Writers and creators are lashing out at National Novel Writing Month over its acceptance of prose generated by artificial intelligence. 

The organization, abbreviated as NaNoWriMo, announced its AI position Monday, saying it’s wrong to condemn any specific approach to writing.

“We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege,” NaNoWriMo wrote in a statement. “It’s healthy for writers to be curious about what’s new and forthcoming and what might impact their career space or their pursuit of the craft.”

Monday’s announcement follows the organization’s acceptance of projects written with the help of AI chatbots for its annual writing challenge, which calls for participants to write a 50,000-word manuscript each November. 

The reaction to NaNoWriMo’s announcement was mostly negative, with at least one board member resigning in protest. Additionally, disabled writers criticized the organization’s position, arguing that handicapped artists don’t need AI.

“Disabled writers do not need the immoral theft machine to write because we lack the ability to be creative without plagiarism — encouraging AI is a slap in the face to all writers, and this excuse is appallingly ableist,” writer and journalist Laura Elliot wrote on X.

In response to the backlash, NaNoWriMo released an addendum to its announcement, clarifying that AI encompasses different technologies and it would be wrong to condemn it outright. 

“We want to make clear that, though we find the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic for the reasons stated below, we are troubled by situational abuse of AI and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values,” the statement reads. 

• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.