Angry About Lore.fm The "AO3 Audible App"

Angry about Lore.fm the "AO3 Audible app"

For those who don't know, Lore.fm is an app that's advertised as "audible for AO3". It uses AI text-to-speech voices to read fics on an app completely separated from AO3 and creates a local copy of the fic audio on your device. It is stated to be non-profit.

1. It's opt-out not opt-in, that alone is a red flag and worthy of suspicion. The only way to not get your fic used without permission is to email them - it is unsafe and dubious to hand out personal email addresses to companies you don't know.

2. It takes engagement and agency away from the authors. Readers using this app don't even need to interact with the original AO3 post. Only a link is needed to generate the audio. An extension would've been significantly more ethical than an app.

3. Valid criticisms towards this project are labelled by the developer as "ableist and classist". Most devices and browsers already have FREE screen readers available. Especially for IOS (since this is mainly advertised for IOS), the existing built-in accessibility screen reader is very decent! I'd know cause I've been using it for more than a decade!

4. The developers show zero transparency. The devs listed for this app are also in a company that made an AI WRITING/STORYTELLING APP called Spinoff. The fact that this information is hidden on the appstore for Lore.fm tells me all that I need to know. I found the source for this on this comment by CupcakeBeautiful. [Edit: Unfortunately, the comment has been deleted by reddit for some reason, so I have removed the link to it.]

Reddit comment by CupcakeBeautiful:
So here’s the chain. It is listed with developer Fadama Nur in the App Store and Amit Bhatnagar in the Play store. They happened to make a company called Wishroll Inc. Wishroll Inc. also makes the apps Spinoff which is AI Storytelling/Roleplay. And they also make Unravel for iPhone — surprise surprise… that one uses AI voices and storytelling. Ethically-sourced my ass… End comment.

This whole thing pisses me off. Once again it shows that people don't respect and don't care about actual fic writers. I wish people would stop exploiting fanfiction authors under the guise of accessibility. Please think carefully if this is a company/project you'd want to support.

I don't usually post things like this on this blog, but I don't think a lot of people are aware of this situation on tumblr. Please feel free to add any information that I've missed. If this post comes off as aggressive, I apologise. I am just very frustrated.

FanFic Ask Game

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X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

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Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate?

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littlemissfix-itfic

1 year ago

this blog stands with palestine and if you don’t you can get the fuck out. what israel is doing is genocide and i will not tolerate anyone who supports it.

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littlemissfix-itfic

7 months ago

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littlemissfix-itfic

1 year ago

Hi all! This blog aims to encourage the exchange of creative works for donations to support Gaza.

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