Our Commitment to Ethical AI

A Brief History of Indent Labs and Notebook.ai

I started Indent Labs in 2015 with a simple goal: to create powerful, new kinds of writing tools for myself and other authors.

I’d lost countless physical notebooks over the years, which is what inspired Notebook.ai. A digital version of a notebook had its pros and cons, but I set out to build the best possible worldbuilding tool I could — capitalizing on what a digital form made possible while minimizing its downsides where I could.

Today, over 500,000 people from around the world have used Notebook.ai to build fictional worlds, improve their writing, and share their stories.

The AI in Notebook.ai

As you might’ve surmised, AI is meant to be a core component of Notebook.ai — it’s right there in the name! However, “AI” in 2015 was very different from what we’re seeing today. Recent advances in AI have been huge leaps forward for the technology — but also included some huge leaps backward for copyright, privacy, and ethics.

Artificial intelligence has huge potential to empower authors at every stage of the creative writing process in ways previously thought impossible. However, it’s extremely important we approach this new technology with a proactive commitment to ethical practices and principles — no new tool should come at the cost of real-world people like you and me.

I believe — and please, correct me if I’m wrong here! — that it’s possible to denounce and strip out the unethical choices made by others in our current generation of problematic AI tools and instead repurpose the underlying technology in more responsible, ethical ways.

Our Guidelines to Ethical AI in Notebook.ai

When evaluating whether or not to implement AI features in Notebook.ai going forward, I will follow these guidelines:

• Privacy: Notebook.ai will always prioritize the privacy of our users and their data by obtaining explicit and informed user consent for any data collection or use. Unlike most other worldbuilding services, all pages on Notebook.ai are private by default and you never have to pay anything extra to keep your notebook private — this deep respect for your data privacy also applies to AI.
• Fairness: Our fictional worlds are as diverse as we are; Notebook.ai will always make it a top priority to identify and rectify any inherent bias in any training data that could negatively impact any individual or group. Ensuring diverse and representative datasets is only a first step; it’s also important to proactively analyze the final outputs of any AI system to root out any remaining biases.
• Human Oversight: It’s extremely important to design AI tools as just that — tools. AI can be a powerful amplifier for your creativity, but it shouldn’t ever aim to replace it. Instead, AI features should be seen as an optional extension of your personal creative process, offering to help whenever you want it while otherwise staying out of the way to let your strengths soar.
• People Come First: You may notice some of the AI in Notebook.ai is of lower quality than other AI-heavy sites, and this is okay. From the beginning, I designed Notebook.ai to be financially self-sustainable rather than prioritize profits. Likewise, people will always be the priority over AI at Notebook.ai — and this includes all people, not just our users. Using ethically-collected data and training takes priority over following what the rest of the industry doing — hurting artists and other creatives — even if our AI ends up with comparably lower quality.
• Transparency: Notebook.ai is an open-source project and its entire source code is readily available for closer inspection or full audits by anyone, at any time.

Your Feedback is Important

Of course, AI is a huge, evolving topic that has changed more in the past few months than in the past decade, and will probably continue to change at a rapid pace. I will do my best to follow it and stay informed, but I also welcome any and all feedback on how I’m doing and what I could be doing better. I’m building Notebook.ai for all of us — myself included — but I want to make sure even the most powerful tools are ethical and responsible to use, too.

If you have feedback, comments, or concerns, feel free to reach out any time to andrew@indentlabs.com.

Happy worldbuilding!
— Andrew