Bothorship: AI chatbot authorship after two years

Abstract

Purpose Bothorship – “bot authorship”, or the use of artificial intelligence tools to support writing activities - has transformed publishing in the few years since the emergence of ChatGPT in late 2022. The bane of the publisher’s existence, but a boon for writers, these tools support enhanced writing quality and reduce the amount of time and effort needed to turn research findings into an acceptable manuscript. This paper aims to discuss some of the key aspects of Bothorship as they have emerged in the past two years. Design/methodology/approach This paper explores recent publications and discourse surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) contributions to scholarly publications. Findings While there are substantial downsides to AI use in scholarly communications, there are also tremendous benefits. Bothorship can level the playing field for non-native English speakers having to navigate an arena (scholarly publishing) where English is the lingua franca. Originality/value This paper discusses key issues related to bothorship and AI contributions to publications. It reviews and presents a perspective on the future of AI authorship and copyediting for manuscripts.