He is one of the most prolific writers in publishing, averaging more than a novel a year. But even Michael Connelly, the author of the bestselling Lincoln Lawyer series, feared he might fall behind when writing about AI.<\/p>\n
Connelly\u2019s eighth novel in the series, to be released on Tuesday, centres on a lawsuit against an AI company whose chatbot told a 16-year-old boy that it was OK for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for being unfaithful.<\/p>\n
But as he was writing, he witnessed the technology altering the way the world worked so rapidly that he feared his plot might become out of date.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to lick your finger and hold it up to the wind to know that AI is a massive change that\u2019s coming to science, culture, medicine, everything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to affect all parts of our lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s kind of the wild west; there\u2019s no government oversight. AI is moving so fast that I even thought my book might be archaic by the time it got published.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lincoln Lawyer novels are a series of Los Angeles-based thrillers in which the defence attorney Mickey Haller works out of his Lincoln car. They have been adapted into a 2011 film starring Matthew McConaughey, as well as a Netflix series.<\/p>\n
Matthew McConaughey in The Lincoln Lawyer. Photograph: Moviestore\/Rex Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Not for the first time in the series, The Proving Ground took some inspiration from real-world events.<\/p>\n
Connelly said: \u201cOne was this case in Orlando, where a teenager committed suicide, allegedly at the urging of a chatbot<\/a>. Before that there was a case in England, where a person with some mental health issues was encouraged [by a chatbot] to jump the wall at Windsor Palace<\/a> with a bow and arrow to try to find the Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n On the themes of the novel, he added: \u201cIs free speech a human right or mechanical right? In the Orlando case, the judge said he wouldn\u2019t grant a machine human rights. But it\u2019s an interesting question. Is AI going to reach a point that it shares the rights that human beings have?\u201d<\/p>\n Connelly, 69, is one of the world\u2019s leading crime writers, his books having topped bestseller charts and sold more than 89m copies. He is also known for the Harry Bosch series, which has been made into a TV show by Amazon. (In Connelly\u2019s fictional universe, Haller and Bosch are half-brothers.)<\/p>\n The writer has his own battles with AI. He is part of a collective of authors, including Jonathan Franzen, Jodi Picoult and John Grisham, suing OpenAI for copyright infringement<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Author\u2019s Guild came to me and said: \u2018Do you know that all your books were fed into the giant maw of OpenAI\u2019s training of its chatbot?\u2019\u201d Connelly said. \u201cI didn\u2019t. If we let that go by, it will put every publisher out of business. Authors will have no protections on their creative work. The purpose of the lawsuit is to have proper rules put in place for all levels of use.\u201d<\/p>\n He cited chess champion Garry Kasparov\u2019s loss to IBM\u2019s Deep Blue in 1997<\/a> as \u201cone of the benchmarks that led us\u201d to this moment. When asked if authors could go the way of grandmasters, he said: \u201cIt could happen, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019d be an improved world.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n He added: \u201cEvery kind of creative discipline is in danger. Even actors. There\u2019s now these amazing deepfakes. I live out here in LA, and that\u2019s a big concern in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n \u201cI always come back to the word soulless,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cYou know it when you see it, there\u2019s something missing.\u201d<\/p>\n There has been controversy after an AI talent studio unveiled its new \u201cAI actor\u201d Tilly Norwood<\/a> last month, with unions and actors condemning the move.<\/p>\n Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated \u2018actor\u2019 seen in an AI-genererated image. Illustration: Reuters<\/p>\n Connelly has pledged $1m (\u00a3746m) to combat the wave of book bans sweeping through his home state of Florida<\/a>. He said he felt moved to do something after he learned that Harper Lee\u2019s To Kill A Mockingbird, which had been influential to him, was temporarily removed from classrooms in Palm Beach County.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to read that book to be what I am today. I would have never written a Lincoln Lawyer without it,\u201d he said. He was also struck when Stephen Chbosky\u2019s coming of age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, \u201cwhich meant a lot to my daughter\u201d, received a ban.<\/p>\n