Different Day, Different Coffee, Different Rant

 I’m at a different coffee shop today because Pups and Cups is closed on Mondays (how dare Quinn give his staff a day off. Just kidding — it’s one of the reasons I love being a patron there.) But on my way here, a thought occurred to me, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

In recent months, the newest witch hunt against authors has been whether or not they’ve used AI. Authors who have never touched AI have been accused. According to these self-proclaimed experts, anyone who uses an em-dash (oops, I’ve already used one), the word glanced one too many times, the word sharp one too many times — and countless other obscure “signs” — must be using AI.

But here’s the thing: this witch hunt isn’t happening because people are afraid of AI taking over publishing. Let’s be honest — AI can write a book, but it will never capture the depth of human emotion or the messy beauty that comes from lived experience. AI books are flat and soulless, and we all know it.

The real issue is a moral and ethical one: AI was trained on the writings of authors. Everyone from Big Five–published authors (the major publishing houses) to indie authors to fanfiction writers on platforms like Ao3 (Archive of Our Own) and Wattpad had their words fed into these programs — without consent, without payment. And yes, that’s a problem.

Here’s where I’m frustrated: I see five to six videos a day going after authors for so much as using AI to edit a paragraph. I see multiple authors being attacked — myself included — for using AI in simple, everyday tasks.

Full transparency: I use ChatGPT to track my DoorDash miles and set small, achievable goals. The one time I mentioned this online, I was called a thief, unethical, and told this person would make sure no one ever bought my book — because if I used AI for DoorDash, I must be using it to write my novel.

If that’s your conviction, I say, “get it, girl.” But also, where are your videos expressing the same outrage over bound fanfictions being sold on TikTok Shop for way more than they’re worth?

And that’s where I’m really upset — not about AI, but about the theft of fanfiction. And it’s not because I use AI (which, again, I don’t for my book — but I refuse to feel bad for using it in my daily life). It’s because fanfiction has always existed in a legal grey area. Multiple authors, including J.K. Rowling, have expressed concerns about it. The only reason fanfiction is even safe is because an author once tried to sue to have it made completely illegal — and the ruling was that fanfiction is legal only so long as no money changes hands.

Once you start making money off fanfiction, you cross a copyright boundary and put the entire community at risk.

Let me be very clear: every single bound fanfiction you see being sold online is illegal and is risking the community that gave countless authors the confidence to start writing. It’s the same community that inspired many of the authors we know and love today — the ones who turned their fanfiction into published books with their own magic systems, characters, and worlds.

So why are we raging about something that’s legal — something that, frankly, isn’t threatening our jobs as authors anytime soon — but not outraged about people selfishly putting that community, and by extension many future authors, in danger?