NO AI
The heart of writing comes from the art.
Ann Thorsson
Author & Artist
March 2026
The art of writing comes from the heart.
The heart of writing comes from the art.
What exactly do I mean by this?
There's so much in the news and on social media these days regarding the controversy of AI-generated content, music, and images.
To me, and to many of my author, artist, and musician colleagues, it is an abhorrent practice which lessens the credibility of our work and creativity. For our work to be "scraped" in order to feed and train AI models for writing, music, and art is nothing more than THEFT and a violation of our copyright. What's the point of having copyright and plagiarism laws if big tech companies are "allowed" to take what they want just so that some bot can churn-out a soulless book or image? Not only that, we spent years at university to study our craft.
When an author or an artist gets the spark of an idea, notes and sketches are made to outline the bare bones of the project. We create characters and images based on things that we've seen or heard; on places and people and their idiosyncrasies. As we start to write or create, the text or image starts to take shape and colour. We can visualise situations, emotions and conversations and convey them to paper. Of course we use the internet for research in order to make our work authentic and accurate. And yes, we use software to format our work, and to proofread ready for publication - but that's the limit of our reliance on technology. We certainly don't use it to churn out a book in 10 minutes. It takes us months, sometimes even years, of writing, editing, and polishing our work before publication. It carries our unique author-voice and style.
I am often asked when and if my books will be translated into Icelandic (the local language). As much as I would love this to be a reality, the truth is I just can't afford to do it. I know that there are AI programs available to do translations, but I REFUSE to go down this route. Translating is a nuanced art which can only be carried out by a human so that it fits the target language. This is something that CANNOT be done by AI. I recently read an article that one of the large, well-known traditional publishing houses was making a large proportion of their translators redundant in favour of using AI to translate their books. Sadly, AI is putting many people out of a job and stripping away their livelihoods. The integrity of many publishing houses is failing their authors, translators, and readers.
It's a long, hard slog for very little financial reward. But at least I can say that the work I publish, and the artwork I create and sell, is MINE. Every word and brushstroke is something that I have put down on paper or canvas.
My creativity comes from the HEART.
So, as you have probably gathered by now, I am very ANTI-AI. I do not give permission for my work to be used in any kind of AI-training, and I will NEVER use AI to write or translate a book.
Ann Thorsson
Author & Artist
March 2026
The heart of writing comes from the art.
What exactly do I mean by this?
There's so much in the news and on social media these days regarding the controversy of AI-generated content, music, and images.
To me, and to many of my author, artist, and musician colleagues, it is an abhorrent practice which lessens the credibility of our work and creativity. For our work to be "scraped" in order to feed and train AI models for writing, music, and art is nothing more than THEFT and a violation of our copyright. What's the point of having copyright and plagiarism laws if big tech companies are "allowed" to take what they want just so that some bot can churn-out a soulless book or image? Not only that, we spent years at university to study our craft.
When an author or an artist gets the spark of an idea, notes and sketches are made to outline the bare bones of the project. We create characters and images based on things that we've seen or heard; on places and people and their idiosyncrasies. As we start to write or create, the text or image starts to take shape and colour. We can visualise situations, emotions and conversations and convey them to paper. Of course we use the internet for research in order to make our work authentic and accurate. And yes, we use software to format our work, and to proofread ready for publication - but that's the limit of our reliance on technology. We certainly don't use it to churn out a book in 10 minutes. It takes us months, sometimes even years, of writing, editing, and polishing our work before publication. It carries our unique author-voice and style.
I am often asked when and if my books will be translated into Icelandic (the local language). As much as I would love this to be a reality, the truth is I just can't afford to do it. I know that there are AI programs available to do translations, but I REFUSE to go down this route. Translating is a nuanced art which can only be carried out by a human so that it fits the target language. This is something that CANNOT be done by AI. I recently read an article that one of the large, well-known traditional publishing houses was making a large proportion of their translators redundant in favour of using AI to translate their books. Sadly, AI is putting many people out of a job and stripping away their livelihoods. The integrity of many publishing houses is failing their authors, translators, and readers.
It's a long, hard slog for very little financial reward. But at least I can say that the work I publish, and the artwork I create and sell, is MINE. Every word and brushstroke is something that I have put down on paper or canvas.
My creativity comes from the HEART.
So, as you have probably gathered by now, I am very ANTI-AI. I do not give permission for my work to be used in any kind of AI-training, and I will NEVER use AI to write or translate a book.
Ann Thorsson
Author & Artist
March 2026