Fandom has long facilitated deep dives into media in which fans analyse, discuss and track their favourite storylines and character arcs. This has been particularly true of the science fiction and fantasy genres, due to their complex and expansive narrative universes. - The Conversation
Automated bots seeking AI model training data for LLMs have been vacuuming up terabytes of data, growing the foundation's bandwidth used for downloading multimedia content by 50 percent since January 2024. - Ars Technica
As a professor of computer science who has authored hundreds of works on artificial intelligence, including AI textbooks that cover social impact of large language models, I think understanding how the models work can help writers and educators consider the limitations and potential uses of AI for what might be called “creative” writing. - The Conversation
Giving away books for free might seem counterproductive, but it’s one of the best ways to get readers invested. Once they finish one book, they’re more likely to purchase another. More importantly, it helps trigger Amazon’s algorithms, increasing a book’s visibility long after the free period ends. - Jane Friedman
“The nonprofit behind National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, has announced that it is shuttering. The closure follows a period of turbulence which included disputes over the organization’s stance on AI and its content moderation, as well as what NaNoWriMo described in an announcement as financial challenges.” - Publishers Weekly
The most recent crop of words added to the Oxford English Dictionary is notable for terms from Southeast Asia: from the Philippines, gigil (that feeling when something is so adorable you want to squeeze it hard) and videoke (video karaoke), and from Malaysia and Singapore, alamak (something like WTF). - The Guardian
Altman wrote that the model “got the vibe of metafiction so right.” But that’s like saying that Trump Tower gets the vibe of Versailles so right. Or that Mark Zuckerberg gets the vibe of human so right. - The Drift
“On that island of quest, … Pina occupied my thoughts. She became an inspiration and a companion during my sleepless nights, often spent poring over her videos. Soon enough, I developed an aspiration: How to write a novel as if it were a piece of choreography by Pina.” - LitHub
“This is a book ban, and I am not going to participate in a book ban,” Georgetown High School librarian Susan Cooper said. “I believe that our community would not go along with these book bans and that they have the right to know that it's happening.” - Austin American-Statesman
No real surprise: "Romance dominated in terms of genre popularity across the US, with 22 states seeing it as their top searched genre. … Romance was especially popular in the south.” - Book Riot
“The 336 boxes constituting the Didion-Dunne archive are available to researchers starting today, by appointment, and even the most cursory look through them is revealing, fascinating, and simply entertaining. Scholars will be picking through it all for centuries, but here’s a first-day look at a few of the more eye-opening objects.” - Vulture (MSN)
“The new decision from U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher again temporarily blocked the part of the law that prohibits school libraries and classrooms from carrying books that depict sex acts.” - AP
Built in 1904, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House needs to renovate an emergency exit to become an accessible main entrance for Canadians after the U.S. government announced it is limiting access to that entrance, which is located steps into Derby Line, Vt. - CBC
“As high schoolers staged a walkout Monday, parents filed suit against St. Francis Area Schools alleging the district unlawfully banned dozens of books based on the ideas they contained and the ratings of an anonymous website that recently went dark.” - The Minnesota Star Tribune
“Lapham’s Quarterly, the magazine of history and ideas founded by the legendary editor Lewis Lapham, who died in July of 2024, announced today that it will relaunch this year under the stewardship of Bard College and its Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities. The print publication had been on hiatus since November 2023.” - Literary Hub
