Why I Don't Use Generative AI In Any Part Of My Writing Process

Anthropic downloaded 482,000 pirated books (including my novels and those of my friends) to create a central library while training its AI chatbot, Claude. As a result, the company faced a class action lawsuit (which I joined), and a judge approved a $1.5B settlement against the company. Lawsuits against other AI companies have also been filed, and I hope to join those as well.

I won’t use AI programs created by companies that steal authors’ work.

Humans were meant to be creative, and the act of creativity is itself valuable to the human soul. When we create, we reveal our humanity. Generative AI has no place in creative work, which is meant to be only a human expression.

I won’t allow AI to degrade the humanity of my creative process.

When generative AI is used for brainstorming, drafting, or revising, the resulting work no longer belongs fully to the writer using AI. No matter how much a writer reworks what AI has generated, the work still includes ideas or phrases provided by AI. To publish work without disclosing generative AI use is dishonest.

Writers often turn to other writers, agents, and editors to help them refine their work. Readers assume this is part of the process. For any readers who have not assumed this, let me clearly state that I consult with other people during my creative process. While I claim my creative work as my own, I will never claim to have written a novel without any human help, because that would be dishonest. (To understand why consulting with others during the creative process is different from using generative AI, see “Creative Work Is A Human Expression.”)

I will not include AI-generated ideas or phrases in work I claim as my own.

Generative AI can’t analyze story ideas or choices. It can only output text by following patterns. Human storytelling also relies on patterns; writers blend elements of stories they’ve read to create new stories of their own. But a human writer’s process also involves innovation, which does not arise from pattern-matching alone.

Text generated by generative AI tends to read more like AI-generated text than like human-written text. AI also generates sentences and stories that seem meaningful at first glance, but which prove meaningless upon further scrutiny.

Great stories are not a result of “correct” work. They arise from approaching the work from different angles, with different methods. Any given novel is an amalgamation of several attempts to tell the same story; artifacts from each draft remain in the final manuscript, adding to the richness of the text. This process is curtailed by generative AI use, which instead lends fragments of machine-produced patterns to the final work.

Using AI for revision also produces mediocre work. AI doesn’t actually analyze the meaning, beauty, or effectiveness of inputted text; it only checks to see if the text follows prescriptive patterns.

I won’t use AI to produce work that is worse than the work I can produce myself.

Any time a writer wrestles with difficulty during her writing process, she builds skill. Anytime she tries to bypass difficulty by using generative AI, she not only fails to build skill but also allows her skill to atrophy. It takes a great amount of skill to write a great story.

I won’t allow my skills to atrophy by using generative AI to bypass difficulty.

I’ve been writing my whole life, and my writing skills have built up over time. I’m lucky to have worked with great critique partners, teachers, agents, and editors. I’ve read and analyzed great stories. I’ve studied books and articles about the craft of writing, and discussed craft with friends. I’ve also just written a lot.

I just don’t need generative AI to assist me in doing what I’m already good at. And every writer is capable of this same growth.

I won’t use a tool that I don’t need.

Every part of the writing process provides a chance for enjoyment. When a writer doesn’t enjoy a certain part of the writing process, it might be that she hasn’t yet found an approach that works well for her, or that she hasn’t yet built up her skill enough to lessen her struggle. It’s possible that some writers will never find certain parts of the writing process enjoyable no matter their skill or approach. But they’ll also never have a chance to discover a way to enjoy the process if they instead learn to enjoy using generative AI.

I won’t use lose out on enjoying the writing process by outsourcing any part of it to AI.

If people start to see AI-generated stories as acceptable, fewer writers will have their work published. Publishing companies are always focused on profit; once it becomes more profitable to use generative AI to produce books than to publish books by actual writers, writers will lose out on publishing their work.

I won’t participate in the normalization of a tool that publishers could use to replace me.

Writers who want to use AI to generate stories will always come up with reasons why they are justified in doing so; they will claim that it is their right to use AI in any part of the writing process that they find difficult, unpleasant, or time-consuming.

But a reader’s right to read a high quality story trumps a writer’s right to follow her preferred process of producing a story. Stories are crucial for human flourishing and always have been. And a story produced with the assistance of generative AI can’t achieve the same quality that a human-written story can (see “Generative AI Produces Work That Is Mediocre At Best”).

Even if generative AI could produce high quality stories, readers deserve stories that connect them to other humans, not to AI chatbots. Stories don’t exist as inert artifacts; they are part of a conversation among people who read (and write) them. That connection is just as important for human flourishing as whatever else a story provides to readers.

I won’t claim my rights as a writer overrule a reader’s right to quality, human-centered stories.

My sincere hope for my fellow writers is that you will enjoy writing stories, you will continue to build your skills as a writer, and you will be recognized for honoring the importance of storytelling.