Authors hope their book has a long life. I count myself lucky that UNT Press published See Sam Run. The print edition sold out years ago, but the publisher invested in electronic editions, including an audiobook. They watch for opportunities to help new readers discover both the audio and e-book. In addition, the publisher once asked me to keep an eye out for pirated books.

He said that he would contact website owners that were holding a pirated book, get that copy taken down, and then see another pirated book pop up somewhere else on the internet. He likened it to playing whack-a-mole. But he also said that it was an important battle.

That’s why authors and publishers took Anthropic to court. The company used See Sam Run, and millions of other pirated books, to train its large-language models.

See Sam Run

Having been discovered this way, See Sam Run may find another life. I’m trying to be hopeful about that. Perhaps someday Claude or another chatbot will send a user to my blog. Over on LinkedIn, I’m microblogging bits and pieces from See Sam Run to help with that. Time will tell.

The companies developing the search algorithms and large-language models seem determined to have their commercial space inserted in front of the places where human knowledge and wisdom grow. This makes our shared spaces feel even more precious to me. People instinctively move to places of beauty and wisdom, so I pledge to keep this corner of the internet like a gardener. It will always be filled with care and good words for the beautiful families out there on the autism journey.