Colorado Authors League Statement on AI

First, though, a statement on what it is to be an author. An author experiences life and love, tragedy and despair. If authors don’t know something personally, they interview experts and research a topic. And they turn what they know and what they’ve learned into something brand new if they’re writing fiction or take a new spin on an old topic (with footnotes and credit given) if writing nonfiction. Authors are responsible for what they write. Authors own what they write, and they can be liable for what they write.

AI does none of this. It cannot be held responsible or claim ownership on writing.

AI, by definition, does not experience life (at least not yet); it can only steal what others have researched and written. It gives no credit where credit is due. At this point, it can’t be an “author.”

Therefore, books written by AI cannot be considered an author’s work, even if they put their name on it. Books written by AI will not be considered as a basis for membership in CAL, nor can they be submitted for the CAL Awards. We believe that any writing by AI must be labeled as such. And as ghostwriting explodes with the main goal of hiring someone to publish books fast, it is a similar issue. CAL expects that anyone taking credit for the writing of a book to be the actual writer of that book.

There are ways, however, to use AI as a writer. Inspiration, prompts, fine-tuning a sentence, etc. are perfectly acceptable. Using it to write the whole thing is not.

Also, for illustration and book cover design, AI can be a tool, but it should not be the only creator of your illustrations and cover designs.