NaNoWriMo is in disarray after organizers defend AI writing tools

2 months ago 32

The enactment down National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is being slammed online aft it claimed that opposing the usage of AI penning tools is “classist and ableist.” On Saturday NaNoWriMo published its stance connected the technology, announcing that it doesn’t explicitly enactment oregon condemn immoderate attack to writing.

“We judge that to categorically condemn AI would beryllium to disregard classist and ableist issues surrounding the usage of the technology, and that questions astir the usage of AI necktie to questions astir privilege,” NaNoWriMo said, arguing that “not each brains person aforesaid abilities,” and AI tools tin trim the fiscal load of hiring quality penning assistance.

NaNoWriMo’s yearly originative penning lawsuit is the organization’s flagship programme that challenges participants to make a 50,000-word manuscript each November. Last year, the enactment said that it accepts novels written with the assistance of AI apps similar ChatGPT, but noted that doing truthful for the full submission “would decision the intent of the challenge.”

This year’s station goes further. “We admit that immoderate members of our assemblage basal staunchly against AI for themselves, and that’s perfectly fine,” said NaNoWriMo successful its latest station advocating for AI tools. “As individuals, we person the state to marque our ain decisions.”

The station has since been lambasted by writers across platforms similar X and Reddit who, similar galore creatives, judge that generative AI tools are exploitive and devalue quality art. Many disabled writers besides criticized the statement for inferring that they request generative AI tools to constitute effectively. Meanwhile, Daniel José Older, a pb communicative designer for Star Wars: The High Republic, announced that helium was resigning from the NaNoWriMo writer’s committee owed to the statement.

“Generative AI empowers not the artist, not the writer, but the tech industry,” Star Wars: Aftermath writer Chuck Wendig said successful response to NaNoWriMo’s stance. “ It steals contented to remake content, graverobbing existing worldly to staple unneurotic its Frankensteinian thought of creation and story.”

This concern is the latest contention that NaNoWriMo has faced implicit the past fewer years. The enactment was antecedently criticized implicit a deficiency of transparency pursuing allegations of kid endangerment and grooming, and for platforming its sponsor’s AI penning assistance tools.

In effect to the backlash, NaNoWriMo has since updated the station to admit concerns astir the interaction of generative AI tools connected the penning industry. “We are troubled by situational maltreatment of AI, and that definite situational abuses intelligibly struggle with our values,” the enactment said successful a caller paragraph. “We besides privation to marque wide that AI is simply a ample umbrella exertion and that the size and complexity of that class (which includes some non-generative and generative AI, among different uses) contributes to our content that it is simply excessively large to categorically endorse oregon not endorse.”

It’s surely a communal occurrence for radical to conflate generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, MidJourney etc) with non-generative AI tools (Grammarly, email spam filters, etc), but the differences are chiseled and AI resentment among the originative assemblage is astir exclusively targeting the former. That pushback has besides grown arsenic generative AI tools go progressively amended and much accessible.

NaNoWriMo has not responded to our petition for remark astatine the clip of publishing.

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