Declaring AI Use as an Editor & Writer
If you use AI only as an editor but not as a writer, do you have to declare it?
Answer:
No, if you're using AI purely as an editor, you generally don't have to declare it.
This is based on my experience as a blog ghostwriter, as AI tools like Grammarly are essentially AI and are commonly accepted for grammar checks.
We even use research tools like Perplexity to give us rough drafts for a topic outline sometimes.
The key is always your agreement with the client.
If your client has specific guidelines against any AI use, even for editing, then you should adhere to that as much as possible.
Given that outlines or initial drafts aren’t the final submission items, they’ll still go through big changes so all it gives you is structure.
In that case, I still consider it as AI not appearing in the final document.
Always refer to your Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) or client contracts for explicit terms.
If there's no mention of AI in your agreement, using it for editing to improve grammar and punctuation, for example, falls under standard professional tools that make your output better.