Dear reader,
After much consideration, I have decided to remove my short stories from this website. I have serious concerns regarding the free-for-all data harvesting by AI, natural language processing, large-language models and general machine learning technology.
As I write this, these systems are scanning internet servers, scanning web pages such as mine and delivering the contents to anyone using their services. Obviously, it is already possible to cut-and-paste from any website and use the information in any way desired, without consequence. What AI brings is a relentless, 24/7/365.25, limitless copying of personal data, to be used by any organisation, without acknowledgement or reward to the creator.
In the future, I may decide to adopt a bot-checking algorithm (to stop AI scanning) and return my short stories to this website. I still have much to write about and if you enjoy my light-hearted style, stay tuned. So, with a clichéd smiling expression on my face, seated at my favourite restaurant in Argostoli, on the Ionian island of Kefalonia in Greece, it’s goodbye for now.
Thanks for reading,
Peter van Houten