A Statement about my Stance on AI

Before I begin the details of this, I want to sum up where I stand on the use of AI in my creative work:

I do not, and will not, use generative AI in any of my creative work. My stories are entirely generated by me, and crafted with the help of beta readers and editors.

This means that, when you purchase and read my books, you can be safe in the knowledge you are reading a story that was entirely generated, from start to finish, by a human being.

Now, I want to explain in a little more detail how I got to this place, both for the sake of clarity and honesty. Like many artists and writers, I am nervous about the impact that AI might have on our livelihoods. I also have concerns about the impact of generative AI on education, skill development and many other aspects of human life. However, I didn’t simply want to dismiss AI outright, so I have dabbled and experimented to try and work out where my comfort zone is, and how—if at all—I want to make use of this technology.

Early on, when generative AI first appeared, I experimented a little with how it might affect my story writing. I used it to help me create some paragraphs for a short story. I ended up feeling really disconnected from the story I was writing, and I didn’t like the paragraphs that I had generated through AI. I completely rewrote that chapter to get rid of the AI generated sections and produce something I felt connected to, and proud of. That story is now completely written by me. I decided, at this point, that I wasn’t going to use AI for my creative projects. All of my stories, poems, and articles are entirely written by me.

I experimented a little later on with how AI might help me with tasks that I also have to complete as a writer, but which aren’t strictly the story writing. I played around with using AI to help me generate ad copy, plan some workshops, and draft my newsletters. I never felt entirely comfortable with any of this, as it felt like the words and work weren’t really my own (which they weren’t!) I’ve now switched back to writing the content myself. It takes longer, but I feel more satisfied with the results.

I also experimented with using AI to help me create images as inspiration for my book characters. I did put some up on social media early on but stopped this when I realised how much it was stealing from artists and undermining their work. I found the images helpful from a planning point of view, but there are other ways for me to source images for inspiration, and I certainly don’t need the AI images to produce interesting characters and stories. I’ve stopped using AI image generation for my planning.

I’ve also done a lot of reading about how AI generated content is affecting the legitimacy of many websites and the flood of said content is even undermining the already questionable validity of generative AI itself, as large language models like ChatGPT and Anthropic AI increasingly draw on content that isn’t written by humans, but has been generated by AI. I was uncomfortable with how unreliable the software is, how often it hallucinates, and how easily it misreads or misrepresents information.

It took me a while to get to where I am now, and I’m glad I took the time I did to explore my options. I am not against generative AI as a technology, but I do fundamentally disagree with how it’s being developed: stealing from artists to train large language models, undercutting and undermine skills that artists and artisans have taken years to hone, and increasingly guzzling energy at a time when we ought to be reducing our energy consumption. I am also deeply opposed to the way the software is mining users for date, which can then be used to manipulate us, and that no checks and balances have yet been developed to protect vulnerable people or children from this exposure. I am not willing to contribute my money or my data to the development of this technology until such time as the companies developing it can do so responsibly, compassionately, and sustainably.

As a result of these things, I have to decided to actively avoid using generative AI where I can help it, which means that if I can turn the technology off, write the work myself, or use good, old fashioned search engine searches instead of generative AI, that’s what I’ll do. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid generative AI, especially as it is now embedded in certain search engines and included with certain software updates. I make an effort to switch search engines or find ways to turn off the technology.

As things stand, all my newsletters, all my ad copy, all my workshops and, most importantly, all my books, are entirely produced by me, from my brain, written by my hands, without the use of AI. When you read my work, you are reading something imagined, drafted, redrafted, edited, proofread, and lovingly created entirely by a human being. I cannot see my stance of generative AI changing any time soon, but I can and will make you this lasting promise: I will never make use of generative AI to write my stories.