First of all- super interesting thread topic, thanks!
This is probably not doable for EGG's work in 2024. (Although, how many podcast episodes did it take to recreate Esther Perel?) But I wouldn't bet against it being doable in 2025 or 2026.
So, would you buy such a work? Would you buy it if the proceeds went to his estate? Would you buy it if the proceeds went to just the people publishing it?
My desire for a published Castle Greyhawk is HUGE. I have never been more disappointed by a D&D product than by the 1e mockery module, and I have
Sword and Fist, the 2e DMG, and several of the worst 4e books. So I don't know. I am opposed to the idea on principle, but would I be able to resist the sweet sweet lure of something that might be a decent interpretation of CG? I honestly don't know. I suppose the better the reviews and the more Gygaxian the product was, the more tempted I would be.
I really don't think it would matter, in the end, who got the money, as I would be acting against my own principles in buying it anyway.
I guess if an interview with Gygax came up where he had endorsed something like this idea, I might find it more palatable.
And what other works along these lines would you buy, once the technology was good enough that the quality was on par with a human author's below-average day? Would you buy The Winds of Winter by an AI-generated George R. R. Martin? Would you buy new Lord of the Rings works by an AI-generated Tolkien?
I think I'd be even less inclined to buy something that was imitating a living author. I might be interested in
reading some AI novel or something, but not one that was aping a specific author; but I don't know that I would ever want to
buy such a thing.
Once we have AI that isn't trained on the work of others, everything in my attitude will likely change.