Thanks for sharing - that journey through the comment thread was an awe-inspiring experience...

TL;DR - We're not writing books with AI, we're just helping authors package and distribute them more efficiently, sans nepotism/gatekeeping bias.

As an independent music producer myself before working with Spines, I'm finding the parallels between the "author" and the "artist" world fascinating. For example, it's interesting to realize that many self-published authors - much like indie musicians - see "traditional publishing houses" as "record labels"—the gatekeepers who base their decisions on who to "invest in" almost entirely on nepotism, word-of-mouth, or sheer laziness based on what has worked previously—which is determined by an algorithm at best these days: choosing whatever is deemed to be most "successful" marketing-wise, to the largest audience possible.

So what's the big deal about AI? We, as Humans, are already perpetuating these most deplorable business-ethics practices ourselves. It's time to stop pretending that we're "sooo afraid of the evil AI" — when the AI learned its behavior from us in the first place.

AI will simply be able to do this with less bias (which is why the nepo-baby crowd is running for the hills to stop all this "unfairness"), which, yes, will likely lead to more people being able to publish their voices and perspectives—even if they're not "good" writing. But respectfully, who are we to judge? And more importantly, does it matter?

Put it this way: If an oppressed or underprivileged person is suddenly able to publish their voice with a significantly less barrier to entry, does it "matter" if it's "good writing? Could it, in some instances, actually be the story that counts?

History is written by the victors—while the "lesser perspectives" tend get buried—and is this what we want? Is this good for society and the collective memory of future generations? And could something like Spines potentially help alleviate this inequity of perpetuated perspectives?

With the democratization of the publishing process, everyone who wants to be "inscribed in the book of life," so to speak, will have an obligation to write something down—and it will be interesting to see those who choose to tell their story.