NaNoWriMo's AI Policy Feels Like a Facepalm Emoji Generated by ChatGPT

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | September 3, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | September 3, 2024 |

I’ve never had occasion to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) because I am not interested in writing a novel, and I also have never wanted for a writing prompt. I sure as hell have no plans to participate after a statement the organization released over the weekend, taking a stand neither for nor against AI technology. Basically, they think that banning the use of AI would be classist and ableist.

“NaNoWriMo does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI,” the statement from the organization reads. “We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.”

The statement feels very at home among other stands that people who make me feel conservative have taken, like “reading is ableist,” and using the word “humane” is alienating to those who identify as animals.

The NaNoWriMo, which I feel like has been in decline in recent years, has pissed off a lot of writers with this statement, including Chuck Wendig, who thinks that the only “privileged” people are those who use AI:

The privileged viewpoint is the viewpoint in favor of generative AI. The intrusion of generative artificial intelligence into art and writing suits one group and one group only: the fucking tech companies that invented this pernicious, insidious shit. They very much want you to relinquish your power in creating art and telling stories to them and their software, none of which are essential or even useful in the process of telling stories or making art but that they really, really want you to believe are essential. It’s a lie, a scam, a con. Generative AI empowers not the artist, not the writer, but the tech industry. It steals content to remake content, graverobbing existing material to staple together its Frankensteinian idea of art and story.

Daniel José Older, who is on the writers’ board of the NaNoWriMo, also did not care for the AI policy.

AI is not all bad. Grammarly is a form of AI. Hell, so is spellcheck. And those are fine. I use them aggressively (but not aggressively enough, perhaps, according to our copy editor, Lainey, whom we still need despite the existence of Grammarly and spellcheck because Grammarly can fix my sentence structure, but it can’t figure out what I’m trying to say, like Lainey can). But if you need to use generative AI to write a novel, you probably shouldn’t be a novelist. Likewise, if a great pair of shoes makes you a better Olympic runner, that’s fine! But if you need a mechanical leg to help you run faster, maybe find a different career.

And look: If you have enough free time in one month to write a novel, maybe NaNoWriMo — by design — is already classist and ableist. Their policy on AI, on the other hand, is just a kick in the teeth of the creatives who pour their hearts and souls into the work instead of allowing ChatGPT to simulate their souls.