An AI Usage Framework for Creatives

As I approach retirement from my position in public service, I have turned to one of my passions to pursue as the next chapter of my life: writing fiction. In preparation, I learned about the industry. What I heard from many sources is that a debut author should have a social media presence, a writer’s platform. So, I put myself out there and started engaging with various writers’ forums. I wasn’t prepared for what I heard regarding AI. 

Whenever the topic of AI was raised, the scene I conjured from the forum member’s reaction was that of the townspeople with torches and pitchforks pursuing Frankenstein. I deliberately did not engage in the conversations because I had a secret and was sure the throng would turn on me. I am a professional AI architect responsible for evaluating how AI can benefit organizations and crafting solutions using AI, and I enjoy creative writing! Gasp! 

I hope to discuss the topic openly and present a case where AI is not a replacement for human creativity. When used responsibly, it’s a tool that can expand possibilities.  

Because there are several sources that describe artificial intelligence and specifically generative artificial intelligence (genAI), I will use the following definition for genAI, and use the term AI for the remainer of this series: 

“A technology that creates new text, images, audio or video based on learned patterns-not just retrieving existing data.” 

I will focus on issues related to using AI for creative works and offer a framework for creatives to adopt AI responsibly. 

Starving Artists and Writers

We don’t do what we do for money, but one cannot live on Ramen noodles forever. Maybe during college, but not forever. At some point we either need to embrace the need to somehow sell our work and probably get a “real” job. So, what does this have to do with AI? 

Because ‘starving artist’ is a cliche, not a career plan, we must embrace the dreaded “M” word. I know some wonderful people who eat, sleep, breathe, and possibly bathe, marketing, but I know for me, I would rather get a root canal...and I believe we share that sentiment. 

Embracing marketing, or selling our creative work, is an evil necessity that takes precious time away from creating. Like it or not being a writer or artist for most of us means operating a sole proprietor business. That’s where AI comes in. It’s a tool to assist with the parts we would rather not do. It can even be helpful in the creative process. Again, if you’re like me, you want to jump right in and start writing or painting but there’s prep work. Or maybe you’re a pantser (writing by the seat of your pants) and you’ve found you’ve written yourself into the proverbial corner or need to do some research to continue. AI can help. To be clear, AI shouldn’t do the writing for you...and I know you wouldn’t want that, but it can help with much of the other things I just mentioned. 

Responsible Use

Bear with me and I know this section is a rabbit hole of dry stuff, or maybe a lizard hole...you know, a hole in the dry desert...but it’s important. I’ll get to the framework soon enough but before I do, you may be thinking, “why do I need this?” The short answer is to protect you, your creative work, your business, and your customers. 

To outline a framework for the responsible use of AI, we need a good understanding of what responsible use might be. 

There are a bunch of detailed explanations and pillars by AI vendors that describe AI responsible use in excruciating detail. I’ll spare you that and distill it into a statement of responsible use for our purposes: 

AI responsible use requires fairness, transparency, privacy, and inclusiveness, supported by clear rules of use and performance validation to maintain trust and accountability. 

Ok, we’re now back in the sunshine after that detour into the lizard hole. Hopefully, you’re still with me, and I’m not looking across the expanse of a parched landscape to see you still peering into the entrance. 

Vanderbilt University presents AI as Assistive Intelligence, not Artificial Intelligence. "Augmented intelligence keeps humans firmly in the loop. It provides aid and assistance, but relies on human guidance, oversight, and improvements.  The training material I received from Vanderbilt University focuses on AI’s role in relationship to how it is used:

o how it is used: 

• Aiding human coordination – Assisting but not replacing the human creativity 

• Cutting out tedious task – Assisting with those necessary but distracting tasks like marketing and running your business 

• Inspiring better problem solving and creativity – brainstorming and research. 

• Enabling great ideas to scale faster – another dimension of brainstorming and research.

My proposed framework embraces Vanderbilt's perspective.

The C.R.A.F.T. Framework for Creatives

Finally, we’ve reached the proposed framework. Even though this is what you’ve been waiting for with bated breath, it’s another lizard hole. It’s like insurance; we really don’t want to pay for it but, boy, are we glad we have it when we need it. 

I am providing the framework outline here with examples, but my next article in the series will explore the framework in more detail.  

C - Consent and Credit

• Do not prompt models to imitate authors’ or writers’ styles. 

• Credit human collaborators and, when applicable, disclose AI-assisted methods (e.g. “outline generation,” “line-edit suggestions,” etc.). 

• Respect licensing, and usage rights (e.g. don’t use other artists or writers’ works as input). 

  
  

 R - Responsibility and Review

• Keep a human editorial pass for every AI-assisted output (fact-check, bias check, and continuity) 

• Maintain a log for major AI contributions for transparency and learning. 

• Avoid accepting AI outputs as final without rigorous review. 

A - Authenticity and Artistic Intent

• Anchor work in your perspective, themes and lived experiences. 

• Use AI to explore techniques, structures, and alternatives, not to replace the voice. 

F - Fair Use and Fiduciary Care

• Protect readers’ and collaborators’ privacy; avoid sharing sensitive data with public models. In other words, don’t put your own or other’s private data into a prompt. 

• Use enterprise-compliant platforms where possible. Enterprise-compliant platforms have provisions that protect your data. Below is a clause from OpenAI’s consumer end user license agreement: 

We may use content to provide, maintain, develop, and improve our services...

This means OpenAI has the right to use the input and output from your prompts to improve or train their models.

You would want to look for a statement similar to Microsoft’s statement for Copilot M365: 

Prompts, responses, and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Microsoft 365 Copilot. 

• Understand and respect fair use boundaries; avoid creating a derived work based on existing copyright work. An example prompt would be: 

  
  

“Write a chapter in the style of [living author], continuing their novel’s plot with the same characters and scenes.” 

T - Transparency & Traceability

• Provide context-appropriate disclosure (back matter notes, artist statement, website ethics page). We will explore this in more detail in the next article, but the disclosure at the bottom of this article is an example of what I am talking about with this point. Providing such a disclosure makes it clear how you use AI in the development of your products. 

  
  

• Keep metadata or private notes on AI involvement for audits, contests or publisher inquiries. This is about keeping a record of prompts and responses. 

  
  

• Be ready to articulate how AI helped and what you did as the artist or writer. 

The next article will include a discussion about derivative infringement, and more details about maintaining a log, why and how to use enterprise-compliant platforms, disclosure statements and keeping metadata and private notes on AI involvement for audits, contests, or other public inquiries. Remember, this is to help you focus on your creative work and protect you, your work, your business and customers. 

Next: The C.R.A.F.T. Framework in Action

DISCLOSURE: This work was created by the author. Generative AI was used for outlining exploration, research and line-edit suggestions; all final prose and creative decisions are human-authored. The concept for the C.R.A.F.T. Framework for Creatives was collaboratively developed through a brainstorming session with Microsoft Copilot M365, a Microsoft enterprise-class chatbot grounded in ChatGPT 4.2.  Image created with Leonardo.ai.