Fanfiction: Human vs AI
Recently, I have noticed a growing number of comments under fanfiction pieces claiming the poster used AI to write their piece. And it made me think, how do people claim such things without actually looking into it?
From what I could research, AI was intended to mimic human behaviour. You can easily upload a piece of fanfiction and tell AI to write an entirely new idea in the same style, using similar words.
What makes someone think that a person is using AI? Is it because the piece is well-written? Is it because it's too perfect?
I can never find the real meaning behind this. I have uploaded 5 different fanfiction pieces from different people, and the conclusion was always the same, either it is, or it isn't written by AI.
So, I went ahead and uploaded it into a detector, and almost all came back AI-written. Mind you, 3 of those pieces were from 2028-2022, when AI wasn't present.
So, in my opinion, we cannot listen to a detector or ChatGPT to tell us whether the piece we read is AI-written or not.
What if they do use AI?
Whenever I read a piece of fanfiction, I always just read and move on. I mean, those people don't earn money by posting their writing on Tumblr or AO3 or whatever. But, does that make it okay?
What if someone uses AI and corrects it, extends the piece, and almost completely rewrites it? Would that still make it an AI piece?
But what if they put a disclaimer? Would that make it aright?
And what if they don't use AI?
Many of the writers who have been accused of using AI started posting way before AI even became a thing. They are seasoned writers with stories to share. Those kinds of people, I would expect that, with time, their writing becomes better and better, perhaps even approaching an AI-like quality.
But even so, should we care?
The internet has always been interesting in the way that people hide behind a username. Thinking they can't be hurt because the people online will never show up to their face, will never know who they are.
But, if you choose to do this, remind yourself that there is a real person behind the other end, a person like you, who will get hurt.
I have been noticing a lot of big companies using AI for commercials or advertisements. No one seems to care about that. And yet they make billions.
So, should we care that a piece of fanfiction that was posted online for free is written or co-written by AI? And should we claim that something is AI-written that might actually not be?
You tell me.
