AI ghostwriter effect: users do not claim ownership of AI-generated texts yet fail to publicly acknowledge the AI's contribution¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · theoretical r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? AI users did not claim ownership and authorship over short AI-generated texts but still did not publicly acknowledge the AI's contribution. → Skulmowski 2024 q2 i? Personalizing the AI model did not affect the ghostwriter effect, while stronger influence over the AI-generated text increased felt ownership. → Skulmowski 2024 (2)

Evidence¶

Skulmowski 2024¶

Skulmowski, A. (2024). Placebo or Assistant? Generative AI Between Externalization and Anthropomorphization. Educational Psychology Review, 36, 58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09894-x

q2 · i? · theoretical · r2

The essay reports, citing Draxler et al. (2024), two studies on text authorship in which "AI users did not claim ownership and authorship over short AI-generated texts" yet did not acknowledge the AI publicly. No effect size is printed.

"They found that while AI users did not claim ownership and authorship over short AI-generated texts produced on a website, they still did not publicly acknowledge the contributions of the AI."

Skulmowski 2024 (2)¶

Skulmowski, A. (2024). Placebo or Assistant? Generative AI Between Externalization and Anthropomorphization. Educational Psychology Review, 36, 58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09894-x

q2 · i? · theoretical · r3

The essay reports, citing Draxler et al. (2024), that personalization via survey information had no effect on the ghostwriter effect, while "a stronger influence over the AI-generated texts" raised felt ownership. No effect size is printed.

"Personalizing the AI model using information gained from a survey did not have an effect on the ghostwriter effect. However, the participants felt a higher degree of ownership if they had a stronger influence over the AI-generated texts."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• AI support shifts perceived attribution of ideas and text toward the AI, most strongly for AI-generated drafts, and an AI draft based on the writer's own outline contributed more ideas than expected (27%). — related
• Planning-stage AI ideas were often redundant with or rejected in favor of writers' own ideas: idea attribution was 17.8% among users versus 2.9% among non-users, but ownership did not differ between users and non-users within ai plan. — related
• Hybridization of authorship blends human and AI-generated content, often without learners' explicit awareness of the boundary, normalizing formulaic rhetorical structures — related
• Experimental-group students framed AI as a flexible writing scaffold supporting their own composing rather than a substitute for authorship — reports the opposite