NaNoWriMo’s Massive AI Blunder

NaNoWriMo has created a firestorm of controversy following a post about their position on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The post, which has since been updated, took a largely neutral stance on AI. However, it said, “To categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology.”

As such, the organization said it would allow AI submissions and leave the decision about using AI to individual authors.

However, that angered many of the project’s users, including many involved in the organization. Best-selling authors such as Daniel José Older and Maureen Johnson expressed anger over the policy and resigned from positions at the organization. Other authors, such as Adam Christopher and Bryan Young, also criticized the policy.

NaNoWriMo has since updated the statement, acknowledging some ethical concerns around AI. However, the statement’s core remains intact as it refuses to condemn the use of AI in NaNoWriMo.

To fully understand the controversy, we first need to look at what NaNoWriMo is and why so many authors feel betrayed.

The Basics of NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It began in 1999 with a simple premise: If one sets a relatively modest daily word count goal, they can write a novel in a month. It started as a November challenge, with users seeking to write between 30,000 and 50,000 words before December 1st.

In 2006, NaNoWriMo became a non-profit organization to oversee the writing challenge. The organization also expanded to launch more events and to allow users to begin their own NaNoWriMo at any time of year.

For most of its existence, NaNoWriMo has been relatively noncontroversial. However, serious scandals have caused it to come under increasing fire in recent years.

In November 2023, the organization addressed allegations of grooming and a lack of protection for underage authors. The allegations targeted a forum moderator, whom many claim other mods worked to protect. NaNoWriMo shut down its forums, which remain closed today except for official posts from the organization.

The organization has also faced controversy over its sponsors. In December 2022, Inkitt, one of NaNoWriMo’s sponsors, was found to be a predatory publisher. The company is no longer a sponsor, though it is unclear why.

However, controversies over sponsors have flared up again, as ProWritingAid is a current sponsor that provides various AI writing tools, though it focuses more on editing than generating new text.

That dovetails with this most recent controversy, with many saying that it’s why NaNoWriMo took the stance it did.

Where NaNoWriMo Got It Wrong

To put it mildly, NaNoWriMo’s statement was incredibly ill-advised. However, if I were being generous, I would say that at least they were trying to do the right thing. After all, the organization’s whole point is to promote writing and part of that means lowering barriers to it.

However, if that was their goal, they failed. Badly.

To claim that arguments against AI are classist and ableist completely misunderstands why people are criticizing AI. They aren’t criticizing AI because it opens writing up to more people they want to keep out, but because of how AI systems were trained.

In short, authors are upset that their work was used without permission to train these systems. The concern isn’t that AI will make writing more accessible but rather that it’s an abuse of human-created works.

To make matters worse, the statement ignores or belittles actual ableist and classist issues in writing. It also ignores the voices of actual disabled authors who also condemn AI.

https://twitter.com/thatclarafied/status/1830455358680125620

Finally, the statement is against both the spirit and the brand of NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is a celebration of human creativity and endurance. The difficulty is part of the accomplishment. If I can complete it by quickly generating 50,000 words of AI writing, then there’s no achievement.

In short, NaNoWriMo’s statement misunderstands why people are critical of AI and demeans actual classist and ableist issues in writing while cheapening its brand. If completing NaNoWriMo isn’t an accomplishment, then it doesn’t mean anything.

What I Would Have Done

If someone had hired me as a consultant on this, I would have had a simple piece of advice: Say nothing.

Simply put, NaNoWriMo didn’t have to mention AI. There’s no effective way to detect AI writing, and it isn’t their responsibility to try to stop it. NaNoWriMo is a personal achievement; if someone wants to cheapen their achievement this way, that is their choice.

That’s because users self-report just about everything at NaNoWriMo: their word counts, confirmation that they completed the preparation course, etc. Theoretically, I don’t need AI to cheat at NaNoWriMo. I can just punch in random numbers. It has always relied on the honor system.

If NaNoWriMo had a writing platform, it could do something similar to Grammarly and verify user writing. It could even offer “verified AI-free badges” to further validate those who completed the challenge.

However, that’s not what NaNoWriMo is about or how it operates. As such, it didn’t have any reason to address AI. It was a hornet’s nest that it could have and should have left alone.

Bottom Line

This was a high-risk, low-reward situation for NaNoWriMo. AI is a very divisive subject for writers, with passions running very high, especially for those against it.

Any stance on AI was going to be controversial, and given NaNoWriMo’s recent history, they should have worked hard to avoid controversy.

This was an unforced error. They had no reason to say anything, but when they did, they released a boneheaded statement that misunderstood why authors dislike AI, demeaned actual barriers to writing and went against their brand.

Perhaps NaNoWriMo has focused too much on word counts. When it comes to writing, sometimes less is more. NaNoWriMo would do well to remember that before dipping their toes into other controversies.