Seems like a rerun of the argument over snippets, or the "answer onebox" as Google used to call it where the info you need is directly inlined in the SERP rather than being behind a link.

it is exactly a rerun of that argument, except that the UX of AI is different.

Basically AI is structured to make every result an answer onebox whereas in search this only happens sometimes.

Yes I would say that is very similar. Many sites saw their revenue crater, based on data they themselves had created.

> this naively seems like a hit on that author's ability to sell their skills

If the AI is good, then the author's economic outlook is bad regardless of style.

Regardless of if the AI is or isn't good, then I can still see it being brand damaging, but my gut feeling (IANAL) is that this is more of a trademark issue than a copyright issue, as it's passing off as something it isn't.

It would work both ways. I could also imagine someone asking: “what books should I read to learn about X?” And the LLM could drive sales toward that author’s books.

It’s not clear to me that having their content “unindexed” is good for authors. It’s probably good and bad at the same time.