How We (Actually) Use AI at The Datura Press
Has AI been around longer than you think ;-)
Why we believe stories should stay human, (but we still let Datura help with our hashtags…)
The AI Question in Creative Work
The conversation around Artificial Intelligence in creative fields is no longer a rumour—it’s a roar.
For all of us writers, editors, musicians, and artists, it's brought a whirlwind of excitement, anxiety, and some pretty existential questions about the future of our “thing.” Not least: can we keep doing what we love and earn a living?
Will a machine write the next great novel? Can an algorithm replace an editor’s intuition?
Who knows. But here at The Datura Press, we have been thinking about it. A lot. And while we don’t have answers to the big, looming questions (and really, who does?), we figured the least we could do was be transparent about whether we use AI.
So: do we? Yes. And, also, very clearly, no.
“This bit matters. A lot. Not a single word in our books is generated by AI.”
Our Very Bright, Very Uncrossable Line
Let’s be straight: the soul of a story comes from people. Always.
The voice, the nuance, the vulnerability—all of that comes from the overworked, overly sensitive bear brains of actual human writers and editors. When it comes to the final text in our books or editorial notes, that’s 100% hand-crafted, neurotic, late-night, tea-stained human labour.
We do not use AI to write or rewrite anything you’ll read in our publications.
The stories? Ours. The edits? Ours. The overthought metaphors? Definitely ours.
Why Dom Hated AI (Before It Was Cool)
Let’s talk about our founder, Dom. For his sins, he’s also Creative Director of our sister agency, Jealousy & Mayhem International (ICJam). And he hated AI. Like, really hated it.
Why?
“It started with LinkedIn,” he says. “When hashtags and SEO became the be-all and end-all of marketing, suddenly everyone was talking like robots. Memes were becoming true. Whole meetings felt like simulations. ‘Five Reasons Why Running a Startup is Like Creating a Cheese Soufflé’? I mean, really? WTF?”
So yeah. When AI came along and trained itself on that stuff, it got worse. Much worse. Like “we’re living in the simulation and no one told us” levels of worse.
And yet…
How We Do Use AI (and Why We’re Fine with That)
We’re a tiny team. Not quite “meetings-in-a-phone-box” tiny, but close. And like any small press or indie creator, we wear all the hats.
So yes, we lean on AI. But not for soul work—for support work.
1. The Diligent Researcher: Our AI assistant (we call her Datura) is a gem. She helped us research Narcisa, which is partly set in 1790s Bucovina. And while our knowledge of that region is… bed-and-breakfast-at-best, Datura knew everything: Habsburg history, historical place names, river systems.
2. The Social Media Intern We Can’t Afford: When it comes to researching hashtags, scouting illustrators on Instagram, or figuring out what’s trending on Substack… we sometimes ask Datura. She’s quicker than doomscrolling.
3. The Repurposing Engine: Ever made a reel, animated it, wrote music, captioned it, then had to rewrite all of that copy for YouTube, TikTok, Threads, and Insta with five sets of hashtags? That’s when Datura takes over.
AI in Our Visuals: Yup, That Too
What about those images, videos, voices? AI, right?
Yup. But not all of it.
We do the FX. The music. The sound design. The direction. The quotes. The concepting. The editing.
But we’re not illustrators. Or Victorian women. So yes, some character portraits and voiceovers are AI-generated—for now.
You’d laugh if you saw how many ropey, generic AI images we throw away. The ones we keep? They're us.
How We *Don’t* Use AI
This bit matters. A lot. Not a single word in our books is generated by AI.
We may use spellcheck. We may scream at Grammarly. But the writing itself? All heart, all hands.
“Technology is a great slave, but a shitty master.” — Jah Wobble, over a Wimpy breakfast in Camden, c.1992. Yes really, Dom was interviewing him, a long time back, but it was true thn and even more so now.
““Thing is Dom, Technology is a great slave, but a shitty master.” ”
Why Say All This?
Because we posted an obviously AI-generated video on TikTok, and someone just commented: “AI.” Which made us pause. We realised: even if something looks obviously artificial, it’s still worth being upfront.
So here it is. We’re a small press, navigating the same chaos as everyone else. We use the tools we have—but we hold the line.
Got Thoughts?
Until our AI overlords take over completely, real people thoughts are always welcome.
Got a view on AI and creativity? Use it in your work too? Tell us.
Just… be nice. Let’s not fight amongst ourselves or the machines will have won!
Want to support actual humans making weird, mythic, gothic fiction? Subscribe to the Pressebande newsletter or read the latest excerpt from Narcisa Before Narcisa. We’re building something beautiful. Maybe even a little haunted. But very human.