Helping AI Learn: Should the Lease My IP?

Ten years ago, my book, The Belly Burn Plan, was published by HarperCollins. The day I signed the contract that my agent so diligently negotiated was one of the most memorable of my life. Yes, it was my first (and so far only) book - and a huge accomplishment for me. But I also discovered just one week earlier that I was six weeks pregnant. Ah, the irony! Not yet ready to tell the world, I was now on the hook for writing a book that offered a solution to exactly what I was likely to experience mere months later - a soft, squishy belly in need of a little TLC.

For the next several months, I hunkered down to write what would become a successful book, helping thousands of people…and still selling today.?

As my belly grew, I spent hours every day poring over the latest research related to hormones, nutrition and lifestyle while hammering away at my keyboard. Oftentimes, I would spend hours breaking down a complex paragraph of “science speak” into easier-to-understand information that my readers could really get and relate to.

Of course, the needs of my two young daughters always came first. This meant that, most days, my writing shift didn’t start until 8pm stretching until midnight. “Sleep is like food,” I hypocritically wrote while burning the midnight oil with my swollen ankles propped up on the dining room chair across from me.?

Every month, for three months, I’d turn a drafted portion of my book over to my editor, Cara, who magically made what I thought was already pretty good into something great. At the end of this quarter, I had a final draft. This collaboration between me writing page after page and Cara’s wizard-like ability to quickly review, vet and suggest changes was one of the most unexpectedly pleasant and rewarding experiences of the whole process - writer and editor.?

While book number two has yet to come to fruition, the process of writing my first was a true labor of love. I gave birth to my first book and my first son in the same month.?

Throughout the entire experience of writing, I tried to express my humanness - much as I do now in the work I do with my clients. I am a person, afterall, not a robot. I would like to think that all those late nights writing away in my dining room resulted in a body of work that made a positive impact on the lives of others - author to reader.

Human uniqueness is an individual gift none of us should be afraid to offer to others. I write, record and talk about non-fiction…but in a way that is uniquely me. Suffice it to say, fiction writing also offers the human uniqueness of authors everywhere. Myriad genres, each woven with the threads of human uniqueness, create this warm blanket of shared human experience.?

But the warmth of human experience should not be taken for granted.

As I scrolled through my emails one last time yesterday after dinner, I came across a letter from HarperCollins offering $5000 (50% to HarperCollins and 50% to me) to use my book “and the associated metadata created by HarperCollins for researching and developing AI models, including training, fine-tuning, and testing of AI models. This deal is only for AI model training, grants no right to generate derivative works, and includes no waiver or release of potential infringement claims against output; authors reserve all rights with respect to output. Following such three-year period, the company will cease use of the book for AI training but may continue to use the AI models trained on the book.”

The letter went on to highlight some of the “guardrails” of the agreement, such as the disallowance of “AI output of (i) more than 200 consecutive words of verbatim text in a single output and/or (ii) 5% of the text of the book across a series of outputs during a user session,” and so on.

First, this contract…it’s a done deal. There is no room for negotiation. It’s a simple “yes, I agree - give me the money,” or “no thanks.”

And second, I am fully aware that AI is here to stay and that it has its uses. But AI, as AI is, will be limitless. The question is, how quickly do we want the boundaries to vanish?

My cynical self reacted as my cynical self always does. Well, I thought, AI is going to get this information eventually. Why not just give permission now and take the money?”

But, as I glanced over at my bookshelf loaded with the work of authors ranging from Mary Oliver to Fyodor Dostoevsky and Naomi Klein to Malcolm Gladwell, the pit in my stomach was saying something else. What happens to the words and thoughts of authors of all genres? Is this a storm authors can weather or should we acquiesce to the wants of companies that want to stoke the learning abilities of AI machines and take the money and run? Maybe the future holds a place for AI-inspired authors. Or is that where we are already??

It’s possible I’m overstating the threat. Afterall, book sales were up in 2024. In fact, Barnes & Noble is set to open 60 bookstores this year. And according to the American Booksellers Association, independent bookstores have seen a 580% increase in sales since 2020.?

Books are one thing, content is another. Not only do I want to read what other authors of all genres have written, but I want to trust that what they’ve written is actually their work - the fruits of their labor, their life experiences, their knowledge. Will we one day just assume that a book is a hybrid AI version of what was once author-only??

As idealistic as it may sound, I think we can slow the tidal wave of AI from infringing on literary works by pushing back on offers to pay an author for rights to intellectual property that would be used to train a non-human to think more human.

In case you’re wondering, I said no to the offer of $2500 for three years of rights to my work to feed an AI system to make it smarter. Beyond my book, I simply don’t see how agreeing to a relatively small amount of money will help the authenticity of the human word in the future.?

Do I use AI? Yes, I do! I’m always asking my phone for local healthy restaurants, and my credit card’s fraud alert has saved me from more headaches than I can count. I’ve even used AI to plan out fantastic but fictitious 3-day trips to Paris or Prague or the Amalfi Coast for no reason at all other than to spend five minutes doing something novel. I read somewhere once that planning vacations increases happiness even if the trip is never taken. Did AI artificially increase my happiness??

AI is here to stay and it has its place. But will I use AI to “write” an article or body of literature? No.?

My book is not earth-shattering, but it helps people. It was not a New York Times Bestseller (nor did I personally buy any amount of books to inflate the sales needed to make any list), but it still sells - a little. What I wrote is far from the holy grail of health, but what I wrote are my words. Me, the human.?