Harry Potter and the Large Language Model. How can I stop AI copying my manuscript?

Below are some tips to help make your book more difficult for generative A.I. to Potterize!

The Harry Potter series is becoming a key text resource for A.I. research, with its magical universe serving as a training camp for different versions of generative A.I..

But why is Harry Potter a resource text for A.I. research? If you've been asking - how can I stop AI copying my manuscript?- here are some tips on how to prevent your work being exploited by the bots... here's how to make your M.S. less attractive for Potter bots!

How can I stop A.I. copying my manuscript? photo - Tuyen Vo

First: why is Harry Potter being used as a resource text for A.I. research?

Joanne Rowling’s wordplay, the ‘chatty’ dialogue, and the schoolyard emotional content, make her books ideal for assessing and enhancing Large Language Models (LLMs).

Why?

• The international fame of the books allows A.I. researchers to gauge model effectiveness with ease.

• A complex, information-rich dataset is available in the long series; perfect for training and testing A.I. models.

• Young A.I. researchers, having grown up immersed in the Harry Potter franchise, find the 'easy-to-read' books an obvious choice for their research.

Harry Potter can serve as a valuable way of evaluating your own fiction. By comparing your work to Rowling’s, you can discern what A.I. researchers have focussed-on and have optimised. Incorporating these symmetries into your own manuscript might help boost its chances of A.I. appropriation; but avoiding the same might safeguard your work from plagiarism and theft.

How can Harry Potter can serve as a valuable way of evaluating your own fiction? How can I stop A.I. copying my manuscript

Here’s what we know about the Harry Potter stories:

• The dialogue is straightforward and convincing in clarity

• The descriptions are good enough, though not especially elaborate (for example, they lack the detail and harmony found in Tolkien's work.)
  

• Sometimes, the cultural depictions of secondary characters are oversimplified or might resort to stereotypes.

• The stories lean towards black-and-white morality, with distinct heroes and distinct villains (almost cartoonish in quality)

• Rowling chooses to focus on making the writing accessible, clear, and resonant rather than being linguistically innovative.

• The storytelling pace is easy to follow.

• Rowling uses/overuses adverbs (angrily, etc.)

• The language she uses is designed for readers in the 8-12 age group.

• Binge-reading is promoted through the use of suspense-building.

• Moral quandaries are conveyed directly.

• The emphasis of the writing is on clarity, not on enhanced vocabulary or literary devices.

• The Harry Potter stories use conversations to recap past events, offer occasional information-dumps, and sometimes use predictable chapter-openers to remind readers of the progress they've made.
  

  
  

How can I stop A.I. copying my manuscript? Photo: Angel Sanchez

Tips to avoid A.I. plagiarism and theft...

• Employ the aesthetic qualities of language to a greater degree (for example, put beauty and art above storyline and character profiling).

• Employ an allegorical setting that guides a human reader to infer a meaning without any direct explanation.

• Develop three-dimensional antagonists by detailing their history and motivations.

• Use foreshadowing to suggest narrative events that might or might not happen, encouraging human readers to speculate on likely developments without 'giving anything away'.

• Use ‘In medias res’ to baffle A.I. bots (by starting and ending narratives ‘halfway through’ an unfolding; like a human would if asked to tell as story under pressure!)

• Try employing streams of consciousness, perhaps during moments like waking from dreams or when facing disaster.

• Try using distancing techniques to make it harder for an audience to connect with a character

• Enhance your use of imagery and sensory details, because robots cannot experience smells or physical sensations.

• Employ oxymorons to baffle the bots (use words or phrases that purposely or coincidentally convey the contrary of what they appear to mean).

• Employ figurative language and metaphors that'll fool robots (and their handlers.)

Let me know how you get on!

Neil Mach © February 2026

Neil Mach is a prolific English author known for his clean urban fantasy fiction (like his popular 'Moondog' series) and his historical fiction works. Neil is also a well-known public speaker, and a creativity advisor. Neil has a background as a rock journalist. He frequently shares his expertise on writing and the music business, particularly rock music history, and has written over 20 books, and he often addresses writing workshops. Since its launch in 2019, his extremely popular Myth & Magic podcast has provided enthusiasts of fantasy literature and fantasy art with over 125 hours of audio enjoyment.