Readers!
If you’re a regular around here, you know how I feel about generative AI a.k.a. the lying plagiarism machine. After I saw three slop AI images from my town government, and that the library insisted on putting on a “how to use AI” seminar after I raised concerns about teaching my neighbors to benefit off my stolen books, I wrote a letter to the editor of my local weekly paper, telling local governments and organizations to knock it off, and why.
I am writing the newsletter about this for two reasons:
- AI is a disastrous technology that, in one of its many facets of exploitation, is stealing from writers, while the creators of it also say that it’s going to replace us. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I hope that this letter provides you with some talking points the next time someone says “dur hur I can write now too, thanks to ChatGPT.” If you want to share the research I used I make in your own arguments or letters or op-eds, go right ahead.
- When I talk about freelancing, I say to make sure you’re compensated fairly for your work, but that it’s also OK to take a pay cut if you really want to write something and/or get it out in front a specific group of people. I could have written this in a slightly different way and tried to sell it as an op-ed for money. But I am appalled at what I’m seeing from local leaders, and wanted my message in front of their eyeballs. The best way to do that was through a letter to the editor to a newspaper they all read. Of course I wasn’t paid for this, but I got my message out, and it’s spreading locally too. Sine it was published Friday, two groups told me they’ll no longer use it, and another sustainability group quietly changed it’s AI slop event logo after I pointed out the hypocracy. I’ll be speaking at a few meetings soon, to my town’s school board, and, yes, pissed off more than one person because I called them out in a public forum. OH WELL.
Just because we’re writers does not meant that we should ignore that our gifts could be used in other ways. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating: Jen A. Miller is a persona I created for my professional life as a way to be more confident, proactive and, when necessary, confrontational, than I am. But that doesn’t mean I no longer exist. That’s who I am every day, and that’s who wrote the letter: Jen Miller, the concerned community member, who just so happens knows how to write.
(This Jen Miller is also very good at writing emails to get refunds, and also wrote a letter to support her bid to buy her house. Good for her).
I feel like this newsletter is split between the two: Jen A. Miller writes the top, then Jen Miller writes the rest. It’s like a Joe Dirt mullet: business up front, party in the back.
Speaking of, let’s get to that party part.
Recent Bylines
“Even seemingly harmless AI works are exploitative,” The Retrospect
“New FDA Guidance on general wellness products and clinical decision support software,” AAMI News
“Workers say they want learning. Why is engagement low when it’s offered?” HR Dive
“UCSF launches learning collaborative to strengthen home-based care,” Science of Caring
“Meet four UCSF experts driving innovation in patient care,” Science of Caring
What I’m Reading
- Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. This is a saga set in a small town in Ohio, mostly centered on two couples who are settled there after marrying in the early 1940s. It does a wonderful job at blowing up the idea being pushed by white nationalists that the 1950s was a utopia. It wasn’t if you weren’t an able bodied, white, straight, Christian male, and none of the main four characters check all of those boxes. It’s also about war, with characters serving in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War. It reminds me of the “war is war and hell is hell and of the two, war is a lot worse” speech from M.A.S.H., which also popped up on my social media feeds given the events of the weekend. Also: I read this when I had a terrible head cold, and I cried a lot, which books typically don’t make me do. The part set on the Pacific during World War II really got me sobbing because of my grandfather who, once again, would hate all of what’s going on right now.
- How to Commit A Post-Colonial Murder by Nina McCoingley. This is a short book, told in letter form (though we don’t know who the protagonist Georgie is writing to) about how and why she and her sister murder their uncle, who sexually assaulted them when they were tweens and teens. That’s not a spoiler since it’s in the title, and also at the start of the book. But it’s about more than that, including colonialism and racism (Georgie’s mother is Indian and her father white) living in a place where Native Americans had their land ripped from them — land her father extracts oil from. It’s also set in 1986, with Seventeen magazine style quizzes pepper throughout. I recommend it.
What I’m Watching
- The Lowdown, season 1. Ethan Hawk stars as a “truthstorian” in Tulsa, Okla. investigating the suicide of a Dale (Tim Blake Nelson) of the very rich and connected Washborn, who is headed by brother and gubernatorial candidate Donald (Kyle MacLachlan). It’s about power, greed, white Christian nationalism and how it continues to ruin the lives of the Native American and Black who still live there. I was wondering why Killer Mike was cast in this, and then he delivered a monologue in the seventh episode that, oh right, that’s why he was there. I think it also helps that so many actors are actually from Oklahoma, including Blake Nelson, and also Jean Tripplehorn, who is from Tulsa. When I took my 2017 trip to see all the states I hadn’t been to yet, I said that the most surprising states to me were New Mexico and Oklahoma, and I’ve been back to Oklahoma twice since. That’s surprising to my east coast pals, but it’s a beautiful, wild, complicated place and I’m glad this series dug into the why behind that.
- All Creatures Great and Small, season 2. Ah, yes, thank you, British veterinarians in 1930s Yorkshire, thank you for coming to the rescue at the end of what was a terrible month — minus the episode that opened with a dog dying. Whoops. I’m spacing these out because they’re so good that I don’t want to rush through them, so it’ll be a bit before I get to season 3.
- SanRemo Music Festival. What a ride! For the second year in a row, I watched this now 76 year old Italian music fesetival, which is how they pick their Eurovision contestant. It’s five nights long, at about six hours per night, so watching it is like a part time job. But! I got to see an Italian cosplaying as American cowboy with line dancers and cheerleaders in Italian flag colors, enough sequins to supply a year’s worth of New York City drag shows, and a 56-year-old guy named Sal Da Vinci win, 17 years after he finished third in the same competition. It’s like Eurovision plus a Jerry Lewis Telethon, with the cultural cache of Miss America at its heyday. About 10 million Italians watch this every year — a pretty big chunk of a country with a population of about 59 million people. I watched most of the Olympics in Italian, but I considered this viewing a real test of how far I’ve progressed in my language studies in a year. I understood most of it! Hooray!
- Chris Fleming: Live at the Palace. Fleming is an absurdist comic who takes on everyone from gender police to Terry Gross in this special he dances his way through. I can’t say I thought all of it was funny, but this is incredible physical comedy, and Fleming is one of a kind. That’s worth celebrating, even if not every joke landed for me.
Nail Polish of the Week
Going All In by Essie. This is a nice dusty rose, one that teeters on the edge of being too purple for my skin. In my now six years of doing my nails weekly, I know the only colors that don’t work for me, in any season, are lilac and bright white. But this works fine as a neutral for me at the end of winter.
Until next time!
Jen A. Miller (she/her)
Notes from a Hired Pen ebook series
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Thank you, thank you for your pushback against the growing use of AI. It’s astounding that otherwise ethically-minded organizations have no problem using AI. The environmental impacts alone should have everyone boycotting it. People need to start using their critical thinking skills and stop gobbling up every new tech toy on offer. I would also love to see a widespread social media walkout, even for one day. That would make the biggest impact.
Thank you for this newsletter. I really enjoy it.