Writeaholic Inspiration: The NaNoWriMo and The AI Controversy

National Novel Writing Month is due to commence in November, and this week I heard about the controversy with AI and NaNoWriMo.

It appears that recently NaNoWriMo made a statement saying they are pro AI. The organisers, when queried about AI, stated that NaNoWriMo “does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI.”

And if that wasn’t bad enough, they also went on to say, “We also want to be clear in our belief that the categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and ableist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.”

https://www.404media.co/nanowrimo-ai-policy-classist-ableist/

This infuriated many of their participants and thousands walked away and unsubscribed from NaNoWriMo. Then they tried to undo the damage they’d done to their reputation with their pro AI stance, but it was too late.

They also lost several of their sponsors including, Ninja Writers, and Ellipsus. They didn’t, however, lose their main sponsor, ProWritingAid, who are also pro AI.

One of their board members, Daniel José Older, a lead story architect for Star Wars: The High Republic, posted his resignation from the writers board, and publicly posted on Twitter, “Hello @NaNoWriMo this is me DJO officially stepping down from your Writers Board and urging every writer I know to do the same. Never use my name in your promo again in fact never say my name at all and never email me again. Thanks!”

Another board member, Rebecca Kim Wells also stepped down and posted “I resigned from the NaNoWriMo Writers Board. If you're on it, I encourage you to do the same.”

Several other board members also resigned.

You can make up your own mind where you stand about AI being used in writing. But the reason so many use NaNoWriMo is to help them set aside a time to write every day, to push through all the barriers of self-doubt, fear and other frustrations, and become the best and most productive writer they can be. Using AI takes away these most important parts of NaNoWriMo.

While the use of AI has some worthy benefits in some cases for writers, on the whole I think it does more harm than good and only helps to spread misinformation and does not benefit writers who want to write.

I’m happy to sit down and write one human-written word at a time. It’s the way I’ve always worked and it’s the way that has always worked.

I used to promote NaNoWriMo as a great tool for writers who want to sit down and write a novel in a month. I even participated myself when I first became a writer.

But I won’t be promoting it any more.