“I want nothing to do with your organization from this point forward.”
NaNo Oh No
A nonprofit writing organization that hosts an annual month-long novel write-a-thon has released its new position on artificial intelligence — and writers are clowning on its incredibly goofy suggestions.
The National Novel Writing Month group, better known by the abbreviation “NaNoWriMo,” has included in its “Community Matters” section a statement suggesting that criticisms of AI use in writing are classist and ableist.
“We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology,” the position statement reads, “and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.”
If you’re confused as to why a writer-led writing organization is issuing statements in favor of the technology that many are concerned will take creatives’ jobs while plagiarizing their work, you’re far from alone.
“Miss me by a wide margin with that ableist and privileged bullshit,” one user wrote. “Other people’s work is NOT accessibility.”
Hefty Resignations
Two New York Times bestselling authors who sat on NaNoWriMo’s various boards took their criticisms even further.
“This is me DJO officially stepping down from your Writers Board and urging every writer I know to do the same,” Daniel José Older, a young adult fiction author best known for his “Outlaw Saints” series, tweeted. “Never use my name in your promo again in fact never say my name at all and never email me again. Thanks!”
Fellow YA author Maureen Johnson followed suit, telling the group in a tweet that she too was stepping down from its Young Writers’ Program because she “want[s] nothing to do with your organization from this point forward.”
“I would also encourage writers to beware,” she continued, “your work on their platform is almost certainly going to be used to train AI.”
In an update to its AI statement, NaNoWriMo acknowledged that although there are “bad actors in the AI space who are doing harm to writers and who are acting unethically” and that “situational” abuses of the technology go against its purported “values,” the organization still “find[s] the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic.”
“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,” the statement continues.
This “hand-wavey” statement, as one user put it, will likely do little to assuage writers’ concerns about this seeming endorsement issued under the banner of social justice — except, perhaps, make NaNoWriMo look all the more foolish.
More on AI “writing”: Sleazy Company Buys Beloved Blog, Starts Publishing AI-Generated Slop Under the Names of Real Writers Who No Longer Work There
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