Authors 'embrace AI' but some worry about impact on their craft, survey finds

Did you know that one in two writers use AI in their work? This is despite the fact that many writers feel it is cheating or even unethical.

06 July 2024 - 10:55 By Arja Salafranca
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Writing education website Now Novel commissioned a report to gauge how AI is being used by writers.
Writing education website Now Novel commissioned a report to gauge how AI is being used by writers.
Image: Supplied

Did you know that one in two writers use AI in their work? This is despite the fact that many writers feel it is cheating or even unethical.

Friend or foe, AI is here to stay. While the debates rage on the socials about whether this is a good or bad thing for people in the creative industries, a recent trend report shows that many writers are embracing it for a variety of tools.

The report was carried out by trend analyst Chris Reid, together with Now Novel, a writing education website. Writers from all over the world were surveyed to see how they are using AI, and how this might impact the future of their craft.

Authors are using AI, but not in the way you’d suppose. While they don’t use it to actually write for them (or at least not many admit to doing that), they use it for a variety of purposes. These range from using it to generate ideas as well as using the spelling and grammar check functions of tools such as ChatGPT and Grammarly. Incidentally this last tool has been around since 2009, so writers have been using AI for some time now.

The writers aren’t necessarily happy about using AI, with some worrying it can be detrimental to creativity. Others say without its tools, such as for copy editing, it wouldn’t be possible for them to write at all.

This is what some writers have said about using AI tools:

“Any professional author should be leveraging the power of AI now to build a career.”

“AI is plagiarism software. I will never use it. I'm not a thief and I have both a brain and an imagination.”

“I don't believe any form of generative AI should be used for any reason as it's built off the backs of content creators like myself.”

“AI can really help with plot summaries, generating names, and helping with world-building. Also, theoretical concepts (such as what day June 3 will be in the year 3000).”

“The process of creating an appropriate prompt forces me to think about and express what I'm actually trying to achieve.”

“Many people are not skilled in grammar, spelling, and synonyms, so AI is definitely helping open a door in the art of writing to those who struggle with vocabulary and grammar.”

Interestingly, although you would expect younger writers to embrace the technology, and they are most likely to use the tools (about 75% of them), those aged 66 and up are also using them in the same numbers.

The report was commissioned by Now Novel to gauge how AI is being used by writers. Founded in 2012, the website connects aspiring authors with personal coaches, and a wider community of writers. Now Novel is firmly focused on fostering the human connection by using experienced mentors who know what it takes to get a book out into the world.


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