cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1311057/people-prefer-stories-written-by-ai-especially-when-told-theyre-written-by-a-human
People gave the highest ratings to stories generated by AI that they were told had been written by a human, and were unable to tell the difference between human- and AI-created stories, according to new research published by Cambridge University Press.
That’s like saying people prefer lots of highly processed food with heaps of sugar and no nutrients. It’s definitely true in some ways, but not a good thing to organise your life or society around
Why? What harms come from the AI generated stories to their readers?
Did you read the stories?
Considering you immediately down voted my comment, I think it’s fair to ask: is that a genuinely curious question?
The #1 thing I can think of is plagiarism.
AI stories are quite literally unoriginal works generated from original mediums and it’s harmful to all authors worldwide.
AI-giarism is still plagiarism.
https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archive/plagiarism-copyright-and-ai
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/08/ai-companies-buying-used-books-for-data/688167/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1096751625000806
That’s a great analogy!