AI, that is, artificial intelligence, is taking the creative writing world by storm. Now, with the right AI tool, you can have it produce articles, short stories, and even novels. Of course, some stories are better than others – though none are likely to go on to become the next Great American Novel.
Are bots really capable of producing meaningful content? Yes and no. It’s definitely better at producing nonfiction than fiction.
And yet, there are people using AI as a way to make money. They don’t need an English degree. They don’t even need any creativity. They think that AI will make up for their lack of true skills.
Unfortunately, one sci-fi magazine has experienced this ad nauseam.
Clarkesworld is a respected science fiction magazine that is Hugo Award-winning. Neil Clarke, the editor, recently tweeted “Submissions are currently closed. It shouldn’t be hard to guess why.”
Countless individuals decided to use Microsoft’s ChatGPT as a way to produce short stories. And the number of AI-based submissions has overwhelmed the sci-fi mag.
These mass-produced stories could be the end of fiction as we know it – and so it’s important that we fight back. Do you want to read a science fiction novel produced by a human or by a bot? Hopefully, you’re not interested in the latter.
Clarke shared some of his thoughts in another tweet saying that there’s no solution to the problem. Unfortunately, it’s not an issue that will go away on its own. Detectors aren’t reliable and “pay-to-submit sacrifices too many legit authors.”
The reality is that the issue is outside of the sci-fi/fiction community. Those who think that they can use AI for a quick side hustle are ruining it for all of the real writers and authors out there – and it’s a problem that has been gaining momentum over the past year.
Clarkesworld isn’t closing down. They’re simply closing submissions so that they can stop getting the AI stories flooding their inboxes.
It’s likely that we’ll hear more and more about AI bots trying to take over the world of fiction. And you never know, the next story or article that you read (not from us) may even be written by a bot. We have to fight for the human experience…after all, what do bots know about feelings?
