Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

– from the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (1927)

When my children were small, something shocking happened at the seaside playground we used to frequent. The place had a little cafe which got carefully locked up every night, with staff diligently bolting the metal shutters to the counter and double-locking the door. But one morning the manager came in to discover that thieves had taken a drill to the side of the building during the night and extracted the entire safe through the gaping hole. That’s kind of how it felt to find out about Meta’s great book heist, which I am sure you have heard about by now. According to this investigation by The Atlantic, Meta has reportedly downloaded millions of books (including ten editions of mine) from pirate database LibSyn and used them to train AI. Suddenly I could see that we have all been faffing around worrying about whether AI-generated e-books are going to affect the traditional publishing world and all the while Meta was out with its giant drill stealing all the existing books through a hole in the back of the library.

As someone who has spent countless hours (actually, years) and sacrificed many things to bring my books into the world, part of me is of course as upset about this as anyone, and wants appropriate action to be taken. To that end I have followed the advice of the trade unions, signed the petition and stand in solidarity with fellow my authors and academics. (See below for advice from the Society of Authors and Authors Guild)

However, another part of me is fascinated by the speed at which things are being disrupted and deeply curious about what the AI age might mean in terms of new possibilities for all of us, and how it might take some of the mundane stuff off our plates so we can focus on the issues that really matter.

That curious, hopeful part of me is the part which is writing to you today.

To be honest, as an author I feel pressure to be anti-AI. Of course I am as outraged as anyone else about the blatant piracy and use of our published books, and I have no intention of using AI to generate any of my creative works (other than where AI is automatically integrated into research tools). I also understand that many, many jobs are threatened by the rapidly developing technologies of our time which include AI, and I am aware of the real impact that will have on many lives. In the weeks I have been working on this essay, The Guardian-Observer newspaper has closed, H&M has announced the use of digital clones of models in its ads, and I overheard a cameraman at my local coffee shop talking about how the television industry is on its knees. This is heartbreaking. There are also huge environmental concerns relating to the proliferation of AI, and I for one won’t be wasting water and energy generating a doll image of myself anytime soon.

But I am also founder of an organisation called Do What You Love and I have spent the past fifteen years encouraging people to make the most of emerging opportunities in the face of disruptive change, to not wait for authority to tell them what to do next, and to be brave enough to choose the unconventional path, if that is right for them. This has never felt so essential.

To be hopeful in the face of rapid change is a radical act, which takes courage but opens your eyes to opportunities that only exist right now.

Click here to continue reading the rest of this essay (including journal notes to prompt your own thinking on this topic)…