Illustration by Sakura Siegel / SOC Images.
Writers in Hudson County are battling with the rise of AI that has taken over, not only locally, but nationally. It can be as simple as writing an email using AI or writing your paper.
Independent authors, freelancers and writers in Hudson County are navigating the use of AI as it has significantly influenced how things are being published and written. AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to a computer system that can do tasks through human intelligence and can conduct learning, reasoning, problem solving and decision-making as well.
How Has AI Been Implemented?
Every day tools like Siri, maps, social media and those personalized suggestions aim to make daily tasks easier, so people can focus on the bigger stuff. In the long run, it helps things run smoother and boosts productivity in all kinds of jobs.
Big corporations such as AP News use AI, “AP Leading with AI” to be more effective in news gathering, such as article translations to Spanish, transcription of recorded videos, as well as sorting news tips and coverage pitches. Although this might be helpful for reporters, there are some ongoing discussions on how helpful or damaging this might be for the audience and the writers themselves. Although AI can provide resources to writers, it can also be a challenge when publishing.
Concerns about the impact of AI on creative careers, such as writers and authors, have already been experiencing loss of work as a direct result of AI. With “almost two-thirds of writers of fiction (65%) and over half of non-fiction writers (57%) believe that generative AI will negatively impact future income from their creative work, with this rising to over three quarters of translators (77%) and illustrators (78%).”
With AI taking over the publishing world and AI generated books, it can affect the livelihood of many independent writers.
According to a survey done by BookBub on authors, “among survey respondents, about 45% are currently using generative AI to assist with their work while 48% are not and do not plan to in the future.”
Luis Aguasvivas, a local cultural critic and an NPR contributor, mentioned how the closest application he has used–in terms of AI, was Grammarly. He mentions how using applications such as Grammarly, Chat GPT is the “antithesis” of creativity and can destroy the aspect of having inspiration and engagement in the writer.
“Inserting a prompt and letting it give you information completely destroys that aspect. Well, essentially that muscle, for lack of better words that muscle within like the writer, because instead of you having to actually cultivate an environment or resources that you try to reach for to be able to access this, it’s completely taken away from you in this regard of convenience,” Aguasvivas told Slice of Culture.
As Aguasivas mentioned, AI gathers information and trains its models using content created and published by others, which is then incorporated into its responses. He argues that it’s a “devil’s gambit” and by using AI, he is not helping himself but rather using something that will eventually replace his work and his colleagues’ work.
There’s been instances that have shown that training these models can cause AI to completely take someone’s work and not give credit to the work that the model used as well as not acknowledge the writers and creators.
In one instance, news outlet CNET issued numerous corrections after various articles were found to be incorrect due to the use of an artificial intelligence-powered tool to help write dozens of stories. The outlet has then issued a pause on using the AI tool to generate stories.
Aguasivas further pointed out that AI does not offer a human voice and human perspectives that audiences often crave when reading, watching and even listening to content.
Common tools such as ChatGPT and Grammarly are tools that many writers have used to brainstorm ideas as well as offer grammar checks for their writing to be precise.
Grammarly uses AI to analyze and make improvements in a written text. Mentioned on the website, “Grammarly is trained on naturally written text, so it’s good at spotting issues that occur naturally when people write. It’s less good at handling sentences where mistakes have been deliberately inserted because they often don’t resemble naturally occurring mistakes.”
However, this can make many writers sound almost the same since the algorithm handles sentences in the same way to avoid mistakes.
One of the most prevalent examples of Hudson County writers being affected by AI is when the team at The Hudson Reporter and the Bayonne Community News, both local publications, were laid off due to the collapse of the print news industry and the rise of artificial intelligence.
“There is also some inkling that artificial intelligence (AI) may contribute to the content now posted on the new rebranded The Hudson Reporter website, which contradicts what the company told staff when they were laid off,” according to a Slice of Culture article.
Can AI Be Beneficial?
On the other hand, writing with AI can be helpful when catching grammar mistakes and, in many cases, when English isn’t the writer’s first language, it can help them establish clearer sentences and also catch their grammatical errors.
Jessica Marie, founder and CEO of APMJ Corporation and a certified AI consultant, argues that AI can help you write faster, but the writer still has to “bring the flavor” and add that human element.
Marie mentioned that by using tools such as ChatGPT, it can help draft blog posts, brainstorm book titles and even tighten up someone’s way of writing.
“That’s not killing creativity, it’s clearing the clutter. It’s like having a 24/7 assistant that never sleeps and never hits you with ‘I’ll circle back,’” Marie said.
She mentioned that by using AI, many self-published authors have access to the same type of support that big publishing houses used to gatekeep and these writers will have the opportunity to launch plans, create characters and write smarter.
With many self-publishing authors having the opportunity to gain more exposure faster, there have been many controversies surrounding the benefits of AI.
One of the controversies that has become the talk of the town online has been BookTok’s new dystopian romantasy novel “Silver Elite” by Dani Frances. Since the release on May 6, many readers online started noticing how the name of the author Dani Fraces, seems to be untraceable and unreachable online.
The book only provides a blurb that essentially mentions how the author is an ”avid reader, a lover of all things breakfast, and a hopeless romantic.” While many argue that Dani Fraces is a pen name, there are no current sources to support this information. With no other information on the author or any background information, many readers were left with questions.
One of the key concerns among readers is whether Silver Elite was made and produced by AI. Many comments suggest that the book feels like a “market-driven” product with the topic designed to capitalize on the success of the romantasy, having romance and fantasy elements.
With this being said, Marie emphasizes how AI can remove barriers that many writers face, such as having editors and agents.
When mentioning diversity in writers, Marie said how AI hasn’t been trained on diverse stories and how “we need models that reflect us, not erase us.” By having minority groups shown how to use these tools, their stories can be told more easily and better expressed Marie.
“There’s nothing shady about working smarter. But you don’t owe the world a play-by-play on how every sentence got crafted. Nobody’s out here demanding to know if you used Grammarly or had your cousin proofread your manuscript. Same energy. The key is intent. If you’re using AI to support your ideas, not replace them, own that with pride. Because it’s not about hiding the tool, it’s about making sure your voice still leads the process,” Marie said.
How Has AI Affected Print?
For small business owners, Marinell Montales and John T. Trigonis, of “Sure Things” a vintage shop that sells used books located in Jersey City, said they don’t use AI for content creation or promotional materials.
Trigonis, being a writer himself, manually checks for grammatical errors in posts and does editing as well. With AI being a prominent tool, Sure Things’ owners Montales and Trigonis, aren’t too worried unless all books were digital instead of physical books.
One of their concerns is that people aren’t using AI as a tool, but rather using the tool for the wrong reasons.
“My only gripe with it is not even about the artificial intelligence itself. It’s about the people behind it, and the fact that no one is teaching people why we use this and why we shouldn’t use it, and the fact that there are reasons we shouldn’t use it.” Trigonis said.
Sure Things recently published an independent print magazine that blends poetry, visual arts and dialogue called “By The Waye, Vol.01, No.01, 2025.”
With the open call submissions, the business owners had to make a statement that anything written by AI is not allowed in the submission. In many instances, there are difficulties in knowing what was written by AI or by a human being.
As Trigonis noted, it ultimately comes down to trusting people to be honest when submitting their work.
“It’s those big three items: money, power and time. And time is the one that is affecting the general public the most, because the general public typically doesn’t have any power and has limited supplies of money and limited supplies of time,” Trigonis said.
In times like these, it’s important to stay informed on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). More information can be found here:
