Google NotebookLM editor shows how to clone a writer's voice — and can't stop it
cen6wkf · reddit · 2026-09-12
Steven Johnson, editorial lead for Google Labs' NotebookLM and author of 14 books, walked an interviewer through how easily a writer's voice can be cloned without permission: feed a model the author's catalog and tell it to write like them — no lawsuit or stolen passwords required.
His own counter is a price tag: a $199 authorized version of his style, paid by choice rather than taken by default. But he admitted someone could build the unauthorized version overnight and he'd have no way to prove it. The poster reads this as a snapshot of the freelance writing economy: if a 14-book author with a Google title can't protect his voice, paid style cloning is now a live question.
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