This week the UK’s Society of Authors rolled out a “Charter of Ethical AI Use in the Creative Industries.” The Authors Guild, the Australian Society of Authors, the Writers’ Union of Canada, the New Zealand Society of Authors and the Creators’ Rights Alliance are in on it too. Publishers, agents and prize bodies can sign it. It asks them to use generative AI responsibly, follow best practice, and be public about whether, how and where they’re using it.
Sounds pretty tame. The internet did not think so.
Within a day, per Publishers Lunch, authors and publishing folks were lining up to call “ethical AI use” an oxymoron, and to say authors’ reps had no business putting their name on anything like it. The SoA posted that it understood “the strength of feeling.” Then CEO Anna Ganley put up a blog saying sorry, they’d “clearly failed to communicate its purpose,” and making real sure everyone knew the Society hadn’t moved an inch: “there can never be any truly ethical use of generative AI.” The charter, she said, is about dragging the AI use that’s already happening “in the shadows” out into the open. They’ll hash it out at their AGM on November 19.
So let me get this straight. An authors’ group writes a document that basically says, if you’re going to use the thing, be honest about it. And it has to apologize for that. And the apology has to include a line saying the thing is evil no matter what.
Surprise.
Here’s where I land. The tool isn’t ethical or unethical. It’s a tool.
What’s unethical is what people actually do with it. Slop pumped out for a quick buck. A two-minute thought dressed up as a book. And lying about it. That’s the real list. And no shit, plenty of the folks yelling “oxymoron” would sign that list too if you sat them down over coffee.
Funny thing, Ganley’s right about one piece. The shadows are the problem. WIRED’s report last week about the big houses quietly using AI for jacket copy and marketing didn’t sting because AI was involved. It stung because those same houses are out there publicly fighting it. Hiding is the sin. Not the tool.
But you don’t need a charter for that. You need people to tell the truth.
Which brings me to the little world.
Circle is being built at GAPOZ Press, the people’s publisher, and we don’t tell people what tools they are allowed to use. No tiers, no forms, no detector sitting at the door. Before your first submission, you make a one-time pledge that you’ll be honest about your AI use. That’s it. Once. It’s your word. If somebody thinks that word got broken, the Hall of Justice looks at it case by case, like grownups.
And here’s the part a charter can’t do. AI may out-write a lot of us. Simple fact is it will out write all of us eventually. Guess what else? Airplanes out fly us. If you think you have to beat every other writer in order to be one, can’t help you. Circle can do without you. Circle’s for people who want to write, and put the work in and get better alongside other people doing the same.
Members request assignments. Reviews are structured and prompted, submitted right on the site, and they guide you through various lenses while encouraging real feelings, not just polite nodding. Writers use that to improve. To learn. The credit you earn can be spent on your own work or someone else’s.
So come find us at gapoz.com. The doors are open. Membership is limited. No fees, registration is open and easy. Membership in the Circle is subject to approval. Come meet people, make some friends, and grow your craft together.
Your name. Your word. Your work.
Also on the beat
- Lit Hub’s Maris Kreizman asks why publishers sue Big Tech with one hand and embrace AI with the other: Literary Hub, Oct 15
- Korea braces for “one-click publishing,” with new titles projected to jump from about 62,000 a year to 200,000–300,000: Seoul Economic Daily, Oct 15
- YouTube starts putting “Made with AI” labels on tracks in YouTube Music, with the main app to follow: The Verge, Oct 14
- ByteDance’s OmniHuman 2.0 does five-minute, single-shot avatar video from one image and an audio track at $0.07 a second: SlopTV News, Oct 15
- TwelveLabs’ Jockey video agent goes generally available inside ChatGPT and Claude, with timeline editing and MP4 export: TwelveLabs blog, Oct 15
How this was made
AI assisted research and a first draft of this Circle View. A human reviewed, edited, and is accountable for the judgment and the final take.
