The Originality Question: Who Is the Author When Humans and AI Write Together?
AI did not destroy authorship — it exposed how poorly we have always understood originality.
When humans and machines write together, the most important question is no longer “who typed these words?” but who had the idea, who exercised judgment, who decided what would remain, and who accepts responsibility for the final result.
AI detectors try to identify the statistical origin of a text. But authorship is something deeper: it is a chain of decisions, choices, and intellectual commitments.
In the future, the author may not necessarily be the person who wrote every sentence.
Perhaps it will be the person who can explain why every sentence is there — and is willing to answer for it.