Sophie McBain, The Guardian; ‘It’s like the wild west’: how AI has rocked the literary world
"One study (awaiting peer review), led by Tuhin Chakrabarty of Stony Brook University, estimates that around one fifth of recently self-published books contain at least 25% AI-generated text. Hart now teaches courses on how to use AI to produce books. Unless disclosing the use of AI becomes a legal requirement, she advises other authors not to do so because of the public response."
Emma Loffhagen, The Guardian; Winner of the Prix Goncourt literary prize admits to using AI
"The winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize has admitted using artificial intelligence while writing his novel, barely a day after collecting an award whose jury had thrown out another book over suspected AI use.
Philippe Jaenada, who won the Prix Goncourt on Tuesday for L’Inconnue du quai de Javel (The Unknown Woman of the Quai de Javel), told France Inter radio on Wednesday that he had turned to AI “three times” while writing it.
The first, he said, was to slip in a sentence written by ChatGPT in order to “play with the reader”. He said he had revealed which sentence it was only to the Goncourt jurors, on the day of the award. “If it gets out, I’ll know where it came from,” he said.
He also included a section of AI-generated text to poke fun at ChatGPT, which gave “completely absurd answers about a technical detail”, and for research...
The admission comes after the Académie Goncourt removed Thélyson Orélien’s book C’était ça ou Mourir (It Was That or Die) from its longlist in September. The Canadian-Haitian writer’s debut had been the breakout hit of France’s rentrée littéraire – the period between late August and early November which sees many books published in France – selling more than 35,000 copies and winning the Prix du roman Fnac (Fnac novel prize), before the journalist Samuel Fitoussi ran it through the AI-detection tool Pangram and concluded that much of it had been machine-generated. However, the accuracy of AI-detection software has been called into question.
In a statement on 25 September, the academy said analyses by researchers and journalists showed the novel was “in all likelihood very largely the product of an artificial intelligence”. It said it wanted to protect the integrity of a prize that exists to honour “literature written by women and men”, and to send “a clear message” that it did not endorse texts generated with the help of AI...
The contrast has prompted some accusations of a racial double standard online. “So when it’s an old white man it’s fine, but when it’s a young writer of colour he gets stoned in the public square?” one user wrote on X. Another said Jaenada had faced “no media lynching, no banishment” over his use of AI – “a leniency denied to Thélyson Orélien”."
Kenneth C. Zirkel and Eudoro Lopez/Wikimedia Commons , Inside Higher Ed; Dartmouth Provost Resigns Over AI Use
A review committee used Santiago Schnell’s available chat logs to help determine that he overused artificial intelligence to help write published articles and wasn’t forthcoming about it.
"Dartmouth College Provost Santiago Schnell resigned Wednesday after a faculty-led review committee concluded that he “used AI to meaningfully alter his writing” and “fell short” of the university’s academic integrity standards. "
, CBC; Publisher cuts ties with Quebec author accused of AI use in award-winning novel
Thélyson Orélien had denied AI use, admitted to past plagiarism
"Montreal publishing house Éditions du Boréal announced Wednesday it is ending its professional relationship with Thélyson Orélien — a Haitian-born, Quebec-based author.
In a news release, the publisher said new information, confirmed over the course of recent days, indicates that artificial intelligence was used in the writing process of Orélien's novel, C’était ça ou mourir, published earlier this year."
Ségolène Le Stradic, The New York Times; Acclaimed Author Denies Using A.I. but Admits Plagiarism
"A Haitian-Canadian author accused of literary malpractice — including plagiarizing other writers and using artificial intelligence to write his award-winning new novel — has admitted to the plagiarism but denied using A.I. to write parts of the book.
The author, Thélyson Orélien, apologized in a statement on Tuesday for claiming “as my own texts that are not mine” — a reference to recent accusations that he had plagiarized the content of opinion articles and a short story that he published more than a decade ago.
But Mr. Orélien said that it was “slander and heresy” to claim that he had used A.I. to write parts of “It Was Either That or Die,” a novel published this year to initial acclaim.
“I did use research tools here and there, particularly when it came to foreign idioms,” Mr. Orélien said of writing that book, without clarifying what those tools were. “But no sentence in this book was created by a machine,” he added."
Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly; International Writers Groups Back AI Standards Charter
"The U.K.’s Society of Authors (SoA) is leading an effort of international writers’ organizations and other creative industry bodies to launch a global charter setting out commitments to the responsible and ethical use of generative AI services.
The SoA has teamed with the Creators’ Rights Alliance in the U.K., the Authors Guild in the U.S., the Australian Society of Authors, the Writers’ Union of Canada and the New Zealand Society of Authors to create a Charter of Ethical AI Use in the Creative Industries.
The charter specifically addresses generative AI and how it should be deployed to help protect and support human creators. Its creation, the SoA said, comes as governments across the globe continue to drag their feet in in [sic] committing to AI regulation and oversight."
Nitasha Tiku, The Washington Post; These teachers fight AI cheating with classes that force students to show they are learning
"Teachers and professors are throwing out old assignments, installing new policies and protocols, and incorporating AI built for the classroom, rather than feeling forced to choose between returning to pencil and paper or acting like the AI police.
Zeleny spent months transforming the university’s advanced writing curriculum for the ChatGPT era. Her goal was to deter AI cheating and create assignments that generate a more reliable record of a student’s learning process than a final product like an essay.
Her new lesson plan even incorporates generative AI in a controlled way to let her evaluate students’ critical thinking skills. She created chatbots using BoodleBox, the university’s AI vendor, that allow instructors to see both sides of the conversation...
Christopher Ostro, a writing and rhetoric professor in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Division of Continuing Education, has been watching the evolution of educators’ feelings about AI. He hosted a workshop in April based on conversations with colleagues titled “Exploring the AI Grief Cycle: Finding a Path Forward for Faculty.”
Ostro now sees fewer peers in denial than over the past two years and more approaching bargaining and acceptance, he said.
“Some people quit. … Some people scrap their whole class and start over. Some people look for magic bullets,” but there is no technical solution that can roll back the clock, he said.
Last week, Ostro started the first session of a class called “Writing in the Age of AI” by sharing a detailed account of how he uses AI as an instructor. He aims to encourage students to make that kind of disclosure themselves."
Alex Welch , TheWrap; Billionaire Admits Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Was Written Using AI: ‘I’m Not Embarrassed
"Billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller has confirmed that his opinion essay published Monday by The Wall Street Journal was written using artificial intelligence.
The essay in question, “Let the Bond Market Speak,” questions U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventionist methods to manage U.S. treasury yields. After it was published, AI detection tool Pangram concluded that the op-ed had been penned using AI. When asked about those reports Tuesday by NOTUS, Druckenmiller said, “Of course I used AI.”...
Druckenmiller’s comments come at a time when the use of AI remains a hot topic of ethical and journalistic debate online."
