How I define ‘AI’

I use the Alliance of Independent Authors’ definition of AI which encompasses both:

“technology that replicates human behaviors and abilities conventionally seen as ‘intelligent’ and “applications or tools that combine human and machine intelligence.”

AI for Authors: Practical and Ethical Guidelines via ALLi. (Originally published December 2022; last updated January 2023.)

This includes but is not limited to the following applications:

What I believe

I stand with Clarkesworld on the use of AI in the publishing industry (originally published on 28 May 2023).

This means that I believe:

My publishing process and the use of AI

I strive to use zero generative AI in my books and publishing business as I do not believe the current tools have been developed using ethically sourced training data.

The following table sets out my writing and publishing process for each book and, to the best of my knowledge, whether AI tools are used in that part of the process and to what extent they are used:

StepUse of AI?Commentary
Alpha (rough) draftNo

My rough drafts are 100% human written. At this stage in the writing process, I am focused on nailing characters and their emotional arcs rather than descriptive details. Much of my writing at this stage will have ‘XXX’ placeholders.

I do not use AI to generate concepts/ideas for characters, plots, world building, or any other elements in the narrative structure (at the story, chapter, or scene level) or the prose (i.e. at the paragraph and sentence level).

Alpha revisionsNo

My alpha readers are other human authors in my writing group who provide me with structural feedback on my alpha drafts.

(Structural feedback consists of high level feedback on whether the overall story is working in terms of the characters and their arcs, plot lines, and the alignment of story promises and the progress towards the payoff on those promises.)

I do not use AI to identify, assess, or determine the necessary structural/developmental revisions to my books.

Beta draft (world building pass)No

My settings are 100% human created and developed.

I do not use AI to perform research on world building elements or to fill out any ‘XXX’ placeholders.

Beta read & beta read revisionsNo

My beta readers are other humans who provide me with overall reader reactions to my beta drafts.

(Reader reactions consist of high level emotional reactions to the beta drafts at the line, chapter, act, and overall book level.)

I do not use AI to identify, assess, or determine the necessary further structural/developmental revisions to my books.

Line editNo

Line editing consists of revisions at the paragraph and sentence level for paragraph and sentence structure, word choice (including repetitious word choice), flow, etc.

I do not use AI for line editing.

Grammar & spell checkSome

While I primarily refer to the Chicago Manual of Style and dictionaries for grammar and spell check, I do make use of Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Hemingway App as a secondary check to flag potential grammar and spelling errors I may have missed.

I manually investigate all flagged issues from these tools to determine whether or not they are correctly flagged before deciding whether or not I will accept any suggestions from these tools.

ProofreadingNo

Proofreading consists of identifying errors in formatting (e.g. margins, line breaks, section breaks) and prose (e.g. missing/doubled/transposed letters/words/punctuation marks).

I read the final, typeset manuscript backwards to identify any proofing errors. I do not use AI tools for proofreading.

I aim for zero proofreading errors; however, as with any highly manual process, there is a chance that some errors may slip through. If you have identified something that you believe is an error, you can report it for investigation via my website.

Cover art & designNo

Retail covers and dust jackets

My cover designer is the team at Damonza. You can find their terms and conditions here, their discussion on the legal and ethical use of AI in book cover design here and their generative AI image policy statement on their website here. (The policy was initially released on 10 June 2023.) The book covers for Petition and Supplicant consists of stock images licensed from Shutterstock and Daz3D render 3D models for the character and the ship. The Petition cover was created in January 2022, with the ebook design finalized in April 2022, the paperback in May 2022, and the hardcover case laminate cover and dust jacket in June 2022, all prior to the widespread public release of generative AI tools and therefore free of AI to the best of my knowledge. The book cover for Supplicant was originally available as a premade cover and subsequently modified to include the same 3D character model used on the Petition cover in December 2022, with overpainting by human artist, Erin Kelso. Damonza has confirmed that no AI images were used in the creation of these book covers.

Going forward, I will be requesting that no generative AI images are used in the creation and design of my retail book covers. (Damonza provides a specific opt-out checkbox in their new order forms.)

Petition and Supplicant special edition dust jackets and hardcover case art

The exclusive dust jacket art is digitally painted by Rosemary Fung and the under-the-jacket foil-stamped case art (also featured on the retail hardcover case) is drawn by K.E. Rosero.

Concept/interior artNo

I do not use generative AI to produce character, concept, or interior artwork.

The map illustrations of the Ngutoccai continent and the city of Ennuost Yrg in Petition are digitally hand-drawn by me in Procreate. The map illustration in Supplicant is digitally painted by Charis Loke.

Book blurbNo

My blurbs are 100% human written by me.

Marketing copywritingNo

All marketing copywriting on my author website and my social media is 100% human written by me.

Keyword identificationSome

I manually research and identify keywords for my books using Publisher Rocket and Amazon’s auto-suggested searches.

AdvertisingN/A

I do not currently use paid advertising for my books.

Promotional graphicsUnknown

I use Canva, Photopea, and GIMP to create promotional graphics for my website, social media, and author newsletter.

Damonza grants me a license for the use of the cover art for marketing materials. Refer above for the use of AI in my book covers.

Both Canva and Photopea have integrated generative AI into its service; I do not use these functions to create promotional graphics. I generally use my own cover art and photography and/or screenshots as much as possible, though I do also make use of stock images, text elements, and/or filters in Canva.

While I do my best to avoid the use of generative AI images in my promotional graphics, I cannot guarantee that my promotional graphics are free of AI for the following reasons:

Canva sources its stock imagery from Pexels and Pixabay. Pexels allows anyone to contribute to their repositories and does not appear to require labeling. Pixabay allows the uploading of content created with generative AI technologies with labeling, however the onus is on the uploader to ensure the labeling is accurate and complete. While I check the source of any graphics I use in Canva (and I generally endeavor to use images with an upload date prior to 2022), I may inadvertently use something that has been created using generative AI due to inaccurate labeling by the original uploader.

I may also, from time to time, participate in promotions organized by other authors and members of the self-published fantasy community which will require the use of promotional graphics that may be partially or wholly created using generative AI without my knowledge or the knowledge of the organizer.

Cross promotion with other authorsNo

I do not engage in “newsletter swaps” with other authors; the books mentioned and discussed in the “What I’ve Been Reading” section in my newsletters consists wholly of books I choose from my TBR and that I have actually read, with opinions being entirely my own.

From time to time, I receive cross-promotion requests from other authors for their books and/or Kickstarter campaigns and/or other initiatives. As a general rule, I decline these requests unless I believe said books/Kickstarter campaigns/other initiatives will be of genuine interest to my readers. I do my best to vet any qualifying requests for use of generative AI. My vetting process consists of looking at the author’s website, Kickstarter page (where applicable), social media, and copyright pages in published books for an unambiguous statement on the use of AI in their publishing business and clear crediting of art to human artists. (If unclear from these sources, I will directly ask the author regarding their knowledge of and stance on the use of generative AI.) Occasionally, if I suspect use of generative AI, I may go further to also look at the artist’s portfolio, website, and social media for evidence of a consistent art style developed over time, or use a reverse image search, to determine whether the art has likely come from a source that uses generative AI.

For the reasons set out in this statement, I will not knowingly promote any book, Kickstarter campaign, or initiative that makes use of generative AI.

Detecting the use of AI

While I can guarantee every word in my books is 100% human produced by me, I cannot guarantee the same for my covers and promotional graphics due to:

  1. the widespread proliferation of generative AI technologies;
  2. a lack of robust controls over the uploading of images to stock imagery websites;
  3. the reliance by stock imagery websites on contributors to accurately label/tag all uploads created using generative AI technology as AI images;
  4. the lack of accurate AI detectors;
  5. the rapid improvement in the output of generative AI text-to-image and image-to-image generators; and
  6. the integration of generative AI technologies into stock imagery websites (e.g. Shutterstock, Canva) and standard industry design tools (e.g. Photoshop).

I make all reasonable efforts to ensure that any book covers, cover art, and promotional images commissioned or created by me are 100% AI-free by:

However, as an author, I do not have the knowledge, skills, or expertise to be able to consistently and accurately identify and assess whether or not content is wholly or partially AI generated. In addition, my understanding is that current AI detection tools are not sufficiently reliable, producing both false positives and false negatives, and their reliability is further reduced when AI generated content is further edited by a human.

Therefore, until such time that it will be commercially feasible for me to always commission custom human illustrated art from reputable human artists, I cannot guarantee that all of my covers, book-related art, and promotional images are 100% AI free.

Reporting the use of AI

If you believe that I have used AI in my books or publishing business in a way that is contrary to my intentions as laid out in this statement, please let me know via the contact form on my website so I can investigate it.

Remedies for the inadvertent use of AI

If inadvertent use of AI on my part is confirmed, I will do my best to make all reasonable efforts to remedy the situation to the best of my abilities.

For example: I explicitly instruct my cover designer to not use any AI in the creation of the cover art and my book covers. My cover designer relies on accurate labeling in a library of stock images to select components for the cover. My cover designer also refrains from using any generative AI technology embedded into Photoshop. We are subsequently informed that one or more elements of the book cover are AI generated even though the image/s were not labeled as such in the stock image library.

This is a highly plausible scenario and an increasingly frequent occurrence for authors and publishers—both traditionally published and self-published. (See: Christopher Paolini and Tor for the cover of Fractal Noise; M.V. Prindle for the cover of Bob the Wizard; Michael R. Fletch & Clayton Snyder for the cover of A War to End All; Eryn McConnell for the cover of Death by Sugar)

If this happens to me, I would ideally replace the AI generated elements with human-created ones as soon as possible; however, this may not always be logistically or commercially feasible in a short time frame.

As a result, I will consider and decide on the remedies on a case by case basis. I will publicly disclose both my decision and the process I used to arrive at that decision.

Updates to this statement

I will review this position on at least an annual basis in response to ongoing developments in how AI technology evolves and changes in the publishing industry.

For full transparency, I will maintain a changelog of updates to this statement, including explanations for any changes in my position.

Changelog