I would love to rant about the 90,000-square-foot $200 million gold ballroom that is to replace the East Wing of the White House beginning in September, but I won’t chase that rabbit today. I had already planned to write about artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright infringement today.
I hate to have to “beat a dead horse,” as the saying goes, but AI is on my mind. I’m just a novice author, but this hits home.
What could Mark Twain possibly have to do with AI? Trust me. I’ll get to that.
You may have read my July 16, 2025, blog post, My soul is worth more than $205.
I’m just small potatoes in the big scheme of things in the publishing industry, but even some of the most famous authors are being taken advantage of my AI.
David Baldacci
I will mention David Baldacci as an example. Many of you are, no doubt, fans of his novels.
Baldacci has testified before a Congressional committee because even he has been victimized by AI.
You can tout the wonders and benefits of AI all day long, but when it steals your intellectual property, you might change your tune.
Baldacci said to that Congressional committee, “I truly felt like someone had backed up a truck to my imagination and stolen everything I’d ever created.”
Along comes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The Trump Administration has a long track record of using intellectual property without the creator’s permission. They use music without permission and First Lady Melania Trump gave a speech that was almost verbatim a speech First Lady Michelle Obama had given.
The latest incident occurred on July 1, 2025, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted a painting by the late Christian artist, Thomas Kinkade on X without his estate’s permission.
The Kinkade Family Foundation has asked Homeland Security to take the image down from X.
Furthermore, his estate says, “At The Kinkade Family Foundation, we strongly condemn the sentiment expressed in the post and the deplorable actions that DHS continues to carry out,” Kinkade’s family wrote, “Like many of you, we were deeply troubled to see this image used to promote division and xenophobia associated with the ideals of DHS, as this is antithetical to our mission.”
When will the Trump Administration learn that everything in the world does not belong to them?
Pending AI Court Cases
As of July 25, 2025, there were 29 “literary works” ongoing cases before the federal courts. Other AI cases before the federal courts were 11 “visual works” cases, five “musical works” cases, three “sound recording” cases, one “audiovisual” case, and one “computer program” case about copyright infringement.
Wise words on the subject from Mark Twain
You might be asking, “How could Mark Twain have said anything about AI?”
Artificial Intelligence was pure science fiction in Mark Twain’s day – if it was even fanaticized at all, but he said something about a machine writing a story. It precisely captures my feelings about AI and literature.
I just happened to be reading “How to Tell a Story,” by Mark Twain Tuesday afternoon. (Disclaimer: Mark Twain has been one of my favorite authors since I was in elementary school.)
The point of Twain’s essay is the oral telling of a story and not the writing of one, but I think his main point applies perfectly to the conflict in 2025 between the creative writing by a human and the collection of words generated by AI.
Twain begins this essay with the words, “I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told, for I have been almost daily in the company of the most expert story-tellers for many years.”
He goes on to say that there are various kinds of stories but the only one that is difficult to write or tell is the humorous one. He maintains that, “The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter.”
Twain explains that the humorous story meanders before getting to the point and, in fact, might have no point other than to entertain. On the other hand, he says the comic and witty stories “must be brief and end with a point.”
He says, “The humorous story is strictly a work of art – high and delicate art – and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous story – understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print – was created in America, and has remained at home.”
I won’t go into Twain’s detailed description of how a humorous story is told, for that would take you down a rabbit hole and distract you from the point of my blog post.
Suffice it to say that Twain claims that an American storyteller meanders and gives the impression that he or she is not even aware that the story is funny, while the teller of the comic or witty story across the pond not only tells the audience in the beginning that they are going to tell a comic or witty story but also starts to laugh at the punch line before they even reach it. Twain says, “It is a pathetic thing to see.”
In “How to Tell a Story,” Twain relates a story about a wounded soldier. First, he presents it in the straight forward way the story teller in England, France, Germany, or Italy would tell it.
Then, he tells it like someone in America would tell it in a simple and innocent yet sincere way by going off track and possibly adding details that were not in the original or are not necessary to the story.
Twain says, “This is art and fine and beautiful, and only a master can compass it; but a machine could tell the other story.”
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read.
Remember the people of Ukraine, the starving children in Gaza, and the people in western North Carolina who are still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
Janet
Janet's Writing Blog 