ChatGPT Now Declines Direct Requests to Copy a Named Author's Writing Style
The short answer
OpenAI has changed ChatGPT's behavior so it no longer fulfills explicit requests to replicate a specific author's style — a shift that affects how many small businesses draft marketing content. Many small business owners have used ChatGPT to draft blog posts, emails, or social media content by referencing a named author or publication as a style model — that workflow may now produce refused or altered results.
- ChatGPT
- OpenAI
- content creation
- copyright
- writing
- marketing
What happened
ChatGPT has begun declining direct requests to copy a named author's writing style, according to Ars Technica. The updated behavior still allows the model to capture what Ars Technica describes as a writer's "broad qualities," but targeted prompts asking the model to write in the style of a specific person are now being blocked. The outlet notes the change could have legal implications, given ongoing litigation over AI and copyright.
The shift draws a distinction between writing that is broadly inspired by a style — tone, sentence length, level of formality — and direct imitation of a named individual's voice. OpenAI has not released a detailed public policy statement explaining where that line sits.
What it means for your business
Many small business owners have used ChatGPT to draft blog posts, emails, or social media content by referencing a named author or publication as a style model — that workflow may now produce refused or altered results. If your content prompts included phrases like "write in the style of [name]," you will likely need to adjust them to describe the qualities you want instead: for example, "conversational, short sentences, direct, no jargon." This change also signals a broader trend: AI writing tools are proactively adjusting outputs to reduce copyright exposure, and other platforms may follow. Building a written brand voice guide — one that describes your style in concrete, descriptive terms rather than by referencing another writer — will make your content process more resilient to these kinds of platform changes.
Source: Ars Technica