The New Harmony Project’s Policy Regarding the Use of Artificial Intelligence

Adopted by the NHP Board of Directors, July 20, 2026

The New Harmony Project believes that stories form the cornerstone of our culture, and that living writers continually help us define ourselves, reexamine our history, and dream our future. We believe that stories hold erasure at bay, uplift our unique identities and our lived experiences, and allow us to build a future we hope to inhabit. 

Because we firmly believe in the voices of living writers who are exploring new means of expression and identity, and whose intellectual property must be protected, we share this policy regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs): 

We recognize that this technology is unavoidable. It automatically appears when doing almost anything on an electronic device: online research, spelling words, writing an email. We also recognize that it is tempting to use the LLMs or other AI resources to make work easier, especially in today’s fast-paced work environment. 

NHP will not accept writing that has been generated, directed, or shaped, in part or in whole, by any Artificial Intelligence system, including LLMs and AI agents, regardless of whether the final words were typed by a human. The submission of any such work, or the representation of another’s work as one’s own, is plagiarism and a breach of the trust NHP has in its writers. NHP has always required applicants to state that they are the sole owner and author of submitted work: this policy is a clarification that AI or LLM generated work is not authored by an individual and therefore ineligible.

Furthermore, NHP Staff, Board, Readers, Dramaturgs, Script Advisors, Affiliated Artists, or other Evaluators are strictly prohibited from uploading, routing, or otherwise exposing submitted material to any AI system, automated agent, or LLM-powered pipeline, whether initiated manually or automatically. Material submitted to NHP by writers is the private property of those writers, and represents their personal, individual work. Any feedback to that work, whether an evaluation, ranking, analysis, or artistic consultation must be the individual opinion of the reader and not the product of Artificial Intelligence.

NHP stands behind our values and the intellectual property of writers. As a result, this policy is critical to any relationship we build. A breach of this policy will lead to an immediate severing of the relationship. Any payments due will be forfeit, contracts will be terminated, and the individual will be considered ineligible for any future program with The New Harmony Project.