Everyone else here already made good points.
But also, I’d like to ask people…how do you imagine this “protects” artists/writers in any way? What good does it do?
“Well, they might admit it’s AI, and then — ”
And then what? You’ll report them? Like it or not, generative AI isn’t illegal yet, nor is it against AO3’s ToS, or basically anywhere else.
And AI not being allowed on AO3 for as long as generative AI continues to be a thing is a bad thing, actually, because people won’t stop posting the stuff — they’ll just completely stop tagging it, and therefore you won’t be able to mostly avoid it even half as easily.
You’ll create a callout post about them? Okay? And that’ll do…what, exactly? Make people avoid the fic or “artwork”? You can’t make revenue on AO3 for people clicking on the fics, nor do you make money here on Tumblr for likes or reblogs. You’re not doing any harm to the creator. And even if hypothetically they did make money off it, do you think you pointing out that one of their works was AI would stop them? Let me answer that for you: no. They’d keep using AI, and they’d probably just get better about hiding it if they don’t want anyone to know.
Your efforts are pointless and help no one. The best you can do is to just not interact at all with a user you think uses AI.
If you’re wrong about such an accusation (and let’s be clear: it is both an accusation and an insult, as you’re looking at that creation someone made and telling them, “lol I’m having a hard time believing you made this, I think it’s shitty enough to be fake”), on the other hand, you are still making things actively worse for everyone all the more.
You’re encouraging people to witch hunt, harass, and interrogate real creators based on stupid “hunches” about their art and writing styles on stuff that they made for free for themselves and other people to enjoy.
You’re insulting the creators you love and downplaying the time, effort, and energy it took to make their thing.
You’re making them paranoid about being suspected of AI over minor tiny ass imperfections or even perfections in their creations.
You’re creating a toxic “guilty until proven innocent” environment that most creators very simply aren’t going to want to stick around in, much less keep creating things for your ungrateful asses to enjoy free of charge.
You’re ruining innocent people’s reputations over nothing by making these dumbass comments that will then make any of their followers who read it likely to begin questioning them, themselves. Because if someone said it, surely it could have a reason and some merit behind it, right?
Again, if you think a work is AI but your only proof is a few minuscule tiny “tells” you think you’ve figured out, just don’t interact. Don’t promote it. But for God’s sake, don’t accuse people unless you have a damn good reason and some damn solid evidence they did it.
If there’s any level of doubt in your mind, keep fucking scrolling.
