While it’s already well known that ChatGPT and similar AI have been trained on websites and books, a recent investigation from the Washington Post has made that fact even clearer than before. They analyzed one of the data sets used by the biggest chatbots and made that data set searchable—so you can see how your own websites have contributed. The three biggest sites in the dataset: Google’s patent search, Wikipedia, and Scribd. Also on the list: b-ok.org, a site that offered pirated ebooks until it was seized by the US Justice Department last year.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
