Authors Turn to 'Paper Trail' Apps to Prove They Wrote Their Own Books

Writers now have a new worry: being accused of using AI, and having no easy way to prove they didn't. A new batch of apps promises to keep a record of how a book was written. They may help, but even the people who make them say they are not a perfect fix.

What happened

This past March, online claims spread that a horror novel called Shy Girl was largely written by AI. After a Times article about those claims, Hachette Book Group canceled the book's US publication run and discontinued it in the UK, where it was already out. The detection tool Pangram said 78 percent of the text was AI-generated. Pangram is described as robust but not infallible.

Author Mia Ballard denies using AI. She says an editor was responsible for AI-assisted changes to an earlier self-published version. She also says she is pursuing legal action. Since then, two more fiction authors have faced AI suspicions, one after winning a short story prize and one after publishers bid into the millions for his crime novel. Both deny it.

The paper trail apps

Workings, Blindproof, Wintertext, Human Ink and ObraVera all log how a piece of writing came together. Some encrypt the work or mark it with unique codes, including codes based on typing rhythms. The goal is a record writers can point to if someone questions their work.

The Authors Guild does not recommend any one of them. It wants writers to know the tools exist as a kind of safety net.

Why they fall short

• Pangram's CEO says someone could hand-type AI text or use an auto-typer.
• Real writing is messy: many files, drafts sent back and forth, voice notes. Tools may miss some of it.
• ObraVera's founder says his tool proves when words were created and by whom. The user still has to declare whether AI was used.

Detectors have problems too. Pangram claims a false positive rate of 0.01 percent on creative writing. The Authors Guild says it has heard of many cases where human-written work was flagged as AI.

The bigger worry

Author Bartz, who led a class-action suit against Anthropic over pirated books, fears a witch hunt. Once an accusation starts, she says, the damage is done. She notes there is no agreed standard for proving human authorship. Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger calls having to keep such receipts insulting and a burden, and says it should not be required.

What to do

For anyone who writes for a living, the practical step is simple. Keep dated drafts and notes as you go. A tracking app may add to that record, but it is not proof on its own.