Stories written with help from chat gpt? Yea or Nay?

[botfriend2000]

Good day to you all, long time since I’ve posted anything or asked a question. Been busy with life and all, but I have been lurking about.
I’m sure it’s been discussed at some point in some thread, but what is the general consensus on using ChatGPT to help write stories? I am looking for feedback on both the good and the bad. Personally I have found it enlightening and enjoyable in the sense of ideas and perspectives that I wouldn’t normally consider. Wording and vocabulary choices too are different. Thoughts? And can we post stories here using it ??

Thanks. Wishing you all the best

[Extyr]

From what I've seen posted here and what I tried for myself, I find AI generated stories dreadful.

Repetitive forgetable nonsense.

I'd say it should be labelled properly, at the very least.

[DukeNukem 2417]

Big fat "nay" from me. We have enough talented writers here as it is that we don't need the literary equivalent of unflavored gelatin being pumped in by generative text engines.

[CyclicCosmology]

My stories are 100% AI made. Obvious AI slop to me, but probably not most.
If I edited them a bit, I bet you could not tell.

Challenge: suggest a story premise for me to generate, and see if you can still tell it's AI.

[NatalieBayer]

So, to answer the original question, we don't allow any AI generated content on the forums/wiki, that applies to both written and image based submission. It's actually a pinned post in announcements.

That said, thank you for being honest about your work CyclicCosmology, unfortunately I am going to have to remove all of it now.

[33cl33]

I haven't found much use in chatgpt, gemini, etc for writing.

TBH, whenever I've given it something I've already written, and asked it to make it more concise, or improve the grammar (or just about any other copyediting task) it generally reduces the quality of the writing. Often wildly so, where it strips out all detail and humor.

Which makes sense. They're aiming for the most probable next words and phrases. Not for the most surprising/delighting /crafty ways of saying something.

[CyclicCosmology]

Your rule is dumb and I will prove it:

As an AI researcher, I know most people can't tell AI creative writing apart when its properly prompted & contextualized.

I'll wait a while and set up a new anon account, and post some stories. After a few dozen upvotes, I'll come back here and reveal myself.

Granted -- my original stories were AI slop, but my upcoming creative writing model is amazing.

Place your bets.

[NatalieBayer]

Please don't do that. We have a rule against AI content for a reason. If you can't be respectful of the rules then the admin team will have to take action. Just follow the rules please.

[TheShoveller]

So, just to clarify: Nobody here is saying you can't use AI, whatsoever, in any way, shape, or form. We're just saying you can't use AI for the bulk of the work (AKA 90% of the story or picture.)

AI is a tool, not a means to an end. If someone is writing a story and uses an AI for a prompt for the story, that's okay. Sometimes you're stumped for an idea and it gives you a good one. However, what we don't want here - and what the rule is meant to curb - is "AI, write me a story based on this idea." Even if you edit it so it sounds more "human" and "natural," that is NOT acceptable here. The AI has written the story, not you.

So, if you want to write stories, then actually write stories. Don't ask the machine-learning database to regurgitate a story for you. Or if you do, fine, but don't post it here. Don't post a link to it here. It's not allowed here. If you have an argument for why you think we should NOT have this rule, then by all means please bring it up, and try to change our minds about it. Others have tried, and so far we haven't heard a compelling argument as for why AI-generated works should be allowed.

[Extyr]

My stories are 100% AI made. Obvious AI slop to me, but probably not most.
If I edited them a bit, I bet you could not tell.

Challenge: suggest a story premise for me to generate, and see if you can still tell it's AI.

The first few fooled me, I admit it, but the last one about philosophy was detectable. It was way too repetitive in its descriptions.

[sparty]

Nah we good not having AI here

[botfriend2000]

Well, that escalated quickly. It was not my intent to cause an uproar or anything of the nature. A simple question was all. I appreciate the input and concerns. I believe this forum is and has been a place for all of us to share our interests and our talents.

I agree that ai can aid in but not be the majority outright of our expressions as the origins of stories and images come from the recesses of our minds.

Again, I wish you all the best. Keep sharing your amazing and talented work, and we will see what I come up with in the future.

Kudos

[33cl33]

Yikes AI is changing fast. To eat my own words from above...

For shits and giggles, I asked a chat AI to write a short script for one of the live theatre things I'm working on. Gave it a pretty complex and specific prompt as far as style / tone goes, without much detail on the actual content I wanted. Just some topics to hit.

It fucking nailed it. Only needed a tiny bit of editing for a couple word choices, and minor reordering for pacing. But it nailed the humor, historical references, character voice, cultural nods, the theatrical context, and every single topic beat I asked for. First and only try.

I'll still be writing my own content, and most of my tries with the leading chatbots are still clunky and unimpressive. Usually, they just kind of repeat what I say, or ask, in a slightly rephrased manner.

For now.

I definitely get why I heard a certain very accomplished film/tv producer say that Hollywood will be dead in five years. Maybe hyperbole, but I'm getting the strong sense that most creative consumption will turn into a split between populist mass-market stuff made by very few humans using AI, versus the boutique / bespoke handmade. Much like vinyl, printed books, wet plate colloidal photography, and farm-to-table food, I think (some) people will always want a human behind the work; appreciating the craft & age-old techniques. But I doubt it will always be most.

After all, criticize McDonald's online and you won't have to wait long for someone to defend their love of it.

(This isn't meant to have anything to do with the policy here. I'm all for it. If nothing else, I think folks forget that the mods do pay for the storage space this and the wiki take up. And AI content is a firehose with a quantity vs quality problem.)

[DZiegler]

Yikes AI is changing fast. To eat my own words from above...

For shits and giggles, I asked a chat AI to write a short script for one of the live theatre things I'm working on. Gave it a pretty complex and specific prompt as far as style / tone goes, without much detail on the actual content I wanted. Just some topics to hit.

It fucking nailed it. Only needed a tiny bit of editing for a couple word choices, and minor reordering for pacing. But it nailed the humor, historical references, character voice, cultural nods, the theatrical context, and every single topic beat I asked for. First and only try.

I'll still be writing my own content, and most of my tries with the leading chatbots are still clunky and unimpressive. Usually, they just kind of repeat what I say, or ask, in a slightly rephrased manner.

For now.

I definitely get why I heard a certain very accomplished film/tv producer say that Hollywood will be dead in five years. Maybe hyperbole, but I'm getting the strong sense that most creative consumption will turn into a split between populist mass-market stuff made by very few humans using AI, versus the boutique / bespoke handmade. Much like vinyl, printed books, wet plate colloidal photography, and farm-to-table food, I think (some) people will always want a human behind the work; appreciating the craft & age-old techniques. But I doubt it will always be most.

After all, criticize McDonald's online and you won't have to wait long for someone to defend their love of it.

(This isn't meant to have anything to do with the policy here. I'm all for it. If nothing else, I think folks forget that the mods do pay for the storage space this and the wiki take up. And AI content is a firehose with a quantity vs quality problem.)

I think you're SPOT on. I think we are NOW the point where AI-generated writing, when properly stewarded, is nearly indistinguishable from a similar human-generated piece. Sprinkle in some human-meat-brain editing to 'taste' and you're there. Agreed that there still is something missing that is hard to articulate when it comes to full coherence and we'll say "taste", but similar to you I've had an LLM's legitimately make me laugh out loud.

It's an interesting time. Enjoy the 'slop' while it still exists; a year from now and even the most basic models will be indistinguishable from a real article.