From an article in the Seattle Times this morning: ‘Not for machines to harvest’: Data revolts break out against AI "Loffstadt stopped posting her creations after she learned that data company had copied her stories and fed them into the artificial intelligence technology underlying ChatGPT, a viral chatbot. Dismayed, she hid her writing behind a locked account. Loffstadt also helped organize an act of rebellion last month against AI systems." This article was in the morning newspaper, and it brought up a sad memory for me: the beginning of the end of my box-making days. Back in the 70s, I supported myself, more or less, with my "carved and inlaid boxes made out of hardwoods". One day I walked into the Washington Bookstore on the "Ave" (University Avenue in the UW district). On a special display table near the entry, there were these small blocks of hardwoods with intricate, LAZER produced etchings on them. I can't remember if they were boxes. It was like someone hit me in the stomach, and I thought "what am I doing?" I remember "burning out" with my month to month lifestyle in the early 80s, even though I loved my wood working. I was living up on Lopez Island in the San Juans then, and what I did was slowly burn all of my wood in the fireplace as I thought about what I want to do. I ended up with two to-dos: go to Japan, and learn out to play a saxophone. This was one of the early Bumbershoot Festivals at the Seattle Center.