The Authors Guild has recently unveiled a comprehensive set of recommended best practices designed to assist authors in navigating the complexities surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and their impact on the writing profession. With the rise of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, which have led to a proliferation of AI-generated books and the integration of AI into publishing operations, authors are faced with crucial questions regarding the appropriate usage of these technologies.

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The recommended best practices aim to provide guidance and education for authors as they confront the challenges presented by generative AI in both writing and publishing. Covering a range of issues, the guidelines address concerns such as unauthorised use of authors’ works to train AI models, ethical considerations when employing AI tools in the writing process, and the disclosure of AI-generated content to publishers and readers.

According to the Authors Guild, these recommendations come in response to the urgent need for safeguards to protect the writing profession and literary culture from potential market dilution caused by machine-generated works. In a blog post, the Authors Guild emphasised the importance of maintaining the integrity of human-authored works in the face of increasing AI advancements. It stated, “There is a serious risk of market dilution from machine-generated works that can be cheaply mass-produced and inevitably lower the value of human-authored works.”

Ethical considerations: guidelines for authors engaging with generative AI technologies

Among the key areas covered by the guidelines are issues related to consent, compensation, transparency, and labelling of AI-generated content. The Authors Guild is actively lobbying for legislative and regulatory changes to address these concerns, including requirements for licensing the use of authors’ works in generative AI, ensuring fair compensation for authors whose works are utilised in AI training, and mandating transparency obligations for AI developers.

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Furthermore, the Authors Guild strongly opposes efforts to grant copyright protection to AI-generated content, arguing that such measures would exacerbate the threat posed by AI-generated works flooding the market. Instead, the organisation advocates for robust disclosure requirements to inform readers when substantial portions of a work have been generated by AI.

In response to inquiries about the ethical use of generative AI in writing, the Authors Guild provided recommendations for authors, highlighting the importance of maintaining human creativity and respecting the rights of other writers. Authors are encouraged to use AI as an assistant rather than a primary source of work, rewrite AI-generated text in their own voice, and disclose the use of AI in their writing to both publishers and readers.

Last week (February 27th), Mary Rasenberger, the CEO of the Authors Guild, told the Today show that the recent influx of copycat books are nothing new but noted that AI has made it “so much easier and faster to produce them.”

“And they are crowding out the actual real book before it even comes out,” she added.

Overall, the Authors Guild’s guidelines underscore the need for responsible and transparent use of AI in the writing profession, with a focus on preserving the integrity of human creativity and literary culture in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.