--- title: "NaNoWriMo Goes Bankrupt After Embracing AI" description: "Less than a year after defending AI, the nonprofit behind the National Novel Writing Month — better known as NaNoWriMo — is closing." date: "2025-04-02" modified: "2025-04-02" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/nanowrimo-closing-embracing-ai" categories: - "Future Materials" - "Nanotech" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "ai writing" - "books" - "nanowrimo" - "writing" --- # NaNoWriMo Goes Bankrupt After Embracing AI ![Less than a year after defending AI, the nonprofit behind the National Novel Writing Month — better known as NaNoWriMo — is closing.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* A quarter century [after its inception]() — and less than a year after its "[full-throated]()" defense of artificial intelligence in writing — the nonprofit behind the annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge is closing its doors. Kilby Blades, a romance author serving as NaNoWriMo's interim executive director, [announced in a video]() and in emails posted to social media that the nonprofit, which challenged participants to crank out a draft for a novel every November, would be shuttering because, essentially, it's out of money. In the nearly 30-minute-long video, Blades explained in detail the money problems that the competition — which [spawned]() the bestselling "Water For Elephants" and incorporated into a nonprofit six years ago — has suffered, which sound both stark and legitimate. Though the interim director did address prior [allegations of abuse and grooming]() regarding the nonprofit's forums, she failed to mention the most recent elephant in the room: that last year, the group [changed its policies]() to allow those who participated in its annual creative writing challenge to use AI generators. Beyond just allowing the use of AI, NaNoWriMo also claimed that merely criticizing the technology — which has put untold numbers of writers and other workers out of a job, threatens to do so with many more, and goes against the [challenge's founding ethos]() of inspiring people to do the work of writing — is [tantamount to ableism](). "We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology," the nonprofit's 2024 statement reads, "and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege." Unsurprisingly, that messaging attracted immense criticism. In the wake of its release, professionals who had been affiliated with the [decades-spanning competition]() publicly denounced it. "Never use my name in your promo again," [tweeted Daniel José Older](), a *New York Times* bestselling young adult author and former NaNoWriMo board member, last September. "In fact never say my name at all and never email me again. Thanks." Maureen Johnson, another ex-board member and YA author, warned fellow writers on her way out the door about what the AI decision could mean. "I would also encourage writers to beware," Johnson wrote in an Instagram post, "your work on \[NaNoWriMo's\] platform is almost certainly going to be used to train AI." In the wake of the closure news, the usual [usual suspects]() pointed to the grooming allegations leveled at NaNoWriMo — accusations that were, it's worth noting, [thoroughly investigated]() and handled by the nonprofit. Literary types, however, saw the AI [writing on the wall](). "So many people worked so hard to make NaNoWriMo what it was," children and YA author [Maggie Tokuda-Hall posted on Bluesky](), "and it was all squandered to prop up a plagiarism machine, truly betraying everything NaNo represented: the limitless creativity of normal people." "NaNoWriMo belongs to the writers, not some shit traitorous organization," [another user declared.]() "Always has, always will." Indeed, for all that it became in its final years, [NaNoWriMo was once a staple]() in the creative writing blogosphere and a way for those who didn't attend the Iowa Writers' Workshop to [make names for themselves](). Pedigree was never a factor for the [challenge's winners](), who all won upon writing at least 50,000 words during the month of November and who were only required to register for verification purposes. Obviously, the organization got mighty lost along the way, but it's still sad to see NaNoWriMo go — and it feels like a harbinger of things to come. **More on AI writing:** [*LA Times Uses AI to Provide "Different Views" on the KKK*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()