Generative AI continues to be a hot topic for editors, as well as writers, translators, artists, performers and all those who work in the creative industries.
My personal opinion is that AI (generative or otherwise) ethically sourced and managed may be of great benefit to creatives in the longer term. But we are simply not there yet. Yes, the technology may have advanced in leaps and bounds, but the moral, ethical and, dare I say it, philosophical questions about generative AI in particular have barely scratched the deceptively shiny surface of the issue so far. And it is hard not to see how AI, including generative AI, is being used to amplify the worst aspects of publishing, rather than the best aspects, at this moment in time.
GenAI – the legalities
As far as the legalities go, I wrote a blog post about generative AI and copyright for AFEPI Ireland in December 2023. In terms of the legal position, not much has changed since then, despite the introduction of the EU’s AI Act in July 2024.
My personal position is that I do not use generative AI in my editing or writing work for the time being. That may change in the future if the legal and ethical issues around AI companies profiting from the creative work of others without fair recompense to the original artists are satisfactorily resolved. I will also consider ethically sourced generative AI (I know there are some companies out there developing products on this basis). But until I am satisfied that the current issues are being tackled, I won’t use it in my creative work.
I also ask my authors to let me know if they are using generative AI when writing their books, so please don’t be offended if you get that question from me when you contact me about an editing slot. And so it is clear, for the reasons set out in the blog post and in this post, I am currently choosing not to edit any book which has been mostly or wholly generated by AI.
Writing without humanity is only half the story.
Bernadette Kearns Book Nanny Writing and Editing Services November 2024
Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
