How AI Can Help Your Writing Career Instead of Hurting It
I recently made a guest appearance on a podcast about using AI in your writing (watch it here). The discussion revolved around the dangers of using Large Language Models (LLMs), and in what circumstances AI can be useful and beneficial in your writing career. It was a good conversation, and I thought a recap on my blog page would be beneficial.
First, the dangers: AI-generated content cannot receive copyright protection (I covered this point in an earlier blog article on AI and copyrightability). This means that if you asked an AI program to write your prose, you won’t have any exclusive rights to it. And, because you can’t get copyright protection for AI-generated work, publishers are at best reluctant to publish a book with significant AI-generated content. (The podcast episode was responding to a recent incident where a major publisher canceled an upcoming book launch, claiming the author didn’t disclose that the book was largely AI-generated.)
But does that mean you should treat AI like the plague and not let it get near your manuscript? I think that’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater. AI can be a very useful tool for writers; it just needs to be used properly. Here are some ways you can safely use AI with your writing:
- Research. Gone are the days when writers had to travel to exotic lands, interview experts, or spend days in the library to make sure their book is factually accurate and realistic. AI programs are an excellent tool for data gathering, and this use won’t impact the future copyrightability of your work. (Just remember that AI programs should be a starting point, not an ending point. You still want to research and fact-check, but AI programs will give you some foundational knowledge and help you better target where and how to do a deeper dive.)
- Brainstorming. If you’re like me, you have a very limited number of people who are willing to listen to you refine your plot or characters for longer than maybe five minutes. If you want a sounding board, an AI program can be a great tool. It will “listen” and give feedback for as long as you want, without getting bored or demanding a change of subject. And its suggestions can help improve your story or characters. (Just remember that its feedback is the average of all the books and writing advice in its dataset, so while it can be useful, it won’t be original. Adding originality is your job.)
- Editing. AI programs make very good copy editors, and fixing typos or grammatical errors won’t affect the manuscript’s copyrightability. The fine line is when the editing software recommends a rephrase of a sentence – that’s a gray area that hasn’t been addressed by the powers that be. Minor tweaks are probably fine, complete rewrites are probably not, and we won’t know how much it too much until we get more guidance from Congress, the Copyright Office or the courts. (Just remember that AI software is not a substitute for a human editor; it just cleans things up enough that an editor can focus on the bigger issues.)
So, what’s the takeaway here? Copyright protects creative expression, not facts or ideas, so as long as a human is providing the creativity and originality (i.e., writing the book themselves), AI programs can assist with the rest. When in doubt, you can always talk to a lawyer to determine whether your use is safe.
If you have questions about what AI can safely do for you or would like to discuss your use of AI programs, please email me at kaway@kawaylaw.com. And happy writing!
