Book Dragon Ink - AI Policy

Effective Date: 08-01-2025

Review Schedule: Annual

Purpose: This policy guides our use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, aligning it with Book Dragon Ink's mission and ethical standards.

We at Book Dragon Ink have put a great deal of thought into how we use AI. To ensure our values around authenticity, honesty, and commitment to the creative community, we feel the need to share our policy publicly so that any potential community members understand the kind of community they are entering into and who they are doing business with. 

The technology is changing rapidly, and there are so many unknowns, so we will update this document anytime our practices shift.

Definition and Scope: 

Generative AI, including Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Dall-E, uses massive datasets, frequently built using copyrighted material, often without explicit permission from the rights holders, to create text, images, or other media. While these content-generating tools may offer attractive opportunities to streamline work functions and increase efficiency, they come with serious security, accuracy, and intellectual property risks.

Assistive AI, including spelling and grammar checking programs such as ProWritingAid and Grammarly, also often built using copyrighted material, suggest changes to existing work without generating original content. 

Our Stance

Book Dragon Ink believes books and art should be created by humans, without the use of generative AI. We believe that while AI may replicate the approximation of humanity, it cannot truly communicate the depth and breadth of the human experience. Only real people, who live, love, breathe, bleed, and feel, can create works with enough heart to truly communicate what it means to be human. 

Generative AI “creates” its output by drawing on stolen work, a practice we do not condone. Moreover, AI uses vast amounts of energy and potable water, making it a huge drain on our already taxed environment. 

Our Commitment

Book Dragon Ink is committed to limiting our use of all AI, trusting our creative minds for all public facing writing, art, and communications. We do not support the use of generative AI to write content or create art, and will never use AI generated content in any of our written works, marketing materials, or communications. We will never run community members’ work through AI, or use AI to review contest submissions. 

While we may occasionally use AI to improve workflow, including activities such as research, brainstorming, strategy, scheduling, spellcheck, speech-to-text, analysis, and the like, we take responsibility for any output, including correcting any biases and inaccuracies.

We do use many software programs and technologies that utilize AI (these days it seems hard to avoid it). Such software includes ProWritingAid, Descript, Autocrit, Squarespace, Google, and Apple. Most of these elements fall more into the assistive AI category.

For more information on the ethical considerations surrounding AI, visit the following links:

https://www.unesco.org/en/artificial-intelligence/recommendation-ethics

https://bytemedirk.medium.com/the-ethical-implications-of-ai-on-creative-professionals-38ec6ed983e2

For authors looking to stand against generative AI in publishing, check out these open letters:

https://www.aitrainingstatement.org/

https://lithub.com/against-ai-an-open-letter-from-writers-to-publishers/

Read Sage, Katherine and Zinzi’s individual thoughts and personal best practices below.

Sage

I wish AI had never been invented, not because of the nature of the technology, but because of human beings’ unfailing inability to use technology for solely altruistic purposes. 

Because most generative AI platforms have been trained without permission on the works of artists, I resist most use of AI, particularly generative AI. I will never use AI to write a single word for any of my creative writing or newsletter and marketing copy, though I will use AI to help with spell check, grammar, and punctuation. 

On occasion I use it for research purposes, and as a tool to understand concepts I’m not clear on, though I don’t really trust it not to lie just to please me. I also like to occasionally test its capacity, to stay abreast of its capabilities. I have used it to create a mockup of a social media calendar, for example, but not the content to populate said calendar. I had Gemini create a meal plan for me, but didn’t end up using it. Ultimately, for most uses, I’d prefer to use my own creative brain. 

A few of the various software platforms I use incorporate AI, such as Google, Autocrit, Apple, social media, etc. But again, I don’t use any generative AI to write or edit for me, or to draft my books. If I could get AI to clean my house, to manage my email, to organize my papers, that would be amazing. But why would I want it to do the creative stuff?

I believe that not only is the copyright infringement used to create LLMs illegal and unfair–dare I say inhuman?--but that AI is also a threat to creativity, individual expression, and the environment. Studies have shown that people writing essays using ChatGPT have less brain activity than people writing similar essays without access to generative AI. This alone suggests that the use of AI in writing is a detriment to humanity.

Sage has played around with ChatGPT, using it to brainstorm town names, magical effects, and the like but her takeaway 

Zinzi

Where I will never use AI:

  • For generating words in my books.

  • For Art. 

  • To analyze another writer’s work that I’ve been entrusted with.

I believe that Generative AI and Assistive AI are different. Gen AI uses stolen work to mash together “new” things based on directed prompts, while Assistive AI works as an assistant to aid your personal work without generating anything “new” you didn’t create. 

My personal uses of AI are as follows:

Assistive AI

  • Prowritingaid/grammarly for spellchecking and grammar.

  • Autocrit for analysis of my original work. 

  • Descript for podcast video editing suggestions, transcripts of our recorded episodes, and suggestions for social media post descriptions.

While I love the English language, my grammar needs help. I frequently write run-on sentences and misspell things in a rush to get my story thoughts out onto the page. Using a spellchecker helps with the clarity of my writing. 

I use Autocrit to help me find repetitive words and phrasing that my brain skips over as I’ve worked and reworked a draft. I use it to test if the main plot points in a chapter are well conveyed. And when I’m done having it analysed by AutoCrit I then give my work to fellow writers that are my critique partners for further feedback. 

Video and audio editing are completely new to me. I’ve taken the time to work through a podcast editing course, and will be pursuing more learning in this area in the future. In the meantime I rely on Descripts suggestions to simplify my workflow and help edit the podcast from multi-hour chats down to the most informative and/or entertaining content. 

Generative AI

  • ChatGPT to coach me through writing my social media bios.

  • To generate a fantasy shop name once (which I still changed) in my WIP.

Until this venture I did not post or share on social media. While I enjoy some forms of it, becoming a “content creator” has never been on my life-goals bingo card so I asked for help. I also got feedback on writing bios from my writing community and business partners. 

I was curious about ChatGPT and wondered what its uses were. I asked for a list of ten fantasy food shop names. I used half of a response and combined it with something else. Fantasy name generators have existed online before Gen AI so to me this use feels like a grey area. 

TLDR: Gen AI = Bad, don’t use creatively. Assistive AI = Good, spellchecker exists!

Katherine

Let me begin by saying, AI is awesome. And AI can be really harmful - especially to creatives and to the environment. 

Artificial Intelligence is negatively impacting creative careers, income from human-generated work, and the capacity humans have for creativity (when relied on generatively for final works). 

AI also helps small businesses and human-driven brands to keep up with the market and do more than is humanly possible in a day.

It helps us to learn the basic skills for menial tasks quickly, or helps us by performing those menial tasks well enough that we can focus on the things that bring us joy (or money). I love using AI to discuss/research what I need to do to adjust my budgeting, how to create content pillars, and figure out what the weaknesses are for the monsters I create for my next horror element in a novel. 

I often use AI to generate inspiration, understand a task I have little or no previous experience with, or get me started on a project.

However,

  • AI generated content will ever be in any of my final, client or reader-facing, works.

  • I will not copy + paste AI into my policies, contracts, websites, leadpages, social media content, blog posts, or books. 

  • I will never knowingly share any client work with any AI that might mine it for data.

  • I commit to doing my best to stay informed of the risks relevant to writers.

  • As an editor, I contractually obligate my clients to disclose any AI use or influence in their writing before I agree to edit and I will not take on any fully AI generated writing projects.

I believe that AI will never replace human creativity and intelligence. It is “artificial.” While our food industry has proven that we don’t mind some artificial ingredients here and there, the unadulterated, pesticide-free, human creativity is better for us. It feels better to our brains and our bodies, not only to read human-written works, but to also create them ourselves.

AI doesn’t think like humans or do a great job with predicting human behavior. It may adapt more in the near future, but I still believe it will never erase the need for human oversight and creativity.

Whenever possible, I commit to hiring human help for even the tasks that AI can do. For example, as a lean startup, BDInk may use the help of AI to plan our marketing strategy in the early days. And with such help, we plan, and expect, to be able to afford human help with all areas of marketing sooner than we may be able to without the help of AI. 

AI programs I use daily: Google, MS Word spell check, Gemini spell-check, Claude.

I do use generative AI, and I do so consciously and with a commitment to fighting for the rights of creatives to their work (and how it is used) and to limiting my other impacts on the environment. I will change and adapt my usage as I observe AI’s integration into the world and the impacts of it.

I believe that humanity may be able to negate or even heal much of the negative impact to the environment, perhaps even with the help of generative AI, but I do not believe it can heal the harm it does to creatives.

Whilst I cannot undo the harm it has already done, I commit to being a part of fighting for AI to be used more ethically.

Unfortunately, the environmental impact is already bad and has the potential to be truly horrific, especially in regions and nations most vulnerable to environmental abuse. It is the humans who have a responsibility to use their power (AI and otherwise) to limit and rectify this in any way possible.

I commit to being part of the solution that finds a way for AI use and environmental healing to be synergetic.

Finally, no matter my personal beliefs or opinions regarding AI:

I agree to adhere to the AI policy laid out at the top of this page in any activity or product created for or with Book Dragon Ink and Book Dragon Banter.