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Online publisher Medium says it\u2019s happy for users to post articles written with the help of AI writing tools like ChatGPT \u2014 as long as their use of the technology is disclosed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The blogging platform turned publisher, which lets anyone create their own blog while selling membership access for some exclusive pieces, is the latest organization to establish ground rules for AI-generated text. Medium\u2019s VP of content, Scott Lamb, shared the new policy in a blog post<\/a>, which states: <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe welcome the responsible use of AI-assistive technology on Medium. To promote transparency, and help set reader expectations, we require that any story created with AI assistance be clearly labeled as such.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Lamb stresses that this is just an \u201cinitial approach\u201d and that the company\u2019s policy may change as the technology does. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe believe that creating a culture of disclosure, where the shared expectation of good citizenship is that AI-generated content is disclosed, empowers readers,\u201d writes Lamb. \u201cIt allows them to choose their own reaction to, and engagement with, this kind of work, and clearly understand whether a story is machine- or human-written.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The company says when it finds posts it believes to be AI-generated that have not been disclosed, the posts won\u2019t be removed\u00a0but won\u2019t be distributed via Medium\u2019s various recommendation features<\/a> (these include a \u201cFor You\u201d section on the homepage, the \u201cMedium Digest\u201d newsletter, and so on). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n A number of writers and publications that use Medium have already banned the use of AI writing tools. For example, the site\u2019s second most followed<\/a> blog, Towards Data Science, says<\/a> it\u2019s \u201ccommitted to publishing work by human authors only,\u201d and will only allow AI-generated text when it\u2019s clearly labelled and used as an example. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Medium does not say it will proactively scan published pieces for AI-generated text. A number of AI-text detectors do exist, but while they are reliably able to spot unedited AI-generated text, users can customized this output to avoid detection. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are other problems for publishers associated with AI writing tools, including the ease with which this software can commit plagiarism. Alex Kantrowitz, a technology journalist who publishes on Substack, wrote in a recent post that another Substack user used AI to copy, paraphrase, and re-publish<\/a> one of his posts. The post went viral but has since been deleted. Its author admitted to the use of AI tools to \u201cimprove the readability\u201d of the post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cImagine AI remixing the Financial Times\u2019 ten most-read stories of the day \u2014 or The Information\u2019s VC coverage \u2014 and making the reporting available sans paywall,\u201d writes Kantrowitz. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n