Should we label books as written by humans? Exploring the human-authored campaign

Among the many debates over the merits of Artificial Intelligence, one particularly controversial issue is the use of AI in the arts. Putting aside the other issues associated with the use of generative AI, surely the joy brought by the arts comes from their inherent humanity? AI’s ability to create artwork and write books from simple prompts poses a threat to the human creativity of the arts. In the face of the rise in AI-generated text in books, the UK’s Society of Authors have started a campaign to safeguard the publishing industry from this threat.

It is terrifying that the use of generative AI has got to such a point that the Society of Authors have felt it necessary to create a logo to enable authors to evidence that their books are ‘human authored’, pushed by a lack of government intervention on this issue. The ‘human authored’ campaign aims to allow authors and publishers to download the logo to use on their books, signposting readers towards books whose authors have not used AI to generate text.

The majority of authors therefore (even those who do use AI) want to preserve the humanity of their written texts

Recent controversies over books such as Mia Ballard’s horror novel Shy Girl, initially published by Hachette before being withdrawn from future publication over concerns that Ballard had utilised AI, highlight the ways in which AI is creating issues for the publishing industry. In this way, the ‘human authored’ campaign can be seen as a safeguard against such instances. While Ballard has denied these allegations that she herself had used AI to write her novel, she has admitted that when the novel was originally self-published, her editor at the time had used elements of AI.

Recent research by the University of Cambridge found that while 33% of authors said they had utilised AI to some extent in the process of writing their novels, this was mostly in “non-creative” aspects. The majority of authors therefore (even those who do use AI), want to preserve the humanity of their written texts, at least, enabling them to be labelled as such under the ‘human authored’ scheme.

Does the use of AI to plan books not also risk violating the humanity of these texts?

However, how useful is this campaign in actually combatting the presence of AI in the publishing industry? While it is a clear attempt at tackling the rise of AI-authored books, there are limits on the requirements books face to enable them to be labelled as ‘human authored’, as shown through their website. The use of AI for “any purposes other than generating text” is still permitted under the regulations, meaning that it can be used in the planning of the novel, in idea creation, and in research. To me, this is deeply disturbing. Does the use of AI to plan books not also risk violating the humanity of these texts? The ‘human authored’ scheme aims to “protect and promote human creativity” – but is this possible if the restrictions on AI-usage by authors are not further tightened to ensure this?

Equally, it is possible that rather than combatting the rise of AI-generated texts, this movement could increase their presence in the publishing industry. The scheme is not intended to prevent the use of generative AI, instead it is aimed at giving readers a clearer choice when they walk into a bookshop to pick up a book as to whether that book was written by a human. The campaign aims to clearly label books written by humans, but this still does not prevent AI-written books from being published in the first place. The campaign is therefore not an outright condemnation of AI-written books, instead seeming like a resigned attempt at protecting the aspects of the industry that are still in the preserve of humanity.

While it remains to be seen how successful this scheme will turn out to be (and how restrictive its limitations will be) the ‘human authored’ campaign is a clear recognition of the growing threat of AI in the publishing industry. It is certainly an attempt at limiting the impact that AI is able to have, but it is far from a comprehensive ban on its use by authors. The issues with generative AI are endless, and the latest desperate attempt by the UK Society of Authors to cling onto the humanity of their books, and the arts in general, is a clear exhibition of this.