Publisher of Fine Literary & Contemporary Fiction
Why Literature Must Remain Human
From the Editor, respectfully submitted
Statement on Artificial Intelligence in Literature
The staff, editors, and authors of Lamplighter Press (collectively, "Lamplighter") are unanimously opposed to the generation and distribution of literary works created through any form of artificial intelligence (AI) in literature. The following statement articulates Lamplighter's position on this evolving subject.
(1) Literature represents, collectively, the memorialization of human experience in writing. It is a sacred domain that should not be intruded upon by machine logic or artificial construction. A machine cannot experience life; therefore, by definition, it cannot contribute meaningfully to literature.
(2) Behind every work of great literature stands a writer of integrity. The author's voice—distinctly human—is often as crucial as the work itself. AI-generated writing lacks literary integrity because it possesses no authentic identity. It is, by definition, artificial; it cannot stand alongside the works of Oscar Wilde, Günter Grass, Yukio Mishima, or any genuine literary artist.
(3) Literature, particularly great literature, is an author’s endeavor to understand and explain the world at a given moment in history. Each literary work serves as a historical document, shaped by unique personal experiences, observation, insight, and perspective. The act of one human being communicating meaning to another through written language is a unique form of expression that must remain distinct from artificial writing, which offers neither lived experience nor genuine historical perspective.
(4) While artificial intelligence may serve legitimate purposes in routine editorial tasks, such as spelling and punctuation checks, and may be suitable for the preparation of manuals, contracts, technical documentation, and other purely informational texts, it has no rightful place in the creation of literature.
(5) Lamplighter will never present machine-generated language as the work of a human author. We will neither review nor publish any submissions containing AI-generated literary content. The intention behind AI-generated literature is, at best, to create the illusion of authorship and thereby deceive the reading public.
