Current Affairs Bans AI-Generated Writing and Art in Its Magazine
US magazine Current Affairs said its new union contract includes one of the strictest anti-AI policies in publishing: no AI-generated text may be published, and no AI-generated art may be used as an illustration, so readers get human writing and human artistry. Editor Nathan J. Robinson framed the move as a challenge to the "slopification" of media, criticizing newsrooms that rush to replace writers with AI and outlets that defended publishing an AI-generated op-ed. He added that staff may still use AI tools to help with research, or artists may use them to add texture or adjust a color, but technology should assist workers rather than replace them.
A single small magazine's policy has limited reach, but it joins the wider publishing and creative-industry debate over AI replacing human work and jobs.
We urgently need to protect human thought and creativity. Our magazine is committing itself to remaining handmade. Ensure every publication you support does the same.
Iam proud to say that as part of our new union contract, Current Affairs recently adopted one of the strictest anti-AI policies in the publishing industry. No text that is AI-generated may be published in our magazine. No AI-generated art may be used as a Current Affairs illustration. When you read Current Affairs, you are going to be reading the thoughts of a human, and seeing the results of human artistry.
We’re adopting this policy because we want to directly challenge the slopification of media. Newsrooms across the country are rushing to embrace AI and replace actual writers, public opinion be damned. The CEO of Business Insider, for instance, has said his publication is “all in on AI” (which is becoming an annoyingly common slogan) and shamelessly publishes AI-written content. At least they’re honest about it. Some publications have deliberately tricked people; Sports Illustrated was caught publishing AI-written pieces by nonexistent journalists. Guest op-eds in all of the major newspapers have been found to be either partly or wholly written by AI. Sometimes publishing this work can happen inadvertently; here at Current Affairs, we have had plenty of freelance submissions that use suspicious numbers of em-dashes and “this is not an X, it’s a Y” sentences. (We can’t promise that nothing will ever slip through the cracks, but we’re vigilant!) Astonishingly, though, some editors have actually defended publishing the pieces even when writers have been caught. The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed from a hedge fund billionaire, Stan Druckenmiller, that turned out to have been AI-generated (probably because billionaires are inarticulate due to a lifetime of never having to craft arguments to persuade the yes-men around them), but the paper defended publishing the piece, since it reflected the billionaire’s genuine opinion.
#Current Affairs#ChatGPT#DALL-E#Sports Illustrated#Wall Street Journal#Business Insider