In this solo episode of Talking Tech with Creatives, I look at creativity, technology, authorship and the increasingly complicated relationship between writers and generative AI.
I discuss how technology can democratise creativity while simultaneously creating enormous amounts of content and new forms of gatekeeping. I look at discoverability, authenticity, expertise and why human voice and cultural perspective could become even more valuable in an AI-saturated world.
I also examine recent publishing controversies involving alleged AI use and ask some difficult questions:
Where does assistance end and authorship begin?
Should writers have to prove how a manuscript developed?
Could version histories, drafts and research notes become a kind of creative audit trail?
How reliable is AI detection?
And how do publishers protect creative integrity without creating a culture of suspicion?
I also discuss authors’ rights, copyright, consent, licensing and compensation — and why creatives should have a meaningful economic stake in technologies built using creative work.
As a novelist, technical writer, podcaster, lecturer and speaker, I work with technology constantly. But there are also parts of my own creative practice I deliberately want to remain mine.
This isn’t an anti-technology conversation.
It’s a conversation about what being human means when the technology becomes extraordinarily capable.
Topics include:
Generative AI and creativity | AI and publishing | Human authorship | Writers’ rights | Copyright and AI | Creative compensation | Society of Authors | ALCS | Authors Guild | AI detection | Discoverability | SEO and GEO | Human creativity | Future of writing
00:00 Where Does the Human Sit?
02:00 Creativity Is Bigger Than the Arts
03:10 Technology Amplifies Expertise
04:45 Efficiency vs Authenticity
06:35 The Democratisation of Creativity
07:30 New Gatekeepers and the Problem of Noise
08:10 Discoverability in an AI World
09:30 AI, Writing and the Authorship Problem
10:20 Mia Ballard and Shy Girl
11:30 Jamir Nazir and The Serpent in the Grove
12:40 H.M. Wolfe and Daggermouth
13:45 Jerry Falade and the Creative Audit Trail
14:40 AI Suspicion, Race and Writing Voice
16:15 Where Does Assistance End and Authorship Begin?
17:40 What Can Writers Actually Do?
18:00 Consent, Licensing and Compensation
20:35 Writers Don’t Have to Agree About AI
21:30 Why Community Matters More Than Ever
22:20 My Own Boundaries With AI
24:15 What I’ve Learned From the Podcast
25:00 Who Profits From a Trillion-Dollar Industry?
26:00 Where Talking Tech With Creatives Goes Next
26:35 Updates From My Writing World
27:35 Teaching Crime Writing at Cambridge
28:30 Remembering Professor Jason Arday
29:50 Final Thought: Creativity and Being Human
Links & Resources
Short Story: Case No. 1
Stella Oni — The Case of the Missing Body
Just days before Christmas, Lara Ayodele is given forty-eight hours to locate the missing body of a powerful chief before his family arrives and a scandal erupts. It is a gripping story of power, silence, and buried secrets.
https://books2read.com/u/3LPav7
https://amzn.eu/d/0ea2opSD
https://a.co/d/03GDtVb5
Breaking the Case: Crime Writing — University of Cambridge PACE
https://www.pace.cam.ac.uk/courses/breaking-case-art-and-craft-crime-fiction
Tim Ferriss
Has AI Already Killed How-To Nonfiction? Sales Trends, My Personal Data, and What It Might Mean for the Future
https://tim.blog/2026/06/12/has-ai-already-killed-nonfiction/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
The Creative Penn Podcast
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/the-creative-penn-podcast-for-authors/
Society of Author
https://humanauthored.co.uk/
Author Licensing Collection Agency (ALCS)
https://www.alcs.co.uk/
Authors Guild
https://authorsguild.org/
Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLI)
https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/
Professor Jason Arday — Great and Unfortunate Things
https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Great-and-Unfortunate-Things/Jason-Arday/9781398542747
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