(The picture is generated by Tencent Ingot AI based on news content)
Will the author become the "second ride-hailing driver"?
Author/ IT Times reporter Sun Yan
Editor/ Hao Junhui Sun Yan
Statements such as "collective disconnection initiative", "boycott statement", and "leaving the platform after writing a bibliography" by online authors have been frantically forwarded on social platforms, pointing the finger at ByteDance's online text app Tomato Novel, because Tomato Novel added "AI protocol" to the signing agreement, requiring the author to agree to use the work for AI training.
"Doubao can be associated with work information, even if it is a novel on a platform other than Tomato Novel, Doubao can refine the outline, and the story direction, character design, emotional entanglement, etc. are almost the same as my own works" "Tomato works that are not signed and not on the shelves are also fed to Doubao"...... When the "AI protocol" surfaced, the authors invariably went to search for their works on the byte-based large model bean bag. Some authors even think that the outline written by Doubao AI is exactly the same as the unpublished content they have saved in the WPS cloud, and that Doubao is using WPS cloud content to train AI.
A few days after the incident fermented, WPS and Doubao responded one after another, saying that the rumors were untrue and that WPS and Doubao had not carried out any form of cooperation at the AI level. But this may mean another "more terrifying" fact, the outline written by the bean bag AI is already almost the same as what the author wrote himself.
"Many small authors' online articles are routine, and the large model can basically refine the outline by learning the resources of the free reading platform." An AI industry person analyzed to the "IT Times" reporter.
"The 'carrot run' in the online literature industry!" An online writer lamented that when most authors were still immersed in the beautiful illusions that AI-assisted tools could help them alleviate tens of thousands of words a day, tenosynovitis, lumbar disc herniation, etc., they never thought that online writers would become the second online car-hailing driver and would fall into the anxiety of being replaced by AI.
On July 25, Tomato Novel's customer service said that the "AI licensing agreement" that required the author to agree to use the work for training had been removed. However, the "IT Times" reporter found that the copyright of the work created by using the platform's "AI-assisted tools" is granted to the platform and the "AI-assisted writing clause" used to optimize the model still exists. The game continues.
"AI author" has appeared?
More than 200 books on the shelves in 3 months
Before some authors posted the "AI agreement", the vast majority of authors didn't notice that they signed this supplementary agreement with Tomato Novels.
As mentioned in the agreement, the author shall use all or part of the content of the contracted work and related information (such as the title, introduction, outline, chapter, character, personal information of the author, cover image, etc.) as data, corpus, text, materials, etc. for the research and development and application of new technologies currently known or developed in the future, including but not limited to the editing, generation, conversion, deep synthesis, virtual reality technology and other research and development and application of intelligent dialogue, text, image, audio-visual, voice and other works.
Although the "authorized AI training protocol" has been deleted under the joint protest of the online authors, in fact, the authors have not completely escaped the "AI copyright shadow" of Tomato Novels.
When registering for the Tomato Writer Assistant App, the "IT Times" reporter found that the App has launched auxiliary functions such as AI expansion and AI rewriting, but before using AI functions to assist creation, you must agree to relevant matters.
Pressing this "Agree" means that "using the Service to upload, publish or transmit the content or the content generated by the Service represents the right to permanently, irrevocably and free of charge to grant Time Fly Company (i.e., the parent company of Tomato Novel) and its affiliates all products or services the right to store, use, publish, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works, disseminate, perform and display the information content worldwide." At the same time, Tomato Novel is also authorized to use the information content to optimize the model and services, and to sublicense all or part of the above rights to other third parties to use in the above ways".
"Worldwide", "Perpetual", "Irrevocable", "Free", ...... Under the setting of these keywords, authors who use AI-assisted functions, or even just upload or output content, may completely lose all rights to their work, and it is free.
In the face of the authors' doubts about the "hidden terms", Tomato Novel previously responded that for authors who have signed supplementary agreements or contract terms that contain AI-assisted writing terms, the function entrance for terminating the relevant terms has been launched, and users can initiate the cancellation of the relevant terms through the Tomato Writer Assistant App and the author workbench of Tomato Novel Network.
Recently, the author has posted a screenshot of the successful termination of the "AI authorization agreement" with Tomato Novel, however, an author of the Tomato Novel online article told the "IT Times" reporter that many peers are complaining that although the AI agreement with Tomato Novel has been terminated, the work is "suspected" to be restricted. In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Tomato Novel responded to the media that the author's rights and interests in publishing the work on the platform have nothing to do with whether or not to sign the AI-assisted writing terms, and will not affect the normal recommendation of the work.
On July 25, although the "AI licensing agreement" has been deleted, the reporter of "IT Times" found that the "AI-assisted writing clause" still exists, and authors may still fall into an "unequal" relationship with the platform because of the use of AI.
In addition, the authors also observed that on Tomato Novels, there are multiple accounts that update several books a day. An author posted a screenshot showing that an account named "Jiang Yuan Storytelling" has put 3 books on the shelves in the past half a year, but more than 200 books have been put on the shelves in the past 3 months, which is suspected of being an "AI author". However, when a reporter from IT Times found the account in Tomato Fiction on July 24, he found that his work had been emptied.
There is not only one "suspected AI author", for example, the account of lingyungzs has updated 216 books, and the number of words in each book ranges from tens of thousands of words to more than 2 million words, and the update frequency is very accessible.
The popularity list of tomato novel authors shows that the gods only have single-digit works, the Sanjiu range at the top of the list has 3 works, the second-ranked insecticide team has 2 works, and the third-ranked Yi Qingfeng also has only 3 works.
"The trend of AI writing is unstoppable and good, and AI can assist writers in correcting typos, beautifying the writing, adjusting the structure, etc. But the premise is that the platform should separate AI fiction from human writing, and the statement is generated by AI and left to the reader to choose, rather than using AI authors to impersonate real authors and thus replace real authors. Writer Miss Li believes that just as consumer goods have reduced their costs through industrial assembly lines and can be bought at lower prices, handmade clothes and bags still have value and are more valuable.
The industry is gone?
Multi-platform online AI writing assistant
Since ChatGPT blew a large model "tornado", online text applications closely related to text took the lead in breaking the game.
In July last year, China Literature launched the industry's first large-scale model, "China Literature Wonderful Pen", and an application based on this large model, Writer's Assistant Wonderful Pen Edition. In the same month, Seven Cats cooperated with Baidu's "Wenxin Yiyan" large model to launch "AI Assistant" and other auxiliary writing functions; In October last year, Chinese released the Chinese Xiaoyao model online, which can provide functional assistance such as story conception, plot arrangement, content writing, character dialogue, and illustration production. In May this year, Tomato Novel launched an AI toolbox, including seven major functions, including AI expansion, AI rewriting, AI continuation, AI naming, AI assistant, custom description, and card text tips.
The large model of Reading Literature (left) and the general model (right) answer the demonstration
Backed by ByteDance and Douyin, Tomato Novel quickly became the head player in the online literature circle. According to QuestMobile data, in December 2019, the data of Palm Reading and Huawei Reading far exceeded that of emerging platforms such as Tomato Novel and Seven Cats Novel; In December 2020, Tomato Novel topped the domestic digital reading industry with a MAU of 61.62 million, but there was not much difference with the second, third, and fourth Seven Cats Novel (54.34 million), Huawei Reading (53.6 million), and Palm Reading (52.94 million); In June 2022, 4 of the top 10 apps in the domestic digital reading MAU ranking are mainly free models, and the MAU of Tomato Novel, which ranks first, has reached 109 million, gradually widening the gap with Seven Cats Novel (70.7 million), Palm Reading (65.31 million), Huawei Reading (48.91 million), etc.; By December 2023, Tomato Novel will be riding the dust with 192 million MAU, and the industry will form a super-strong pattern.
From a series of data, it can be seen that Tomato, Seven Cats, and China Literature Group, which are located at the head, have all deployed AI, and Tomato Novel has become the "one super" in "one super and many strong". Almost all the authors and industry insiders interviewed believe that other platforms are following up on AI writing or have already deployed AI writing, "The AI protocols of many platforms have not been paid attention to, but it does not mean that other platforms have not done so." An industry insider said.
"Decent words are retirement, in other words, the industry is dying." A former online platform executive left the industry, in his opinion, other platforms are likely to follow up AI writing, AI replacement of real authors is inevitable, just like the audio manufacturers are doing AI listening books, dozens of seconds to reproduce the sound, almost has lost the 200 yuan/hour of podcasts.
"Tomato novels have subverted the industry from production, distribution to monetization, and the byte system has made the realization of users and advertisements a closed loop, right and wrong, let's judge it in five or six years." The former online article platform executive said.
Who will be replaced by AI first?
Both the head and the bottom have suffered a double decline in traffic revenue
"AI may be the first to replace the bottom writers, not this year, but not far away." Feng Shishao (pseudonym) revealed a cruel fact, both head and bottom writers have different degrees of AI anxiety, but the biggest anxiety in front of him is the double drop in traffic and income.
"Revenues are declining by 3% every month." Feng Shishao, who has been in the industry for more than ten years and has become a Top 20 writer on an online text platform, admitted to the "IT Times" that he has never felt the decline in income and traffic so strongly, which may be due to the influence of AI, or the natural decay of the online text website.
Recently, Feng Shishao, who usually closes the door to code words, rarely participated in an offline gathering of old authors, and the topic that cannot be avoided in the whole party is the weakening of short videos on online traffic.
When the "IT Times" reporter visited a number of online authors interviewed two years ago, he found that only one was still updating, and the other authors had left the online literature industry, or retired, or unemployed, or transformed to write short dramas, and the reason for leaving was that the income was not enough to support life, and the income from the adaptation of online text IP such as audio books and comics was getting less and less, and it was difficult to sell even the audiobooks of popular IP.
Authors who are still writing all pay attention to AI, and they either use AI to assist them when writing essays, or they are hit by AI to the point that they can't write.
"AI can't completely replace real authors, and it's already the current limit to replace new authors." After trying out the AI large model writing on the market, the author of the online article "Xiaocao Can't Sleep" who has been writing for six years found that AI has no experience in human life and society, especially not good at emotional lines, "In the three views of AI, all mothers in the world are loving mothers, all fathers are benevolent fathers, and all set male and female protagonists should be together, without pulling and no emotional spark collision." ”
"AI has written almost as well as a real author, especially in the description of some scenes, and the emotions and accents are on par with my own writing." Another writer of ancient Chinese texts believes that the writing ability of AI has made him lose the motivation to write.
It is obvious that the underlying authors who cannot continue to produce differentiated content will gradually withdraw from the online literature industry, and the reason behind it is not only the emergence of "radish fast running in the online literature industry", but also mixed with the natural loss of traffic, which is finally fed back to income.
Reporter observed:
The AI copyright battle is about to begin
The evolution of AI is inevitable and at a speed beyond human imagination, but after the storm of computing power, the copyright battle will become the next major battlefield for AI large models.
"High-quality data is the core competitiveness of large models, and Chinese textbooks are only one-tenth of English." Chen Yunwen, CEO of Daguan Data, once admitted to the reporter of "IT Times" that he once wanted to cooperate with libraries, publishing houses and other institutions to obtain high-quality data, but it is difficult to define copyright has become a major problem.
As early as March last year, a reporter from the "IT Times" questioned that the source of the material for Baidu's AI-generated videos was unknown, and the potential copyright risks of these AI videos would be passed on to the authors.
In the same way, if Tomato novel author A uses the platform's AI assistance function to continue, expand, rewrite, customize descriptions, etc., and the AI learning material is derived from the work of author B on the platform, once author A uses AI to write a novel similar to author B's style, and is sued for infringement by author B, what liability should AI bear? What are the responsibilities of AI providers?
With the involvement of AI, copyright issues are becoming more and more complex. In February this year, the Guangzhou Internet Court took effect on a judgment that generative AI services infringed others' copyrights, which was also the first effective judgment in the world in which generative AI services infringed others' copyrights. In this case, it was held that the defendant infringed the plaintiff's right of reproduction and adaptation of the "Ultraman" work in question in the process of providing generative AI services, and should bear relevant civil liability. The legal basis for this is the Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative AI Services, which came into effect in China in August 2023, which is also the world's first regulatory scheme for generative AI.
In United States and Japan, the copyright controversy caused by AI imitation is intensifying, and in the foreseeable future, the AI copyright war is about to start, not only in China, but also in the world.