Is it Ethical to Use AI to Enhance or Edit Poems?

Do you think it is ethical to use AI to enhance or edit poems? The use of AI to edit and suggest corrections to poems raises critical ethical questions about creativity and authorship. On one hand, AI can serve as a valuable tool, providing poets with new perspectives and enhancing their work by suggesting improvements or alternative phrasings. However, there is a risk that reliance on AI may undermine the individuality and, more importantly, the authenticity of a poet's voice, leading to homogenized artistic expression. Do the ethical implications depend on how poets choose to use these tools — whether as mere aides in their creative process or as crutches that diminish personal input and originality? What are your thoughts?

FYI, AI was used to write most of this post.

Shakespeare wrote many of his plays by finding existing plots/stories and then molding them into some of the greatest plays the world has ever known. If I ask AI to generate a plot/story line for me that I can then mold into a new play that is totally my own except for the generated plot/story line, have I done anything unethical? Also, are you sure that every word and sentiment you write is your own, and not an echo from the poem(s), novel(s), movie(s), or song(s), etc. that you’ve read, watched, heard, or learned about? And have you ever used anything you caught in public conversation in your work? Is that unethical? Or is that the norm for all artistic endeavors? Submitting a poem as your own that is mainly generated by AI we would all consider unethical. But to use AI the way Eliot used Pound—is that unethical? Get used to it, everyone. AI is here to stay. Writers will use AI. Movies will use AI. Music will use AI. Internet content creators will use AI. Researchers will use IA. Educators will use AI. Students will use AI, etc.. But poets can’t -- because it’s unethical? The only thing unethical about using AI for creative endeavors is to use AI unethically. And we all need to decide what unethical use of AI is, although I'm pretty sure most of us already know what that is, since most of us know quite well what plagiarism is.

If I wanted to ask AI, what is the most likely stock to earn a good return this year? AI says your best bet is ABC company this year. You can bet that i will listen. If I ask AI ; Did you experience this poem or did you write it from the heart ❤, how did you write such beautiful words? AI might say; it is a mixture of Kipling, Twain and a host of other poets, but I wrote it because you asked me to. I read every poem in 2 hours. I wrote this poem in exactly 22.56789 seconds. "What do you think"? Jesse asks! ME: GREAT! GREAT! YOU ARE SO CREATIVE JESSE. I WISH I HAD YOUR TALENT. NOT! Jesse is my AI . Poor Mark Twain. It took years to do what Jesse did overnight and that's because I turned her off for most of the time. 🤣.

the use of AI seems like such a slippery slope. I avoid it except when I'm 'stuck' and can't seem to get unstuck for a period of time. Sometimes AI gives me insights I hadn't considered...still up to me to write using my voice.

I put part of Zoe's comment below into Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft's version of AI), as follows: I read a review of AI analyzing original poetry which said that "Ai can provide some good feedback and sometimes insightful perspective, but it struggles to understand original ideas." What do you think? Copilot's answer: There’s some truth to that critique—it’s a perceptive observation. AI is quite good at analyzing structure, tone, and thematic elements in poetry. It can recognize patterns and draw comparisons to existing literary styles or tropes. But when it comes to truly original ideas—those deeply personal, context-rich sparks that defy convention or genre—AI can stumble. That's because originality often involves bending or breaking rules intentionally, or weaving cultural and emotional threads that don’t follow predictable logic. AI doesn’t “feel” surprise or resonance—it can only simulate understanding by referencing patterns from its training. So when a poet expresses something utterly novel, poignant, or ambiguous, AI might miss the layered subtext or misinterpret the creative risk as a flaw. That said, I’d argue AI can still be a worthy companion for poets: offering alternate interpretations, posing questions to refine a poet’s intent, or even challenging them to clarify their vision. Think of it less like a final judge and more like a curious editor who asks, “What are you really trying to say?”

My concern is even if the poem was written by the author, could even a few common words or phrases be flagged by AI making the poem sound AI generated overall? That is a scary thought!

Ai can provide some good feedback and a new sometimes insightful perspective (Which is why a lot of people use it) but it struggles to understand original ideas without the model already being trained on similar ideas or themes. I've done plenty research on ai how it works; it reads your poem attaches numbers and code to certain words you use and tries to find anything similar in its database then it Frankensteins a few things together and runs a writing program then structures it before giving it to you. Overall, the feedback you get has already been written in other words by the thing the ai was trained on, maybe by some other person somewhere on the internet. This means that the ai can pump out some pretty good stuff sometimes emphasis on sometimes because ai doesn't actually understand what you send them, remember it categorizes the words into strings of complicated numbers before researching. Research on ai also shows that it is wrong a large percent of the time which means it likely to give you the wrong information. An average poet and ai chat goes: you were to ask ai on how to improve your poem it may give you a good but still generic answer rewritten like its tailored for you. Remember your opinion is yours; this research is from a non-professional on the subject do your own research if you want to understand it more and I recommend feeding ai something you don't mind being fed to its future models (Your chats may be used to train future models BTW) To see for yourself whether or not it's something you're for or against based on its feedback (experiment with ai test its limits if you'd like). Side note: AI eats what it's fed with or without permission sometimes be mindful of how much stolen work ai has used to train on and replicate whenever you ask it to do something for you. Oh, and I tested it AI (chat-gpt) does have access to poetry soup try asking it about your poems it found mine.

I use AI to add music and vocals to my poems, other than that I fully 100% write my own poems as have been doing so since joining Poetry Soup, I think adding the vocals and music adds depth to my poetry, but as for AI being used to write the poetry itself I am against, poetry is an art of the writer's expression, we use the words to express our feeling to the reader and give the reader a view of our imagination so they feel our emotions within the write, adding music and vocals just expands that, just my view . . .

I think it is only a distraction! A poem is what a poet senses, what impacts, what one imagines, etc.. It is similar to a puzzle, moving the pieces around, fitting them into a format or not, playing with words. It is a brain exercise, sometimes freewheeling, etc.. but using AI to think does not make one a poet.

I’d like to say / that come what may / I am averse to AI use / due to ethics and abuse /. we are all just humanoid / with poetry we fill a void / write lines of creativity / expressing sensibility / or join a forum just for fun / where poets show what can be done /. an Alien invisible /. I’d say is just derisable /. though I hope not to offend - AI we use to other ends.

Is it ethical to ask a friend, a family member, a teacher, a colleague, a peer, a collaborator, etc. for comments/suggestions/help with your poem? If yes, then why not AI? If you are an honest poet, you know where your poem stops and unacceptable influences begin. I'd say, if you're not sure about something in a poem and don't have a human around to look at it (or are afraid to have a human look at it), throw it into AI and see what AI says. And if AI makes a good suggestion, use it. Be prepared, though, that present-day AI may also tell you some really dumb things (but so may a human editor). But with super computer advances, AI will only get better and better. That's the scary part for artists of any kind.

@Constance, we are doing some SEO testing.

NO, in my opinion AI has no place in poetry on this site. And respectfully, why use AI to write this post as I am sure you are capable of writing it yourself, what did you gain by using AI ? Constance