Fury as Writer's Mom Decides To Become an 'Author'—but There's a Twist
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A Reddit post has ignited fierce debate online after a user expressed frustration that their mother wrote an entire book using AI—and is now calling herself an "author."
The post, made by /u/Royal-Average8115 in the subreddit "Mildly Infuriating," quickly gained traction with more than 7,700 upvotes. According to the poster, it all began when their mom started using ChatGPT to write polished posts for her LinkedIn profile.
"At first it was just for her LinkedIn and she posted it there," they wrote. "It got thousands of views, people are commenting and reposting and they're all talking about how insightful the posts are but really the words are not her own not in the slightest, not even the idea is hers."
Newsweek has contacted to /u/Royal-Average8115 for comment via Reddit. We could not verify the details of the case.
At first, the poster tolerated it, believing someone would eventually call it out. According to the poster, only one person did, and their mother chose to ignore it. Things escalated when she decided to publish an AI-written eBook on Amazon.
The poster wrote that their mom justified the decision by saying "everyone uses AI" and insisting that it was perfectly acceptable. "Now she's calling herself an author," the poster added. "You can't be author if AI is the writer!!"
What especially rankled the poster was that their mother planned to continue using AI to generate more content for future books, seeking to build a self-sustaining writing business.
As a lifelong writer, the poster described the situation as deeply frustrating. They recounted their own creative struggles—such as pacing a room to perfect character dialogue or losing pages of hard-won inspiration—and found it disheartening that their mother could simply prompt a chatbot and claim the title of "author" without putting in the same effort.
The situation has sparked a broader discussion about AI's role in publishing and whether using tools such as ChatGPT undermines the integrity of authorship.
A stock image of someone typing on a laptop.
A stock image of someone typing on a laptop.
Antonio_Diaz/iStock / Getty Images Plus
Author Chris Mannino weighed in with Newsweek, saying the flood of AI-generated books "saturates and dilutes an already heavily oversaturated market and cheapens the work of those of us who put in hours and years of effort."
"That said, I do use AI as a tool in my fundraising job, and I also use AI as a tool for marketing my books. Trying to pretend AI doesn't exist is foolish, but there are definite lines," he said.
Maryann Karinch, a co-author of How to Spot a Liar and publisher at Armin Lear Press, also voiced concern.
"I see AI as a great help in organizing material and exploring alternate ways of phrasing something—not 'creating.' As long as the material is identified as AI generated, I have no problem with it being available for sale, but my company would never publish it," she told Newsweek.
Karinch said she ran submissions through AI and plagiarism detectors. In one case, she returned a section of a manuscript to an author after discovering 74 percent of it was AI-generated. The author admitted that the section had come from an AI tool.
Colin Cooper, an AI and education strategist, offered a more nuanced take. Cooper, who works globally with schools and startups and also runs a personalized children's book company, drew a comparison between AI and ghostwriting.
He argued that if someone has genuine expertise and uses AI as a productivity enhancer—like a calculator or an editor—they shouldn't be discredited.
"The ethical dilemma arises not from the use of AI but from its misuse," Cooper told Newsweek. The real concern, he added, lies with "overnight experts" who pump out AI-generated content on topics they barely understand while posing as authorities. In his view, authorship in the AI era should be defined by "expertise, intent, and transparency—not just keystrokes."
Meanwhile, commenters across Reddit were equally outraged.
"I see c**p like this all the time on LinkedIn," one user wrote. "People posting these long, clearly AI-written commentaries. What annoys me even more is that the people commenting on them seem like bots too?"
Another added: "Jokes aside, I really dislike what AI is doing to art. The same thing is happening with music. There was a case with a moderately popular rock band (~1M monthly listeners on Spotify) that was AI generated."
One user shared their own workplace experience, writing: "AI is being used where I work, in accounting, to make some tasks easier by suggesting options."
They went on to say they believed AI-generated work should come with clear labeling. "I think there should be an 'AI generated' label on everything that is published that way," the user wrote, adding, "There need to be a lot more regulations."
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