- Led by Dr Clementine Collett, University of Cambridge
- Partnered with Institute for the Future of Work
Dr Collett was awarded a BRAID Fellowship in 2024 to develop policy recommendations surrounding generative AI and its impact on novel writing and publishing. She received a funded extension in 2026 to develop this work further.
Research and Impact
AI, copyright, and creativity: (socio)technical solutions to licensing. Dr Clementine Collett’s research on the impact of Generative AI on the publishing industry
In November 2025, Dr Clementine Collett (University of Cambridge) released her report on the Impact of Generative AI on the Novel. This urgent piece of research exploring how practitioners across the publishing ecosystem, from novelists and editors to agents and publishers, are experiencing and responding to the rapid rise of generative AI sparked national conversation, receiving wide-ranging media coverage across broadcast, print and online outlets. Dr Collett presented her research within Parliament, where she facilitated discussion on AI and copyright between creatives and policymakers. The recommendations from her report were put forward in December 2025 by Chris Evans MP in a House of Commons debate on AI Safety.
In 2026, Dr Collett’s fellowship was extended and she will continue her collaboration with the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW) and the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy (MCTD) at the University of Cambridge, mapping the licensing ecosystem across the creative industries and working to co-design technical solutions to responsible licensing of creative content for AI use by integrating the voice of creative workers.
Further reading
https://braiduk.org/building-on-success-braid-fellows-project-extensions
https://www.ifow.org/news-articles/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-the-novel
Biography
Dr Clementine Collett is a BRAID UK Research Fellow at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, in partnership with the Institute for the Future of Work. She is Principal Investigator on the project ‘The Impact of GenAI on the Writing and Publishing of the Novel’. Her research explores the impact of generative AI on novelists, publishing, and the novel itself.
Through her research at Cambridge, Clementine has worked with hundreds of published novelists, fiction publishers, and literary agents across the UK. She has explored with them how AI is being used by creatives, how it intersects with creativity, and how these changes affect our literature, our society, and our economy. She also looks at issues around copyright, licensing, and transparency.
Her recent report summarising this research, ‘The Impact of Generative AI on the Novel’, was published in November 2025 alongside a shorter policy brief. Dr Collett was featured on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme and was also on the Sky News breakfast show discussing the research. The research was also reported on in The Bookseller, BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sky News, as well as making the front page of the Daily Telegraph in print.
Dr Collett has presented her research within Parliament and facilitated discussion on AI and copyright between creatives and policymakers. The recommendations from her report were put forward in December 2025 by Chris Evans MP in a House of Commons debate on AI Safety.
This research comes off the back of seven years investigating the impacts of AI on work. Clementine has a doctorate from the University of Oxford on AI and gender bias. She has written numerous comment pieces, academic papers, and reports on AI and work, including reports for UNESCO, OECD, the IADB, and the LCFI. She has appeared on podcasts and spoken around the world on the topic, including at leading international conferences and within the UN system.
