AI Transparancy & Creative Authorship 

AI is not one thing

The term artificial intelligence is increasingly used to describe a very broad range of technologies.

There is an important difference between AI-assisted tools and generative AI used to create original content. And many technologies that writers have used for years now incorporate forms of machine learning or artificial intelligence.

These can include:

• spelling and grammar checking;

• predictive text and autocomplete;

• search and information retrieval;

• accessibility tools;

• translation;

• speech recognition and dictation;

• document formatting and layout assistance;

• image enhancement and editing;

• recommendation systems;

• data analysis; and

• automated marketing tools.

Mainstream software such as Microsoft Word and other modern productivity applications increasingly incorporates AI-enabled functionality. The simple statement that someone “uses AI” therefore tells us very little about whether AI actually created their work. For me, the important questions are what the technology was used for, where it was used, and who created the underlying work.

 

Generative AI

Generative AI is a more specific category.

These systems can generate new material such as text, images, video, audio and other content in response to instructions. And I make a clear distinction between using these technologies. I do use generative AI and other digital creative tools in supporting areas of my work.

These may include:

Advertising and marketing
AI may assist in developing promotional concepts, advertisements, social-media material, campaign ideas and other marketing content.

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Online content
AI may be used to assist with website material, promotional posts, summaries, presentation material and other supporting online content.

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Visualisation
AI-generated or AI-assisted imagery may be used to explore and visualise characters, locations, spacecraft, planets, environments and other concepts from my fictional universe. These images are visual interpretations of concepts that originate within my stories and imagination. They help me explore those ideas and communicate the worlds behind the books to readers.

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Creative development and exploration
AI tools may also be used as brainstorming, research, organisational or exploratory tools in much the same way that writers have historically used reference books, search engines, mood boards, photographs, maps and other resources.

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What AI does not do

AI does not replace me as the author of my books.

I do not present an AI-generated novel as though I personally wrote it.

The creative responsibility for my published fiction remains with me.

Technology may exist around the creative process, but the storytelling itself and the decisions about what happens, who these characters are, what they say, what they experience and ultimately what I put before the reader remains human. And with me

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AI-assisted is not necessarily AI-generated

I believe this distinction is becoming increasingly important. Because a manuscript checked by software containing AI functionality is not necessarily an AI-generated manuscript.

For example. A photograph enhanced using AI is not necessarily an AI-generated photograph.

A writer using an AI-assisted search or research tool has not necessarily asked AI to write their book.

And an author using generative technology to create an advertisement, concept image or social-media post does not mean that the novel being advertised was generated by AI.

The technology, its purpose and the extent of its involvement all matter.

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My principle

My approach can therefore be summarised simply:

Human authored. Technology assisted. Transparently used.

I am a writer because I love creating stories, characters and worlds. I have no interest in handing that part of the process over to a machine.

At the same time, I do not believe writers should pretend that modern technology does not exist. AI will increasingly become part of the software we write with, research with, communicate through and use to promote our work.

I am comfortable using those tools where they are useful, while maintaining a clear boundary around authorship.

The books are mine.

The stories are mine.

The worlds and characters are mine.

AI and other digital technologies may sometimes help me visualise, organise, communicate and promote them.

But they do not replace the person who imagined them and sat down to write their stories.

That person remains me, the author.