NaNoWriMo Seems OK With Using AI, and Writers Are Mad

Thousands of writers attempt to crank out a whole novel in the span of 30 days during National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). To achieve the 50,000-word minimum needed to hit this milestone, writers need to put out a minimum of 1,667 words a day to stay on track — a hefty undertaking.

With AI now in the mix, there were naturally concerns about its usage for those looking to complete the challenge this year. It seems like the initiative's organizers plan to be relatively relaxed about the use.

In a post made ahead of this year's challenge, it seems that the use of AI will be allowed during this year's challenge, causing some controversy among writers.

NaNoWriMo's stance on AI has caused controversy in the community.

The campaign's website put up a post at the end of August, noting that it "does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI."

"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 about privilege," the post continues in a screenshot shared on X (formerly Twitter).

This caused outcry among the writing community, as some AI services have sourced its writing knowledge from novels and other works published by authors without their consent. On Sept. 2, the post was updated to address the backlash received.

"There are bad actors in the AI space who are doing harm to writers and who are acting unethically," the updated post reads. "We want to make clear that, though we find the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic for the reasons stated below, we are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values."