Would you read a book written by AI? Many authors worry you will

Fiction writers are increasingly pessimistic about being replaced by generative artificial intelligence (AI), with many already experiencing a loss in income due to the technology.

The rapid advancement of generative AI is making creatives anxious. Many musicians, actors, and visual artists have already protested against the use of their work for training large language models (LLMs).

Writers aren’t an exception, a new survey by Cambridge University’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy shows. It included answers from 258 published novelists and 74 industry insiders in the United Kingdom.

More than half (51%) of published novelists say they believe AI will entirely replace their work as fiction writers.

Such pessimism may stem from the fact that AI is learning from them whether they want it or not – six in ten (59%) novelists report that their work has been used to train LLMs without their permission or compensation.

Nearly four in ten (39%) novelists say their finances have already taken a hit from generative AI, as the technology is drying up other sources of income, such as copywriting or translation.

Some literary creatives told researchers that they are forced to compete with AI-generated books flooding the market, while others report finding books under their names on Amazon that they haven’t written.

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Unsurprisingly, a staggering 85% of novelists expect AI to further drive down their future income.

Genre authors may be the most vulnerable to displacement by AI, according to the survey. Two-thirds (66%) of respondents believe that romance authors are “extremely threatened”, followed closely by writers of thrillers (61%) and crime (60%).

Almost all (97%) novelists are “extremely negative” about AI writing whole novels. However, around 20% of novelists say they use AI for sourcing general facts or information.

Could writers’ fears be unfounded?

An investigation published on the British writers' trade union website reveals that Amazon appears to be flooded with AI-written books and not attributed as such, despite the platform’s requirement to inform it about AI-generated content.

They are often celebrity biographies, featuring 100-120 pages of font size 16 with gigantic indentations on both sides, timed to coincide with the release of actual books.

However, even if AI-generated art is increasingly difficult to spot, readers appear to prefer books authored by real humans.

According to a YouGov survey, 56% of American adults want to be informed about any AI contribution to a book's creation, regardless of the extent of its involvement.

As many as 63% said they would feel less fulfilled if they discovered the book they had just finished was written by AI.

Despite AI replacement fears across a wide range of industries, the technology has not yet had a significant impact on jobs.

A recent study by the Yale Budget Lab concluded that the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022 didn’t cause major disruptions in the job market. While the biggest changes occurred in the information sector, these trends started before the rollout of generative AI.

Many in the literary industry also doubt that AI will be able to fully replace human writers, although they are concerned about AI infringing on writers’ copyright and suppressing their pay.

​The Writers Guild of Great Britain states that it doesn’t believe that “AI will be able to replicate the originality, authenticity, enthusiasm and humanity that professional writers put into their storytelling.”

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