annual salaries of an Austrian and a Dane. However, instead of repurposing these works, Haaning presented the museum with two empty frames instead, entitled “Take the Money and Run,” a commentary on low wages in which his breach of contract was part of the work. Despite mixed reactions, the museum displayed the empty canvases alongside a print-out of an email in which Haaning explained his actions. Nevertheless, the Copenhagen City Court ruled against Haaning, stating that his “Take the Money and Run” pieces did not meet the conditions of his contract and he was required to return the borrowed funds.
Haaning’s empty canvases are part of a genre of controversial works that question the value of art itself. Is an easy-replicable canvas really worth 76,000 dollars, or is it the thought behind it that holds the most value? Art is subjective, but just how subjective can it be?
Why Rappers Stopped Writing
Prior to the emergence of the 24-track recording system, rappers were required to perform their entire song in one take without any edits in the studio. In fact, most music recorded before 20 years ago was done on tape, making the recording process much more tedious and labor-intensive.
We may have an outdated image of an artist furiously scribbling in a notepad to conjure lyrics and verses that fit well with a predetermined backtrack. However, technological advances in digital recording ushered in a revolutionary approach to music production: improvisational and freestyle techniques. This method, known as “punching-in”, gained notoriety in the mid-to-late 90s when JayZ, a famed rapper at the time, admitted to never having touched a notepad and pen at any point in his musical career: inspiring other rappers to follow suit. Now, it’s important to clarify that “punching-in” doesn’t involve freestyling in the traditional sense, where an artist spontaneously raps for four minutes straight, saying whatever comes to mind. Rather, punching-in is done one bar at a time. These individual bars are then clipped together akin to puzzle pieces, to create coherent sentences, ultimately resulting in a complete song.
