With all the talk about AI I don't hear much (or any) talk about it in writing fanfiction. I am not a fanfiction writer (well not anymore I did it in my teens and early 20s), so I have no dog in that fight, Because there is little or no money on the table and because IP/Copyright enforcement over fanfiction is wonky already, if someone was to use AI to create fanfiction and post it on a fanfic site I don't think it would hit the same red alert alarms that conversations about AI writing in other areas hit. I think it will be an interesting thing to look at because it will likely be a true test of the true application of AI as writer. What would AI do in a reading/writing society with no barriers of entry, or would AI force gatekeepers (ie webmasters) to create a barrier so "Writers wanted: AI need not apply." OR would those who read fanfic skip websites and other options all together and just use AI to make their own stories, customized to your desires. (No longer do I have to wait for someone to write a story about Lion-O from Thundercats meeting Christy from CBS's sitcom MOM, true story I had ChatGPT write that... it was okay). I think how AI is used in the fanfic communities will be very telling of how real people TRULY feel about AI writing.
Interesting point. It's always seemed that people seeking fan fiction will accept minimum viable product. So, can AI ever reach that height? Or maybe that's the comfortable ranging ground where it will be honed. Still, I think the value in fan fiction for most people is it's written by someone with a special understanding of the characters in question. In other words, a fan. Fan's can't be emulated by any known technology today, and I won't hold my breath that they can ever be.
That is assuming the AI has that story, or stories from that universe in it's data set. I wonder what the result would be if the story world was outside the Data set.
I can't argue that's wrong, but I'm not sure if that's right. I would assume most fanfiction readers are also fanfiction writers (at least to some level) so there probably is since of "I don't want to read it if a fan didn't write it." But that may be a case by case situation, and if AI becomes good enough they might look past it.
Hmm... only one way to find out. I asked ChatGPT to write a short story about the "TigerSharks" cartoon. TigerSharks is a real cartoon produced by the same people who made ThunderCats but it was not nearly as successful, I think it only lasted one season if that. Point is, it's a real thing, but likely not a ton of info on it exist, there is probably a very small fan community if one exist at all on the internet. So what does ChatGPT do... makes up some bullshit. It made up it's own story that had nothing to do with the cartoon. There is a bit of irony, where it came up with a totally original story, which is a positive of the technology, but I specifically asked it to base it on an 80's cartoon, I actually asked twice both times phrasing it slightly different just to make sure my prompt wasn't asking the wrong thing. Both times I got stories wildly different than what you would get even looking up the series on Wikipedia. So the take away is, if AI doesn't have enough info to write fanfiction it will may make up its own story. To be fair, I have asked CGPT fact based questions and when the AI does not know an answer it has said so. Only when I said "Tell me a story, based on this cartoon" did it say "Man **** you, I don't know about that lame ass shit, here's another story,"
I more sort of meant that only a fan will know what another fan is seeking from a fanfiction. Making certain characters slam each other, exploration of truncated material, what-ifs, that kind of thing.
Well I don't think we are anywhere near the point where AI will independently start making fanfiction (but beware of that day, the next day is sky-net). But rather a (human) fan using AI to write fanfiction rather than writing it themselves. All the ethnical concerns of publishers but less teeth to enforce things.
I guess I don't read enough fan fiction to know how well it can be cheated or what standards are accepted. I suppose description can afford to be lacking, for example, because the fan already has a character in mind's eye. Mannerisms might be tougher from one format to another.
From what I have see we are close to HAL9000 now. Anyway chatgpt is going to respond "I can't do that Dave." The Arnold will be back.
