Industry & Advocacy News
May 4, 2026
In the last couple weeks, we have received concerns from authors about language in our Human Authored certification surrounding “brainstorming” and “outlining” using AI tools. Specifically, our terms stated that “[u]se of GAI in producing a table of contents, an index or other auxiliary parts of a book does not disqualify a book from being Human Authored; nor does the use of GAI for researching, brainstorming, outlining, or any purposes other than generating text.” Our goal in the definition was to mirror the U.S. Copyright Office’s guidance on copyrightability of AI-generated components of AI-assisted works.
We understand how the terms “brainstorming” and “outlining” can be interpreted broadly enough to include detailed outlines and brainstorming that replace human creativity and significantly influence the ultimate manuscript in a manner that could contradict the spirit of the Human Authored certification. As such, we have revised the Human Authored definition to remove references to “brainstorming” and “outlining” as well as the vague use of “auxiliary parts.” The definition now reads:
“Human Authored” means that the text of the work was fully authored by one or more human beings and not generated by GAI, except that a de minimis (e.g., very small or trifling) amount of text may be generated or modified by or with the use of GAI, e.g., through the use of GAI-powered spelling and grammar check applications or to create indices.
In the coming weeks, we will be publishing updated and revised best practices for authors with detailed context on AI uses and ethical considerations. As always, we welcome feedback.
