The publication shut down after a surge in submissions that were clearly machine-written by an AI-generated magazine, and how to make a quick buck with ChatGPT

The magazine officially shut off submissions on February 20 after a surge in stories that publisher and editor-in-chief Neil Clarke says were clearly machine-written.

“It was increasing at such a rate that we figured that by the end of the month, we would have double the number of submissions we normally have. And that the rate it had been growing from previous months, we were concerned that we had to do something to stop it.”

Clarke said the magazine wasn’t revealing the method it was using to identify the AI-generated stories, because it didn’t want to help people game the system, but he said the quality of the writing was very poor.

Artificial intelligence has dominated headlines in recent months, particularly since the launch of ChatGPT in November. The chatbot can answer a broad range of questions, but also create original poems and stories.

Clarke said magazines like his, which pay contributors for their work, were being targeted by people trying to make a quick buck. He said he had spoken to other magazine editors about the problem.

“There’s a rise of side hustle culture online,” he said. “And some people have followings that say, ‘Hey, you can make some quick money with ChatGPT, and here’s how, and here’s a list of magazines you could submit to.’ We’re on one of those lists.

When Science Fiction Meets Technology: A Case Study of Asimov’s Detection of a Robot Mascot and the Last Hope

The magazine doesn’t yet have an answer to how it will deal with the problem, and part of the motivation to speak out was hoping for some help from the public.

The mascot is a robot. He said that they see the humor. “But the thing is that science fiction is quite often cautionary, and, you know, we don’t embrace technology just because it exists. We want to make sure that we’re using it right.

A short story titled “The Last Hope” first hit Sheila Williams’ desk in early January. The editor of Science Fiction magazine passed on the story that was reviewed by him.

At first, she didn’t think much of it; she reads and responds to writers daily as part of her job, receiving anywhere from 700 to 750 stories a month. Williams became suspicious when another story called The Last Hope came in a couple weeks later by a different writer. Williams knew immediately she had a problem with her hands after another “The Last Hope” came a few days later.

Asimov’s received around 900 stories for consideration in January and is on track to get 1,000 this month. Williams says that she can now tell if a piece is written by a human from the first few words, thanks to the pieces that appear to be artificial intelligence.

How to get paid for artificial intelligence-generated short-stories literary-magazines? A comment on Clarke’s world science fiction and fantasy blog

Williams says that there are certain character names that appear often, besides repeating titles. The online form may indicate the title of the manuscript but it may not. Author names often appear to be amalgamations of first and last names. The cover letters that some authors use have instructions on how to wire money for their story that has not been accepted. The submitter never bothered to replace it with their own.

Williams suspects that there are pieces that are not created by humans. It takes the same amount of time to download a submission and open it. And I’d rather be spending that time on the legitimate submissions.”

Most of the publications pay small per-word rates, around 8 to 10 cents, while others pay flat fees of up to a few hundred dollars for accepted pieces. In his blog, Clarke wrote that a “high percentage of fraudulent submissions” were coming from some regions but declined to name them, concerned that it could paint writers from those countries as scammy.

In some cases, the possibility of getting paid is a factor, in case people who have been banned for submitting Artificial Intelligence-generated work need the money. According to one editor, they will get submissions and emails from writers in countries with a lower cost of living, and an higher publication fee, if they use artificial intelligence in their stories.

People in the science fiction and fantasy community would be aware that it wouldn’t work. It was obvious to them that they wouldn’t be able to do this and expected it to work.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/25/23613752/ai-generated-short-stories-literary-magazines-clarkesworld-science-fiction

How to Publish My Story? A Report on the FFO Project at the Flash Fiction Online Publisher in Washington D.C., July 14, 2015

The issue is not limited to science fiction and fantasy publications. Flash Fiction Online accepts a range of genres, including horror and literary fiction. The outlet put a notice on the submission form stating they were committed to publishing stories written and edited by humans. We have the right to refuse any submission we think is primarily generated or created by language modeling software, chatGPT, or any other artificial intelligence apps, or software.

The updated terms were added around the time that FFO received more than 30 submissions from one source within a few days, says Anna Yeatts, publisher and co-editor-in-chief. Each story had a unique cover letter and was unlike what the publication normally sees. They had suspicions that some of the work they had been sent was created with artificial intelligence.

In the past, FFO has published mainstream work that has a more conventional writing style and voice that is accessible to a range of reading levels. For that, Yeatts says stories generated using AI tools could get past baseline requirements.

“It does have all the parts of the story that you try to look for. It has a beginning, middle, and end. It has a resolution, characters. The grammar is good,” Yeatts says. As staff readers get ready to read their first story, the FFO team is working to train them to look for certain elements.

He isn’t sure what the magazine can do to stop stories from coming. FFO runs on a shoestring budget, andUpgrading the Submittable plan would be costly.

The idea of soliciting stories from other authors doesn’t feel like it’s true to who we are as a publication “We really don’t have good solutions.”

Others in the community are keeping an eye on the problem that is inundating other publishers and are figuring out ways to respond before it spreads further. Matthew has started getting feedback from clients that have received submissions that look to be written using artificial intelligence.

Allowing authors to self-affirm if the work is written using artificial intelligence is a good first step. “It provides more transparency to the whole thing, because right now there’s a lot of uncertainties.”

The editor of Asimov’s is not happy about having to use her time to sift through the junk pile. But even more concerning is that legitimate new authors might see what’s happening and think editors won’t ever make it to their manuscript.