Since the growing prevalence of ghostwriting, and now with the advent of generative AI, an author’s name on a book has become increasingly irrelevant. As more writers admit to using AI throughout their process, it raises an inevitable question: what does authorship mean? An author’s name on a book cover comes with the promise of that author’s original imagination, world-building, ideas, and – original words. There was a time when publishing words that were not your own, without citation, was simply called plagiarism. Today, however, some of the world’s most celebrated authors openly acknowledge using AI as part of the writing process.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Olga Tokarczuk, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature back in 2018. Tokarczuk is a famous Polish novelist, best known for her works Primeval and Other Times and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Infamously, she has recently come forward as having used generative AI throughout her writing process, stating: 

“Often I just ask the machine, ‘darling, how could we develop this beautifully?’ Even though I know about hallucinations and many factual errors in the algorithms in terms of economics and hard data, I have to add that in literary fiction this technology is an advantage of unbelievable proportion.” 

Tokarczuk, who has been publishing since the 90’s, is obviously a very keen writer and an accomplished one at that. I wouldn’t want to discredit any of her earlier work, especially those that had granted her a Nobel Prize: the most prestigious award in literature. After all, Generative AI hadn’t become widely available until 2022 when ChatGPT went public – four years after her prize was awarded. 

But I can’t help but feel that her use of generative AI not only delegitimizes her latest work but also cheapens her entire career. Tokarczuk is not only a writer but also an activist, particularly on feminist and environmental issues. Many of her books, including Pokot and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, advocate for animal rights and ecological preservation. But it seems as though the environmental toll of AI data centers is excusable if it can advance her career or perhaps relieve the creative burden that comes with… creative writing. 

Likewise, English novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz has recently disclosed that he uses AI throughout the research he conducts for each book. Horowitz, however, claims that he would never use it to generate large amounts of text to then be used in his work. 

It’s particularly ironic to me that both Horowitz and Tokarczuk admit to using AI for opposite ends of their processes, while simultaneously condemning the other. And while the irony escapes them, it’s quite obvious to the rest of us that there is no “right” way of using AI to do the work for you. Especially when your career is centered on creative process and human ingenuity. And yet, they manage to evade both. 

Em dashes, typos, and the future of writing

As a result of widespread AI use and the growing ability to recognize AI writing styles and tone, I think we’ll begin to see a preference for candid, unpolished writing across novels and other forms of creative and editorial work. Writing that clearly indicates: I’m human. 

I’ve already started to notice this shift on Substack. As a platform where virtually anyone can publish, it’s become saturated with AI-generated content. Several writers I subscribe to have said they’d rather read a post with sloppy typos or imperfect syntax than something so polished that it feels machine-generated. As a result, there has been a growing tendency for Substack writers to purposefully make their articles look human written by leaving out commas or typing in all lowercase. 

If anyone can instantaneously produce a blog or article or book with the help of AI, then technical skill can no longer be what distinguishes a great writer. Instead, originality, perspective, and the imprint of human writing may become the qualities readers value the most. The future of authorship won’t belong to those who can write the fastest or the cleanest, but to those who can still convince readers that the words on the page are still very much their own.

What do you think of AI authors? Let us know in the comments!