National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, is an annual online literary festival that is celebrated every November. As the name suggests, the idea is to write a novel in a month. Not a good novel, necessarily, but the idea is to just put pen to paper (or finger to keypad) and get it done. There's a large online community of fellow writers who cheer each other on, offering year-round tips and support for completing this marathon task best.
Starting in 2005, a group of NaNoWriMo organizers incorporated into an official non-profit entity. And it's that organization that recently published a new official FAQ post regarding the use of generative AI by writers attempting to complete a full novel in the month of November. The organization not only expressed its full-throated support of the use of AI (which is largely trained off of the uncompensated labor of other writers who have completed novels), but also offered up a frankly bizarre justification for this decision, writing:
The categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and ableist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.
The FAQ then goes into detail about these "privilege" claims, explaining how, actually, there are plenty of valid reasons why some people are unable to write a novel, including time commitments and mental ability, and that it's unfair to exclude those people from participating in something specifically designed to force people to commit their time and mental energy into creating a novel, regardless of quality.
This is quite an evolution from the organization's previously stated policy, which said:
If using AI will assist your creative process, you are welcome to use it. Using ChatGPT to write your entire novel would defeat the purpose of the challenge, though.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this new position has led to a huge backlash, with some board members and established authors resigning. In the wake of this backlash, the NaNoWriMo board has since added an update to its FAQ in an attempt to clarify its position further:
Note: we have edited this post by adding this paragraph to reflect our acknowledgment that there are bad actors in the AI space who are doing harm to writers and who are acting unethically. We want to make clear that, though we find the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic for the reasons stated below, we are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values. We also want to make clear that AI is a large umbrella technology and that the size and complexity of that category (which includes both non-generative and generative AI, among other uses) contributes to our belief that it is simply too big to categorically endorse or not endorse.
Okay then. I'm sure you're covering your asses for some potential financial investments from a generative AI startup that's eager to scrape the words of your participants or anything like that.
NaNoWriMo and AI Clash [Samantha Cole / 404media]
NaNoWriMo 2024 AI Controversy Explained [Klein Felt / The Direct]
Previously:
• Sf writers on writing, for Nanowrimo
