autorsuse

Autorsuse is a term used in literary theory, media studies, and digital humanities to describe the practice and discourse surrounding authorship in works produced with substantial automation or collaboration between humans and machines. The word combines auto- (self) and authorship, signaling a shift from sole human authorship toward hybrid or machine-influenced creation. The term is not universally standardized and appears primarily in discussions about AI-assisted writing, algorithmic journalism, and collaborative tools that track provenance of text.

Definition and scope: Autorsuse refers to how credit is assigned, who bears responsibility for content, and how authorship is disclosed when automation or algorithmic processes contribute to a work. It encompasses documented tool use, provenance metadata, version histories, and clear statements about the role of non-human agents in conception, drafting, editing, or generation. It differs from conventional attribution by foregrounding tool-assisted or algorithmic processes as part of the authorship constellation.

Implications: The practice raises questions of accountability, originality, and copyright. Debates focus on whether machine-generated portions can or should be protected, how to attribute collaboration among multiple agents, and how to preserve human creative agency without stifling technological innovation. Jurisdictional and institutional policies vary, with some publishers requiring explicit disclosure of automation and others treating automated contributions as background tools.

See also: AI authorship, machine-generated content, authorship ethics, copyright law, provenance in digital works.