As a publisher we have long had a policy about rejecting the use of AI in our publications – quite simply we do not publish work which has been AI generated, and we also do not use AI to generate cover design or blurbs or press releases.
But what is AI and how do you know if you are using it?
In writing terms, AI is a function which will co-write your work with you. It often uses prompts to establish what you need to do and then it will generate text on your behalf. An AI assistant will also make suggestions while you are writing. It is being promoted as a solution for corporate letter writing, emails, lower-level journalism and even reading and interpreting legal documents to save us from reading the small print.
We appreciate that for some people, AI assistance can also be a helpful tool for turning the stress of writing that email to their employer, for example, into something which is acheivable. In that context, it is a tool, and may have its place.
In published work however, the use of AI is questionable. For us, as publishers of original work by authors across the UK, the written word is about self-expression. We love that writing is about your voice and your ideas and the personal urge to create. The challenge (and sometimes the hair-pulling struggle) of setting those words down is part of the beauty of what we do.
There was recently a wonderful meme on social media about this. The person asked: why does AI offer to do my writing for me so that I have more time to do chores and laundry, when what I really want is for AI to do my chores and laundry so that I have more time to write?
The roll-out of AI has been universal and does not require user consent. It recently cropped up on our office computers with an update to Microsoft Word. Copilot watched us write a blurb and then suggested: This is a great start. Now let’s work together to make this better.
There are two enormous issues with this. The first is that this tool appeared without prior warning and the clear intent is that it will become a tool for everyday use. The second is the wording of that message and the inference that the writing will be substandard without AI assistance.
Our editor Lorna Brookes says, ‘I don’t know about you, but my confidence as a writer is always fragile – and I’m someone with many years of experience. I can’t imagine how fragile that confidence must be for new authors. But hilariously, the blurb we’d just completed was for one of our most recent titles which has gone on to be one of our bestselling reads.
‘I had a horrifying few minutes going back through the blurb to make sure I hadn’t accidentally given AI permission to make changes.
‘Thankfully I hadn’t, but the terror was there all the same. And also the sense of alarm that someone has designed this AI assistant to use this language. It’s horrifyingly pursuasive and I find it shockingly unethical that the route towards encouraging us to use an AI writing tool comes from telling us that we can’t write without it.
‘That goes against everything we believe as publishers.’
We’ve disabled Copilot on our computers and if you’d like to do the same, you can follow these simple steps. It’s reversible, so if you need AI for other aspects of your writing you can always turn it back on.
It’s worth being aware that as a publisher our contract requires authors to declare that their work has not used AI at any stage during the writing process.
To disable Copilot on Microsoft Word 365 first open up Word.
Press FILE to open up the side panel. Select OPTIONS (usually at the very bottom of your screen)
Select COPILOT.
Uncheck the box which says ‘Enable Copilot’
Press OK. You can now close the dialogue box.
You may need to also disable COPILOT on Outlook and other Microsoft applications.