Author Jessa Hastings defends AI use as ‘game changing for me as someone with ADHD’

A TikTok-famous Sydney author who is married to one of Hillsong’s most prolific worship leaders has launched a tirade against her own fans after criticism for her use of AI.

Sydney author Jessa Hastings, whose book series went viral on TikTok, is now facing backlash after an angry rant over AI on Instagram. Picture: Instagram

A Sydney author behind a book series which went viral on TikTok has lashed out at her own fans over criticisms of her use of generative AI tools.

Magnolia Parks series author Jessa Hastings is now facing widespread social media backlash after a scathing rant to fans who had questioned her AI use for book research.

Readers had criticised Hastings over her creating and sharing AI-generated imagery of her own characters from her hit series, as well as admitting to using ChatGPT for research purposes, which she said “has been absolutely game changing for me as someone with ADHD”.

Author Jessa Hastings. Picture: Instagram

“I presume every time you open TikTok to spew your hate you are completely horrified by your AI-generated algorithm that brings you your homepage,” Hastings posted on her Instagram story.

“I’m pointing out the hypocrisy of these keyboard warriors stoning creators for using AI when we all benefit from AI daily.”

Hastings concluded her diatribe by warning her followers: “Unless you’ve opted out of every form of machine learning, deep learning and smart automation: I don’t wanna hear a f***ing word about it.”

AI has been a sensitive subject in the publishing industry due to concerns over AI systems being trained on the intellectual property of authors and artists without their consent.

Author Jessa Hastings. Picture: Instagram

US-based author Tiffany McDaniel has had her work used to train AI without her permission, and said: “AI, every time it’s used, particularly generative AI, is theft.”

“Generative AI like ChatGPT was trained on millions of books its parent company downloaded,” McDaniel said.

“It trained on copyrighted material, including nine of my books, without my consent.

“So now ChatGPT has stolen my voice, my words, my style, just as it has stolen from millions of other writers.”

McDaniel was firm that authors should avoid AI use — even if it is assistive — as “research is part of writing”.

“Yes, it takes time. Just like writing does. But if you want to write, then you have to actually do the job,” she said.

Hastings, who is married to major Hillsong-affiliated music artist Benjamin Hastings, has previously faced criticism over racist language in her book Never which was ultimately withdrawn from subsequent editions.

Her Australian publisher Hachette has its own AI policy, which states it draws a “distinction between operational uses … and creative uses – ie, uses that harness AI to replace the creative work of a human author, designer, illustrator or translator.”

“For this reason, we are opposed to ‘machine creativity’ in order to protect original creative content produced by humans.”

Hastings’ publisher did not respond to a request for comment.