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San Altman-run <keyword id="19918823" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="openai" source="keywords">OpenAI</keyword> and <keyword id="19895622" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="microsoft" source="keywords">Microsoft</keyword> have been hit by another class-action lawsuit by book authors, who alleged that the company "simply stole" their copyrighted works to help "build a billion-dollar artificial intelligence system". The lawsuit was filed in the Manhattan federal court late on Friday by non-fiction authors Nicholas Basbanes and <keyword id="20087595" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nicholas-gage" source="keywords">Nicholas Gage</keyword>, reports NBC. Basbanes and Gage seek to represent a class of writers "whose copyrighted work has been systematically pilfered by" Microsoft and OpenAI. "They're no different than any other thief," the lawsuit alleged, adding that it will include all people in the US "who are authors or legal beneficial owners" of copyrights for works that have or are being used by the defendants to "train their large language models". The lawsuit seeks damages of up to $150,000 for each work that the defendants infringed, the report mentioned. The lawsuit alleged that OpenAI's system relies on being trained by ingesting "massive amounts of written material," which includes books written by Basbanes and Gage. Microsoft or OpenAI were yet to comment on the new lawsuit. In September last year, the Authors' Guild and 17 well-known authors like Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult filed a lawsuit in the Southern district of New York against OpenAI. According to the complaint, OpenAI "copied plaintiffs' works wholesale, without permission or consideration" and fed the copyrighted materials into large language models. In the same month, authors <keyword id="20087597" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="michael-chabon" source="keywords">Michael Chabon</keyword>, David Henry Hwang, <keyword id="20087596" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rachel-louise-snyder" source="keywords">Rachel Louise Snyder</keyword> and Ayelet Waldman alleged in a lawsuit that OpenAI benefits and profits from the "unauthorised and illegal use" of their copyrighted content. SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/gautam-adani-beats-mukesh-ambani-to-become-indias-richest-man/articleshow/106564235.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/gautam-adani-beats-mukesh-ambani-to-become-indias-richest-man/articleshow/106564235.cms" target="_blank">Gautam Adani surpasses Mukesh Ambani as the richest Indian after Hindenburg verdict</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/webstories/vivo-x100-vs-iqoo-12-price-specs-and-features-compared/slidelist/106569235.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/webstories/vivo-x100-vs-iqoo-12-price-specs-and-features-compared/slidelist/106569235.cms" target="_blank">Vivo X100 vs iQOO 12 – The affordable flagship that fits your needs</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/webstories/best-selling-cars-in-india-in-december-tata-nexon-tops-the-list/slidelist/106572077.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/webstories/best-selling-cars-in-india-in-december-tata-nexon-tops-the-list/slidelist/106572077.cms" target="_blank">Best selling cars in India in December – Tata Nexon tops the list</a>

Authors sue Microsoft, OpenAI for copyright infringement in new lawsuit

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Tim Boucher has written over 120 books using AI-generated text and images.</li><li>Boucher's work critiques technology and explores new storytelling, but it has sparked controversy.</li></ul>Tim Boucher is a prolific author. In just two years, he's written more than 120 books, completing some in a mere four hours. His secret weapon: AI.Boucher's books have an unusual format. They include between 40 and 120 AI-generated images along with between 2,000 and 5,000 words — largely generated by chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT.As a technologist and artist, Boucher sees the books as a way to critique technology and explore a new type of storytelling."My books allow AI models to speak for themselves, almost like the idea of an unreliable narrator in literature," he told Business Insider."It's interesting that the models get things wrong, are inconsistent, and have incomplete capacities. I'm trying to use those as a leverage point to open up a new form of storytelling."But what Boucher sees as a creative exploration, many others see as theft.A <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=53e10325369fe02e30dc40133b829cd06d7e7e1d51a836b35d840614bc0afcaf&amp;postID=66ec3ce469657a7deb44b069&amp;postSlug=author-ai-write-books-backlash-tim-boucher-2024-9&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theinformation.com%2Farticles%2Fim-an-author-who-proudly-uses-generative-ai-to-write-my-books">recent op-ed</a> Boucher wrote for The Information has sparked the latest wave of backlash the author has been fighting since he began discussing his use of AI.The article, titled "I'm an author who proudly uses AI to write my books," attracted over one thousand comments on Meta's Threads, including negative ones from Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon and Elon Musk's daughter.<h2 id="7092926a-fe1d-4e54-9c4e-1643e7a6a523">Creative differences</h2>Tensions between AI companies and the creative industries have been bubbling since the release of AI image generators such as Midjounrey and the rise of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT.Authors like Chabon have taken issue with how AI models are trained, accusing tech companies of using their work to train models without their consent.The novelist is part of an ongoing lawsuit against Meta over data used to train its Llama AI model. AI companies, including OpenAI, are facing several similar lawsuits from groups of authors and artists.While Boucher says he understands some of the frustrations, he thinks that most of the criticism he receives is based on misconceptions about his work.He said that people are "responding emotionally." He added, "I understand it feels frustrating, irritating, and angering to have your work taken and used in ways that you don't agree with.""But people get very mad when I call these books, despite the fact that it's a pretty general term," he added. "They say things like 'you're not a real author. This isn't real art.'"<h2 id="f6b383b9-c098-498b-9c1a-e36b0ac5ec5c">Online backlash</h2>Boucher objects to the accusations that he is a plagiarist or a fraud.He says he is transparent about the use of AI in his work and has written multiple blog posts explaining his creative process."People are not strictly responding to this in a technical sense," he said, adding that the future of the tech was going to come down to the courts. He said he thought the lawsuits would put a lot of pressure on how AI companies use licensed data, which he described as a "good thing.""AI isn't perfect, and there are problems with it, but I believe that it will get ironed out over time," he said. "I don't want to wait 20 years for it to be perfected while someone else has had all of the fun, interesting time exploring it."I'd rather go to the Wild West early and set up a saloon than miss out on experimenting with technology."

An author is facing backlash for using AI to write 120 books. He says he's misunderstood.

The entire world was talking about generative AI when <keyword id="19918823" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="OpenAI" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="OpenAI" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="OpenAI">OpenAI</keyword> launched ChatGPT in November 2022. The chatbot could write articles, summarise books, explain difficult terms, check grammar and spelling and a lot more. In a nutshell, activities that were previously considered exclusive to human beings were being carried out by the chatbot and it had initially left people surprised. As time passed, more AI chatbots like Gemini, <keyword id="19914065" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="claude" source="keywords">Claude</keyword>, MetaAI and CoPilot began emerging and people started using them for various purposes. Now, we all know that AI is trained on huge sets of data. And this data, in some cases, was copyrighted. Laws regarding <keyword id="20055202" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-companies" source="keywords">AI companies</keyword> using copyrighted data are still blurry which is why such cases always make headlines. In the last two years, AI chatbots and companies behind them have faced several legal battles over <keyword id="19971862" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="copyright-infringement" source="keywords">copyright infringement</keyword>, raising concerns about how these technologies are trained and used. From music and art to literature, content creators have increasingly accused AI firms of using their work without permission to train these systems. Let us take a look at five such cases. <h2>1. Record Labels vs. Suno and Udio AI</h2> In January 2024, the music industry’s powerhouses—Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music, and Warner Music Group took legal action against Suno and Udio AI, two emerging AI music companies. The record labels accused these companies of unlawfully using copyrighted music to train their AI systems. According to a report in Forbes, the crux of the lawsuit was in the claim that Suno and Udio AI used a vast amount of copyrighted sound recordings to enhance their AI's ability to generate music. According to the labels, while the AI-generated music may not directly copy the original tracks, the extensive use of copyrighted material for training purposes constitutes a violation of <keyword id="19906860" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="intellectual-property-rights" source="keywords">intellectual property rights</keyword>. The plaintiffs argued that the AI’s impressive ability to replicate musical styles and nuances was made possible by this unauthorised use of their recordings. The lawsuit sought not only financial damages but also injunctions to prevent further misuse of copyrighted music by these AI systems. <h2>2. Scarlett Johansson vs. OpenAI</h2> In May 2024, Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that her voice likeness was used without permission in an AI-generated voice model known as “Sky.” Johansson had previously declined OpenAI’s requests to use her voice for their chatbot, but the lawsuit claimed that her voice was still incorporated into the AI’s outputs. The controversy began when Johansson’s legal team argued that despite OpenAI’s denial of using her voice, there were striking similarities between her voice and the AI-generated model. OpenAI maintained that the voice used was not Johansson’s but rather that of another actor. However, in response to the lawsuit, OpenAI decided to remove the “Sky” voice from their product out of respect for Johansson, despite continuing to defend their position. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112732724" title="Majority IT workers fear being replaced by AI, new survey shows" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> <h2>3. Visual Artists vs. Google</h2> In April 2024, a group of visual artists, including photographer Jingna Zhang and cartoonists Sarah Andersen and Hope Larson, brought a lawsuit against Google. A report by Reuters said that the artists accused the tech giant of using billions of copyrighted images to train its AI image generator, Imagen, without proper authorisation or compensation. The lawsuit contended that Google’s AI was trained on a dataset comprising copyrighted artwork, which included the plaintiffs' works. The artists argued that Google had not obtained permission to use their images and that this unauthorised use was a breach of copyright laws. On the other hand, Google denied the allegations, asserting that its models are trained on publicly available data. <h2>4. <keyword id="20097058" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="authors" source="keywords">Authors</keyword> vs. Anthropic</h2> Just last month, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Anthropic, the company behind the AI chatbot Claude. A report in The Guardian said that authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson accused Anthropic of using pirated copies of their books to train its AI model. The lawsuit alleged that Anthropic used these unauthorised copies to teach Claude how to generate text, effectively exploiting their intellectual property without permission. The authors claimed that Anthropic’s actions not only infringed on their copyrights but also caused significant harm to their creative works. The lawsuit sought monetary damages and an injunction to prevent further misuse of the authors' works in training the AI. <h2>5. Sarah Silverman and Authors vs. <keyword id="19911549" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meta" source="keywords">Meta</keyword></h2> In December 2023, comedian Sarah Silverman, alongside other notable authors like Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon, sued Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). The lawsuit accused Meta of using pirated copies of their books to train its Llama AI language model. Despite legal warnings from its own team, Meta allegedly proceeded with using these unauthorized copies, which led to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs argued that Meta’s actions were a blatant disregard for intellectual property laws and ethical standards. They sought damages and an order to prevent Meta from using pirated content in its AI training practices. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/apples-ios-18-is-coming-soon-list-of-compatible-devices-key-features/articleshow/112921801.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Apple's iOS 18 is coming soon: List of compatible devices, key features</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/ai-generated-content-on-the-internet-today-is-more-than-human-generated-study/articleshow/113079845.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">The internet has more AI-generated content today than human-created and this could mean trouble</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=479266566&amp;author=divyanshi%20sharma=&amp;page=1" class="artishow_author"></a>

OpenAI to Meta: AI companies that were accused of copyright infringement

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Charlie Munger, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 99, had a last big call on AI: it's overhyped.</li><li>The legendary investor said he was "personally skeptical" about the hype.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/charlie-munger-dies-warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-bitcoin-crypto-ai-2023-11">Charlie Munger</a> got the big calls right.Decisions to back <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/charlie-munger-big-tech-magnificent-stocks-buffett-berkshire-investing-apple-2023-11">Apple</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-charlie-munger-warren-buffett-titan-online-shopping-2022-2">Costco</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffetts-coke-response-2016-5">Coca-Cola</a> with his investing partner Warren Buffett cemented Munger's reputation as a legendary investor and fuelled Berkshire Hathaway's cash pile to <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-earnings-q3-record-cash-stock-portfolio-2023-11">a record $157 billion</a>.Munger, who <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/charlie-munger-dies-warren-buffett-obituary-berkshire-hathaway-stock-market-2023-11">died at the age of 99</a> on Tuesday, was also skeptical about faddy boom sectors such as crypto and bitcoin, which he described as "rat poison."<a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/charlie-munger-dies-warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-bitcoin-crypto-ai-2023-11">Speaking in May</a>, the Oracle of Omaha said he was "personally skeptical of some of the hype that has gone into artificial intelligence."This was as OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, raised billions of dollars from Microsoft and venture capitalists plowed funds into months-old AI startups at high valuations.It was counterintuitive, but his last big call could be right: AI is overhyped. Here's why.<h2>1. It isn't profitable yet</h2>The original source of 2023's AI hype – <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chat-gpt-2023-1">ChatGPT-developer OpenAI</a> – looks pretty messy right now after one of the most dramatic boardroom showdowns in Silicon Valley history.Over five days, OpenAI's board ousted <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-sam-altman-fired-openai-was-it-over-vibes-2023-11">CEO Sam Altman</a>, rattled through two other CEO candidates, and then reinstated Altman. An accompanying sideshow was Altman briefly accepting a job offer at OpenAI's biggest investor, Microsoft, and almost taking most of the company with him.It doesn't feel like a company that <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=8382b4ce80e87c79f59641db5da6ebdabcaae0303970bdbd9215ee712719a6ca&amp;postID=656722a11b08829c5b3a6dd0&amp;postSlug=charlie-munger-may-have-been-right-about-ai-skepticism-2023-11&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theinformation.com%2Farticles%2Fopenais-86-billion-share-sale-in-jeopardy-following-altman-firing">should be valued at $86 billion</a>. Private and public valuations are not directly comparable but, for reference, companies including Ferrari, British American Tobacco, and Dell all have lower market capitalizations.That OpenAI has a slightly byzantine corporate structure doesn't help either. The nonprofit parent firm governs a capped-profit company. One primarily aims to accelerate the development of AI, and the other primarily wants to minimize its harms. That raises questions, from an investor perspective, about whether there's an inbuilt cap on its growth.It's not clear anyone else is making much money directly from AI.DeepMind, the AI lab bought by Google in 2014, has struggled to strike a balance between operating as a research lab versus a commercial entity, and reported losses for years. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-deepmind-ai-startup-technology-2020-12">Google had to write off $1.3 billion in debt</a> for DeepMind in 2019. Google has now rolled the lab in with another AI division, Google Brain, and no longer explicitly breaks out financials.<h2>2. A lot of AI startups are VC-funded</h2>Another problem from the Munger perspective: lots of OpenAI rivals, such as Stability AI, Inflection AI, and Anthropic, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-promising-artificial-intelligence-startups-of-2023-2023-8">look to venture capital to fund their growth</a>. Munger was skeptical about VCs' ability to make good investments, and suggested they tread a fine line <a target="_blank" href="https://fortune.com/2023/10/30/charlie-munger-venture-capital-acquired-podcast-interview-berkshire-hathaway/">between investment and gambling</a>. There's also a broader industry question of whether money that needs to be returned quickly is the right growth and funding mechanism for AI firms, which require deep technical talent, research, and compute.<h2>3. AI has still to prove out its case</h2>Finally, there's the big question of whether the technology will deliver on its big promises.AI is touted as a technology with the potential to be as monumental as the internet. OpenAI's Altman and other AI CEOs talk very publicly about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-agi-artificial-general-intelligence-explained-2023-5">AI as smart as humans being on the horizon.</a>But such claims are worth taking with a grain of salt.Generative AI generally depends on the work of others – an issue that threatens to come to a head through lawsuits on copyright filed by authors such as Michael Chabon. Large language models are still prone to hallucinations too, making them far from reliable. Meanwhile, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-researchers-have-turned-agi-race-upside-down-with-paper-2023-11">ability of the technology to generalize beyond its given training data set</a> is up for debate, as a recent paper from Google researchers suggested.Munger <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/charlie-munger-billions-berkshire-hathaway-investing-mistakes-alibaba-belridge-oil-2023-11">made investment mistakes</a>. But he may be right for now: <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/buffett-munger-meeting-banks-real-estate-occidental-ai-apple-dollar-2023-5">human intelligence works just fine</a>.

Charlie Munger's last big call was probably right: AI is overhyped

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZULmZ9stz8">YouTube</a></div></div></div>Author <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw">Ayelet Waldman lashed out</a> on Twitter Sunday after finding out her son spent $120 playing the newest craze, "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
Whoever designed the Kardashian Hollywood game is an evil scumbag to end all scumbags. Why am I not surprised? Preying on children.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496112153858809856">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

Waldman, <a href="http://www.ayeletwaldman.com/">a New York Times best-selling author</a> who is married to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, claimed her son didn't know he was spending real money and that the app preys on young children who don't understand its rules.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Evil, vile Kardashian Hollywood tricked my 11 yr old into spending $120 in 2 days. He's crying hysterically. Pox on those fuckers.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496111384036274177">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>
The game, which is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-kim-kardashian-game-2014-7">slated to rake in over $85mm this year, is free.</a> Players can make in-app purchases for more playing time "and virtual items like clothes and jewelry," according to Business Insider's Maya Kosoff, who played the game a few weeks back. 
All in-app purchases must be verified before they go through, but Waldman was unconvinced this was the case.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
My son was playing the Kardashian Hollywood game on an iPhone. Somehow bypassed his allowance, went to saved credit card. $120 in 2 days.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496115965860397056">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

Waldman continued her crusade against Kim Kardashian and her app's developers, saying she "was sure" her husband had blocked in-app purchases. Each of her kids, she says, has an allowance.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
PARENTS - check your kids' phones. Kardashian Hollywood bypassed our in-app purchase controls. Our kids are freaking out. $120 in 2 days.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496112023260778496">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
My husband is incredibly sophisticated on Macs. Was sure he'd blocked in-app purchases. Just by chance we noticed our son's account.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496116636496044032">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

Then the mystery was solved, though blame still fell on the Kardashians. Waldman tweeted that even though her kids had $20 app allowances a month, there was a credit card "somehow" linked.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/GlennF">@GlennF</a> We had allowances for the kids account, but Abe also had a credit card attached. That was the flaw. Credit card now deleted.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496115343442456576">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

Waldman sent an addition half-dozen tweets, still incredibly angry at the Kardashians, though it seemed she understood the "flaw" came from her own credit card which was linked to her kids' Apple accounts.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
We'd set up what we thought were restricted allowances, but bc there was a card attached, I'm now funding Kim Kardashian's lip gloss.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496117258985283584">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

Apple even stepped in and refunded Waldman and her family $120. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Man, I love Apple. They are refunding our purchases. And we've deleted all credit card info. Parents, check your kids phones!
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496118754825076736">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

But hell hath no fury like a mother-child duo scorned by Kim K. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Best thing about this disaster? My son fucking hates the Kardashians now.
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496118992356929538">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

Waldman tweeted the finale to her rant yesterday. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Abe, age 11: Sobbing. "I hate those goddamn Kardashians." Also? "I thought I was smarter than this."
- Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayeletw/statuses/496119484717862913">August 4, 2014</a></blockquote>
<a href="http://gawker.com/ayelet-waldman-those-vile-scumbag-kardashian-pigs-ma-1615708830">[Via Gawker]</a>

Famous Author Rages Against The Kardashians After Her Son Spends A Fortune Playing Kim's New Game

100 Books Everyone Should Read Before They Die

<div class="KonaFilter image-container center"><div class="image">HBO, Kevin Winter/Getty, Wikimedia Commons</div></div>If you're <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-george-rr-martin-on-his-creative-process-2014-4">one of the 6.6 million people who watch "Game Of Thrones" or have bought any of the 24 million copies of "A Song Of Ice and Fire" that are in print</a>, you've spent hours inside the mind of George R.R. Martin, the wordsmith who composes the thousand-page tomes of swords, sex, and sorcery. 
The author has his own productivity magic: a vintage word processor. 
"I have a secret weapon," he told late-night host Conan O'Brien. "I use WordStar 4.0 as my word processor." 
It's part of a two-machine setup. He has a modern computer to browse the Internet, get his email, and do his taxes. Then he has a DOS machine running WordStar, which was the top of the word-processing world when it debuted back in 1983. 
On his show, O'Brien asked his guest why he still uses the 31-year-old program. 
"I actually like it," Martin replied. "It does everything I want a word-processing program to do, and it doesn't do anything else."
The studio audience, of course, howled. 
But the joke's on them. 

In a post on his LiveJournal blog from 2011, <a href="http://grrm.livejournal.com/197075.html" target="_blank">Martin unpacked why he swears by the WordStar</a>: 
"So here's the thing. I am a dinosaur, as all my friends will tell you. A man of the 20th century, not the 21st. Yes, I have been using a computer for twenty years now, but while I cruise this interwebby thing with a PC and Windows, I still do all my writing on an old DOS machine running WordStar 4.0, the Duesenberg of word processing software (very old, but unsurpassed)."
A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duesenberg" target="_blank">Duesenberg</a>, if you don't know, is a swank luxury car that started rolling out in 1913. When your buddy says that Saturday night was a doozy, she's unknowingly referencing the best-in-class automobile. If you were to drive a Duesenberg today, you'd be wowed by how it combines the "<a href="http://classiccars.about.com/od/classiccarsaz/a/Duesenberg.htm" target="_blank">mechanical precision of a Rolls-Royce and the amazing acceleration and blinding speed of a Bugatti</a>," a few of the reasons <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8bsofHjl8o" target="_blank">a 1935 model sold for $4.5 million last year</a>. 
The doozy isn't obsolete; it's amazing.
That's the thing about technology. 
<a href="http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2014/05/case-study-4-it-is-known-george-r-r.html" target="_blank">As University of Maryland media archeology scholar Matthew Kirschenbaum argues</a>, we've been conditioned to think that any piece of tech that hasn't been released in the last six hours is defunct, passe, and obsolete. So anyone who uses WordStar in 2014 has to be a Luddite or, he says, "a curmudgeonly author of high fantasy whose success allows you to indulge your eccentricities," as you might take Martin to be.
But the WordStar might be a better word-processing product than whatever version of Microsoft Word you grapple with every day, with its templates and crashes and <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/clippy" target="_blank">animated paperclips</a>. After all, writers like Michael Chabon, Ralph Ellison, William F. Buckley, and Anne Rice all started their scribing on the WordStar. 
As <a href="http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2014/05/case-study-4-it-is-known-george-r-r.html" target="_blank">Kirschenbaum</a> wrote in a blog post, WordStar is both an oldie and a goodie: 
"WordStar is no toy or half-baked bit of code: on the contrary, it was a triumph of both software engineering and what we would nowadays call user-centered design. With features ranging from automatic word-wrap and full margin justification to mail merge and context-sensitive help, it was justifiably advertised as early as 1978 as a What You See Is What You Get word processor, a marketing claim that would be echoed by Microsoft when Word was launched in 1983.
"WordStar's real virtues, though, are not captured by its feature list alone. As Ralph Ellison scholar Adam Bradley observes in <a href="http://adamfbradley.com/ellison.php">his work</a> on Ellison's use of the program, 'WordStar's interface is modelled on the longhand method of composition rather than on the typewriter.' ...
"The upshot is that users need never lift hands from keyboard to navigate their document, thus permitting a freedom and facility of movement that is an order of magnitude more efficient than the pointing and clicking and scrolling and dragging we associate with running a mouse around a (graphic user interface)." 
Startups have tried to recapture the writerly simplicity of an interface like WordStar. Like Slate <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/14/george_r_r_martin_writes_on_dos_based_wordstar_4_0_software_from_the_1980s.html" target="_blank">says</a>, lots of writers rely on minimalist word processors like <a href="http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom" target="_blank">WriteRoom</a> and <a href="http://bywordapp.com/" target="_blank">Byword</a> to type without the Internet's distraction or use an app like <a href="https://macfreedom.com/" target="_blank">Freedom</a> or <a href="https://www.rescuetime.com/" target="_blank">RescueTime</a> to prevent from getting lost in multi-tabbed tangents. 
So while Word is a case study in bloated software, WordStar - <a href="https://archive.org/details/wordstar_2.26_osborne1_1981_micropro" target="_blank">which you can use a web version of here </a> - is a study in computing efficiency. 
Martin, for one, doesn't need all the "features" that crowd into Microsoft Word. "I don't want any help," the author says. "I hate some of these modern systems where you type a lower-case letter and it becomes a capital. I don't want a capital; if I wanted a capital, I would have typed a capital. I know how to work the shift key."

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