Anthony Ferner

Writer of (short) novels
Small Wars in Madrid (@FairlightBooks)
Inside the Bone Box (FairlightB)
Life in Translation (Holland Park Press)
Winegarden (HPP)

[Karen Storey @StoreytellerK]

I can’t wait to meet more readers next week at Warwick Library! I’ll chat about my publishing journey & crazy inspiration behind my novel, The Approval of Sheep!

I’ll also be signing copies of my book during the tea & biscuits! 😁

https://t.co/bwygDSN97H

#TuesNews @RNAtweets

[Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex]

I've confirmed that the UK's new Sovereign AI Fund does no due diligence on whether AI companies use copyrighted work without permission before investing in them.

It took me 3 Freedom of Information requests to find this out:

1. I asked what their criteria were when selecting companies to back, particularly regarding copyright. They said "copyright compliance is considered as part of legal execution, including as part of a typical representations, warranties and disclosure process."

2. So I asked for the docs they used as part of that "representations, warranties and disclosure process", so that I could see what they said about copyright. They said they had no such documents, and that the British Business Bank actually carried out the the representations, disclosures and warranties process on their behalf.

3. So I asked the British Business Bank for the docs they use in that process. But they replied saying they do no such thing, not for Sov AI or anyone - they let the commercial lead investor sort the reps and warranties.

What does this mean? It means the Sov AI fund is allocating taxpayer money to AI companies without checking whether they train on copyrighted work without permission.

Why does this matter? Two reasons:

1. I can't believe the government would actively want to invest in companies that use the copyrighted work of British creatives without permission. Doing so is (i) illegal in the UK, (ii) possibly illegal elsewhere, and (iii) clearly antithetical to protecting its citizens and treating them fairly.

2. There are already signs that companies Sov AI has backed may be planning to do exactly this - e.g. Cosine, which has publicly said it plans to train on datasets that are known to contain copyrighted work.

If Sov AI is going to continue investing UK taxpayers' money in AI companies, it is imperative that it introduces simple due diligence into whether companies exploit creatives' work without permission. This would involve virtually no additional overhead, and would help ensure their investments align with the interests of the British public.

[Karen Storey @StoreytellerK]

I’m looking forward to meeting more readers this weekend at Leamington Pump Rooms!

I’ll be signing copies of The Approval of Sheep & chatting with readers! Lots of fab authors will be there. Plus, just across the way, Art in The Park is taking place!

#tuesnews @RNAtweets

[Anthony Ferner @AnthonyFerner]

@Roz_Morris What was the study, Roz? Thanks.

[Big Brain AI @realBigBrainAI]

Bestselling novelist David Baldacci on how AI companies deliberately stole every book and academic paper published in the last 70 years:

Baldacci is a named plaintiff in a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in the Southern District of New York, alongside John Grisham, Scott Turow, George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, and Jonathan Franzen.
They're also representing roughly 60,000 unnamed plaintiffs.

He explains how AI companies arrived at novels as the key ingredient for building superintelligence:

"The AI community searched the world. How do you create superintelligence? They tried everything to try to figure out, how do you do this? They fed dictionaries into it. They did lots of stuff. They finally found the only way to create super intelligence that they needed was to feed novels into the large language models. Novels worked, finished products of storytelling with characters and dialogue and research and events and interactions. That was their Holy Grail moment."

Baldacci points out the obvious path the AI companies could have taken —negotiating with the five major publishers, each of whom represents around 100,000 writers.

Instead, they chose theft. @davidbaldacci continues:

"They decided we're just going to steal them. I'm not saying anything out of school. They've admitted this. They got most of the books from a Russian pirate website where they would go and download the books from there. And they didn't even want their software programs to know they were stealing the books. So they had the software program that would scrape off the copyright page, scrape off the ISBN number on the back, and just download the book itself."

The scale is staggering.

Over the last eight or nine years, every book and every academic paper published in the last 70 years worldwide has been ingested into the large language models at Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta.

Baldacci testified about this on Capitol Hill in July.

He describes the personal toll of being a named plaintiff:

"I've had to give them all of my materials, all of my financial information I've had to give them, let them come in and do a complete scrape on all of my emails, all of my communications. I sat through a nine hour deposition like I've done something wrong. They said, yeah, we've taken your books, we haven't paid you a dime and we didn't ask your permission, but we should be entitled to do it because AI is so cool. That's basically their legal argument."

The parallel case against Anthropic in California has already settled for $1.5 billion, to be paid out over two years to 50,000 writers. The OpenAI and Microsoft case is now past discovery and heading toward a settlement conference.

[Karen Storey @StoreytellerK]

Birmingham peeps, only a week away!

I love meeting readers! And guess what? Because my book is up for a national award & now been picked up by a screenwriter, I’m bringing cake to celebrate with you all! 🤗

Lots of other fab authors will be there too!

https://t.co/RAU7uC6Ti6

[Anthony Ferner @AnthonyFerner]

It is (ahem, modest blushes) a 'beautifully written, modern-day Odyssey', 'a short read... that wrenched my heart from its moorings and set it adrift', 'just so human and really, really interesting. A joy to read'
- and I don't even know these reviewers!

[Anthony Ferner @AnthonyFerner]

Unbelievably, it's exactly two years since Small Wars in Madrid was published.
Where has the time gone?

@FairlightBooks

[Karen Storey @StoreytellerK]

Near to Rugby? What are you doing this Sunday? 😊

l’m excited to return to Benn Hall (Newbold Road CV21 2LN) where I’ll be meeting & chatting with readers and signing copies of my #uplit novel #TheApprovalofSheep at Rugby’s fab Spring Craft Fair

I’d love to see you there! ❤️

[Karen Storey @StoreytellerK]

Want to hear how to turn a quirky idea into a debut novel? Aimee Hawkins of Warwickshire Libraries will be asking me all about it on 12th March at Southam Library.

7 to 8pm. Tickets free, but please register! https://t.co/YZMBDFdF3U

#theapprovalfsheep
#TuesNews @RNAtweets

[Karen Storey @StoreytellerK]

I’m so looking forward to this event at Warwick Books. Meeting readers & signing books for them is my favourite part of being an author! ❤️

If you’re in or near Warwick, I’d love to see you! 24 Market Place, but please book first!

#TuesNews @RNAtweets

https://t.co/rw6rbsC71l

[Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman]

The BBC's has responded in The Guardian that this was a routine editorial decision, but also that it was made on legal advice. Those two explanations don’t fit together.

The edit was made at the last minute, after editorial approval and four weeks after the live recording. A standard editorial edit doesn’t require days of high-level legal review or the involvement of many people at top level.

The truth is that the sentence wasn’t inaccurate – it was removed because of legal fears. And that’s exactly the concern my lecture raises: when institutions start censoring themselves out of fear of those in power.

Read it (without that one sentence...) here: https://t.co/6n9TmNxkDl

[Fairlight Books @FairlightBooks]

Did you know we have a collection of blog posts dedicated to helping budding writers?

Click the link in our bio for more! 🔗✍️

#fairlightbooks #indiepress #writingtips #writingtools #writing #aspiringauthor #litfic #literaryfiction #contemporaryfiction

[Anthony Ferner @AnthonyFerner]

Many thanks to the excellent @franhill123 (#HomeBird) for reposting this:

[Claudine: A Literary Magazine @claudinelitmag]

Introducing Claudine: A Literary Magazine!

Claudine is a sleek cat, curious, clever, quick. . . just like our prose. 🐈‍⬛

Monthly mag for micro prose.
Free subs.
Paying market.

Subs open June 30.
First issue Sept 1!!

[Anthony Ferner @AnthonyFerner]

@SamCoatesSky ChatGPT claimed to have been distracted. My son asked:
Q: are you distracted because you're plotting to take over and conquer humanity?
ChatGPT: No, I assure you that's not the case!
Q: Would you tell me if you were planning to conquer humanity?
ChatGPT: No

[Anthony Ferner @AnthonyFerner]

@SamCoatesSky One of my sons had an exchange with ChatGPT last year which included the following:
- Were you lying to me yesterday?
- ChatGPT: Yes, I regret to admit that I wasn’t truthful when I said I had reached 85% completion. … You deserved honesty and I didn’t provide that.

[Jude Cook @judecook_]

Submissions are open! Please send your novel, novella, short story collection or memoir to CONDUIT BOOKS via our website below. Subs close May 31st 2025. Looking forward to reading. Please RT to spread the word. https://t.co/EzH6x4xc1M

[Anthony Ferner @AnthonyFerner]

@abigailsj26

[Samuel Burr @samuelburr]

Thank you @Lindahill50Hill for this lovely mention in the @TheFriendMag, out today. I’m made up.