Given how AI is already polluting the water of literary works, I’m likely never going to read a new book for quite some time, but will just pursue books before 2010.
Is 2010 a good cutoff?
If I may be a centrist about this.
OP is being silly wanting a year-cutoff. Geeenerally people who are whole-hog on AI are very proud of that and will yell about it to the four winds. And even if they didn’t, reputation is a real thing one can rely on for knowing who are the goodies and the baddies. (… though if they do feel that’s the only way… 2023. That’s the date. November 2023 is when ChatGPT became something the public could use, and the floodgates opened for businesspeople wanting to replace all artists with robots. Before that, Generative AI was used mostly either by scientists for research into AI itself… Or by internet dorks like me for shitposting. It wasn’t good enough for anything else either way.)
With that said, y’all are being unreasonable to them too: Literature is art, and when it comes to art, “I don’t like the way it feels” is more than enough reason to not want to engage with something. If OP says “I don’t want to touch anything AI related, I don’t care if it is quote-unquote good” then that should be a complete sentence, and require no belaboured justification whatsoever.
I’m wondering how people will be vouching new books aren’t LLM generated?
I guess it depends whether you prefer reading fiction for entertainment or nonfiction. If you’re reading fiction, does it matter if AI wrote or helped write it? Do you watch movies with CGI or only practical effects?
If you don’t want to give your money to an AI’s handler, utilize the library.
If you’re concerned a book will be bad or a waste of time, then adopt a personal policy of giving yourself permission to abandon reading the whole thing if you’re not enjoying it. I call this my Bristol Rule, because I was in Bristol (Tennessee) during the last time I forced myself to finish drinking a cocktail that tasted horrible, and I didn’t want to waste my money. I ended up with a VERY regrettable hangover. I then resolved to give myself permission to give up, not finish, throw away, walk away from, or generally discontinue something I’m just not enjoying, and accept the monetary loss and the lesson.
