For many, AI can be pretty intimidating. For some, it's an opportunity to get more done.
For all of us, it's not going anywhere.
Writers who publish their content, however, should be more than a little cautious. AI can be a useful tool in supporting your work, doing things like helping you do research or answering quick questions when you're in a pinch. It has also been a valuable resource in helping people communicate when they don't share a spoken language. But should we use AI to help us write our content?
It depends.
AI cannot be copyrighted.
If you ask someone in the indie writing community, you're likely to get a resounding no. If you have a good idea for a book, write it yourself and lay claim to it—the whole thing.
Generative AI, as of the date of this post, remains to be experimental. In the United States, works created solely by AI are in the public domain. It cannot be copyrighted here, something you should be doing for each of your books if you plan to publish them, because it is not considered to be the work of a human creator.
What about using AI to guide my writing? If I change it enough, can I claim it as mine?
Maybe.
Whether it's a good idea remains to be seen. And each AI platform uses different terms and conditions for use.
Generative AI platforms have found themselves in legal hot water more than once. Numerous lawsuits have been filed due to its intrusive nature (gathering personal data from the internet without consent) lack of credit given. Still, AI is constantly evolving. It has already come a long way in deriving data from resources and arranging it without plagiarizing original documents.
If you do need help to write your book and are pretty attached to the idea of using AI to do it, be careful. Read your platform's terms and conditions carefully. Make sure you'll still be able to copyright your final manuscript, and find the outline of restrictions on how you can use the service and what it allows you to do with its output. What obligations to the service provider will you be signing up for? Will you need to pay it revenues if it generates content for you?
We're not just talking about a planner for writers.
It's the planner you've been searching for.
Story organization with no wasted planner space. Utilize every page, no matter what is going on in your world.
What about editing?
Using AI to support editing efforts can be useful. It's not thorough though, so it's still highly recommended to have an experienced human set eyes on your manuscript.
If you're considering to use AI to edit your manuscript, be sure to keep legal issues in mind. Read the terms and conditions carefully. And I don't recommend using an AI program after the self-editing phase of your writing, between your first draft and the finalized draft you'll send your editor. There are still things that get looked at during editing that only a human can pick up on; AI cannot. Implication of prose, context for particular audiences, and smooth delivery are examples of things AI struggles with, and they will greatly impact how your book is received.
There are still things AI just cannot do.
I don't personally know editors who use generative AI on their clients' work, though it's more than a little likely there are editors out there who do. If you're an editor and are considering to use AI to support your work, I strongly recommend you reconsider. Uploading a client's work into an AI program could spell legal trouble for you. They are trusting you with their work and are very likely not expecting you to add their writing to the open pool that AI pulls information from.
We are human. Editors make mistakes too. To mitigate oversight while editing, whether you're a writer or an editor, take a look at using macros within Microsoft Word instead of AI. It gives you a bit of computer-program support without using AI or a program that learns based upon input. I'll have more info on what macros I use as an editor in a later post.
In summary, the decision of whether to use AI remains subjective. Personally, it's not something I recommend yet.