Artificial "Art?" - IWSG October 2026

 

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of our ninja leader Alex Cavanaugh. This month, I’m delighted to cohost with Ronel Janse van Vuuren, JH Moncrieff, and Jemima Pett! To read other contributors, click here

October’s optional question: Many people are calling for writers who use AI to disclose it. Most who employ ghostwriters do not admit it. Do you think authors who use ghostwriters should have to disclose that, too?

My sense is that ghostwriters usually write for people who are not writers themselves but have a story they want to tell. Ghostwriters enter into contractual agreements, get paid for their writing, and understand that they won’t necessarily receive credit for it. It’s a business agreement for which they are compensated. They go into the process with their eyes open, so to speak.

My experience reading stories that have been ghostwritten has been mainly memoir, where the subject of the story shares their history with a ghostwriter, who uses their writing skill to shape that information in a way that pleases readers. I suspect that most people who read, for example, celebrity memoir, know that there was someone behind the scenes writing, or collaborating with the subject, to make sure the story is written well. To test out that hypotheses (and I confess to using AI here), I searched recent memoirs that were ghostwritten. Several examples came up, (Michelle Obama, Prince Harry, Michael Jackson). Each example mentioned the ghostwriter by name. I guess what I’m trying to say is I don’t think people who use ghostwriters are trying to keep it a secret.  Ghostwriters employ their craft to earn a living and get paid for the service they provide. Similar to a copywriter, or a technical writer, a ghostwriter uses their talent and skill in the way they choose. Seems fair enough to me.

I feel differently about AI. It seems like cheating to me if a writer employs artificial intelligence to concept or create and/or write a story. We already know that AI improves itself by replicating styles of previously published works, work that was created by humans and in some cases, theoretically subject to copyright laws. To me, in that regard using AI to “create” is as bad as plagiarizing. An author doesn’t deserve credit if they’ve used artificial intelligence to develop the story, the same way no writer should receive credit for “borrowing” another human writer’s story. 

That said, I fear in the not too distant future, writing a book using a human brain will be considered old fashioned. Think seventy-five years ago and riding in a horse and buggy instead of driving a car. I suspect folks in the future may say, "Why write using a brain when it can be done so much more efficiently using AI?" 

Ugh!

What are your thoughts on ghostwriting vs. AI?