Ethics and the use of generative AI in professional editing

Generative artificial intelligence (GnAI) has garnered significant attention worldwide across diverse industries, including in book publishing. To date, more attention has been paid to its potential in creative collaboration and less to the editorial possibilities of its application. Interest has accelerated since the breakthrough of a new Large Language Model in late 2022. This paper engages with the ethical and industrial implications of using GnAI in a creative context, namely literary publishing. It raises crucial questions about intellectual property, trust, the author–editor relationship and publishing professionals’ evolving roles in shaping quality literature. Using a published story as a test case, we compare edits using GnAI with those by professional editors over multiple drafts and at different stages of editorial development. We consider the potential ethical implications of the use of GnAI in literary fiction editing, highlighting the principles and practices that underpin professional editing to consider how these may or may not translate in the use of GnAI. This is followed by a discussion of the risks and opportunities in using GnAI in editing literary texts in the trade publishing context.