Authors and journalists are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence as a supplementary tool in managing complex research tasks, particularly in biographical writing, though many maintain that AI cannot replace the human elements of their craft.

British author Anthony Horowitz, known for his fiction and investigative work, expressed confidence in the superiority of human writers over AI, stating that while AI cannot match his storytelling capabilities, it can still serve as a helpful aid. This perspective echoes that of journalist and author Katie Prescott, who credited AI with playing a crucial role in the research process for her recent biography, "The Curious Case of Mike Lynch: The Improbable Life & Death of a Tech Billionaire."

The book examines the life of the late British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, founder of the AI-focused company Autonomy. Lynch, often dubbed "Britain’s Bill Gates," saw his career marred by accusations of large-scale accounting fraud, which led to over a decade of litigation culminating in a high-profile trial. Lynch was ultimately acquitted of all fraud charges but died weeks later in a superyacht accident.

Prescott faced immense challenges while writing the biography due to the sheer volume and complexity of source material, including approximately 2,000 pages of detailed accounting documentation and extensive trial transcripts from one of the longest and most complicated legal proceedings in British history. To manage this information, she utilized an AI research assistant, Google NotebookLM, which functions by ingesting large document sets and enabling the user to ask detailed questions about the content.

According to Prescott, the AI tool was invaluable in uncovering subtle details and contextual information that would have otherwise been difficult to detect through conventional keyword searches. For example, it helped identify references to an unusual Winnie-the-Pooh-themed presentation made by Lynch and his team during the trial, details hidden in ancillary transcripts that might have been overlooked.

Legal professionals involved in the case reportedly admired Prescott’s swift synthesis of the vast records, noting that junior lawyers traditionally took years to locate specific information within the voluminous files. Despite the efficiency gains, Prescott emphasized that AI served only as an adjunct to her own investigative work, including crucial elements such as interviews, trust-building, and adherence to journalistic ethics, which AI cannot replicate.

Both Prescott and Horowitz draw a clear boundary between research assistance and creative writing, using AI solely to organize and analyze information rather than to generate narrative content. Their experience suggests that while AI can significantly enhance the research phase of biographical writing, the core tasks of interpretation, storytelling, and source cultivation remain firmly human endeavors.