Integrity and 4 Great Ethics to Consider

I recently came across a Wall Street Journal article (publicized widely on LinkedIn) that spoke to one;’s integrity. It was about Hachette Book Group, one of the Big Five publishers, canceling an upcoming title, Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, over concerns that it used too much artificial intelligence and not enough human writing. Read it here.

It prompted me to send the article to two clients whose manuscript I was editing because the original ghostwriter used AI in constructing the story. My assignment was to combine the two disparate manuscripts into one story that demonstrated how the client changed the world with his invention.

Knowing my clients’ publishing goals, I alerted them to this. One of them responded, “Thanks for sending this link. I’m sure it won’t be the last. Glad they’re monitoring AI this way.  We may have gotten in trouble with (name of ghostwriter’s) AI use. But we’re good now!”

I wasn’t so sure, so I let them know. When I told my business advisor this, he set me straight.

“Does it hurt self-publishing? Will Amazon not allow you?” he began. “Who is going to reject their book? Is it your concern that Simon & Schuster is going to reject it because it’s AI written?”

“No,” I responded.

“Then what are you concerned about?’ he asked. “Are you using AI?”

“No,” I responded again.

“Then I don’t understand the concern. If they used AI in part, that’s their decision. They’re your client. You do what they ask.”

I think this incident invites an ethical discussion about integrity. Ghostwriting’s default has always been anonymity. The ghostwriter is invisible. AI introduces a second invisible layer.

Although I’m not a ghostwriter here, there are ethical concerns ghostwriters must consider when contemplating whether to use AI, especially when ghostwriting a memoir, narrative nonfiction, or something deeply personal to the author.

First and foremost, there is the question of the ghostwriter’s integrity. When no one sees what the ghostwriter does, does it really matter what the ghostwriter did to create the manuscript? A book can be written using shortcuts, omissions, or deceptions. The reader (and maybe the client) would never know. 

I say integrity comes from making choices no one sees and sticking with them. If the ghostwriter chooses not to use AI, he or she can’t ever cross that line. If the ghostwriter chooses to use AI, he or she should disclose that. Clients might assume they’re paying for a manuscript written entirely by a human. To not inform them upfront is a breach of trust.

It might be easier to improve a client’s voice into something more marketable, but if that isn’t the client’s truly authentic voice, what is the ghostwriter doing? Using AI tends to remove individuality, which leads one to ask, Whose voice is this?

It might be tempting to use AI to fill in emotional gaps, but isn’t it better to rely on genuine lived experiences and the emotions that go with that? Nonfiction stories require emotional truths. AI might invent, change, embellish or decrease, emphasize or de-emphasize reality, which then affects (and misrepresents) the client’s life and story.

How important is transparency when it might cost the ghostwriter leverage or money? How sacred does the ghostwriter hold confidentiality? AI makes it easier to cross that boundary because the deeply personal and sensitive information the client tells the ghostwriter could be input into AI tools. That might expose private info, depending on how the AI tools store the data or is trained by it.

Also, if a ghostwriter uses AI, which speeds up the writing process, should he or she charge the same rates? What does integrity say about that?

Because no one sees the process, everything rests solely with the ghostwriter. It’s an audience of one. What aspects of integrity are the ghostwriter willing to include in his or her process?

All ghostwriters must answer for themselves. Will they have integrity? Will they respect the authenticity of voice? Will they make the proper disclosures to clients? Will they honor confidentiality? Will they accurately depict a client’s lived experiences?

Here are four other ethical concerns ghostwriters must answer for.

1. Ownership and Intellectual Property. If the ghostwriter chooses to use AI, he or she must remember that AI-generated text exists in a gray zone. Right now, some publishers are refusing to put their name, brand, and reputation out there if they suspect the work is AI-generated. Others are willing to work with authors who use AI as a tool to improve the work, but they still require a human to be the creative force.

Also, the U.S. Copyright Office still does not grant copyright protection for fully AI-generated work. However, human work that incorporates AI can be protected, but it’s on a case-buy-case basis.

2. Quality of Writing. Currently, large language models (LLMs) such s ChatGPT tend to create text that is as plain and average as possible. Ghostwriters who rely too much on AI risk slowing, retarding, or weakening their own writing skills. Since only humans can do nuance, emotion, and subtlety, using AI might make it harder for a ghostwriter to get better at writing those. Their abilities to properly structure a story, include effective emotional pacing, and remain true to the client’s unique voice also might suffer.

3. Facts and Biases. AI is notorious for hallucinations, which are completely made-up facts. I recently came across yet another example of attorneys using fake cases that AI created. Neither attorney caught it, and neither did the trial judge—which means the fake cases are now in the judicial record. That means false information is now treated as legitimate legal proof. Attorneys have to work extra to ferret out these falsehoods.

As for bias, AI inherently includes it because the LLMs get all their information from humans, who have biases. If a ghostwriter doesn’t rigorously check all facts, misinformation, lies, or skewed viewpoints and opinions, they could be presented as truth.

4. Long-term Industry impact. The more AI is used, the more it could devalue ghostwriting as a profession. If anybody can use AI to write a book, the standards are automatically lowered, as would be a ghostwriter’s fee and the available opportunities for skilled human writers.

Ghostwriters have choices to make about integrity. As the photo above states, it’s all in your hands.

Feel free to read and check out my other posts related to ghostwriting. Go to https://leebarnathan.com/blog/