What May Artificial Intelligence Do for Writers?

When it comes to permissible uses of AI in professional writing, one philosopher argues that “anything that is acceptable to ask a human to do is, other things equal, acceptable for an LLM to do. (Equivalently, anything it would be wrong to ask a human to do is wrong to ask an LLM to do.)” This “simple principle” was put forward by Kyle van Oosterum (Southampton) at his newsletter, Unchambered, several months ago. The principle rules out, van Oosterum says, having an LLM write an article for you and you failing to acknowledge that. Writers are generally not morally permitted to “take credit for someone else’s work,” and that goes not just when the someone else is a someone but also when it is a something . But the principle doesn’t prohibit, he says, using an AI to “transcribe interviews, generate pushback on my… thesis, suggest trims when I’m over my word count, sharpen podcast interview questions, and perform a final fact check on columns and editorials.” van Oosterum says: The…

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