AI and the skin-walker's witch hunt
An introduction
Fandom space has always thrived on the creativity and collaboration of fans. From AUs to crackfics, creativity is what makes the fandom world go around. Is it really a surprise, then, that A.I. (artificial intelligence) and LLMs (large language models) are often looked down on in such spaces? A robot that predicts the most likely next word in a sentence isn't creative; it's the antithesis of everything fandom culture has stood for. All of a sudden, people who had been writing for their own creative fulfilment had their work stolen, used to train A.I. models to generate profit. Fandom became a place hostile to A.I. as soon as A.I. entered it, but this hostility has led to fear among writers and authors alike.
How do I sound human?
You write. Seriously, begin writing.
I hate to sound cheesy, but you are the only thing holding yourself back in this instance. If you're sat reading this section, you're afraid of judgement and accusation; you're so afraid of being accused of something that you so vehemently disagree with that you won't even try what you love. Isn't that sad? No matter what you do to avoid sounding like A.I., those tips will be taken by other writers, those writers will publish their work, whether traditionally or online, and that work will be scraped as training data. Any advice that you get, no matter how much you avoid "A.I. tells" like emdashes or tildes, will become redundant in a matter of months as new works get fed to the machine and a new set of "tells" is discovered.
Use tildes, use semicolons and oxford commas. Ignore those who make baseless accusations, you can't tell whether something is human-written or not by its vibe. A.I. learned to write from free content on the internet. Youtube comments, reddit threads, and perhaps most importantly, fanfiction websites like wattpad, ao3, and fanfiction.net. No matter what you write, you will never "sound like" A.I., because A.I. sounds like you, it sounds like us, the fandom collective.
Aside from that, find your style in writing and be confident in yourself. One of my favourite lines in fiction is "the ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't", from Douglas Adams's A hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. Douglas Adams in general has a very distinct, very humorous writing style. He is unabashedly silly, but even his jokes' setup is a witty device. Many people, myself included, managed a giggle out of the imagery of a brick hitting the ground with an unceremonious crack, but there is also merit in the metaphor itself. Metaphors naturally exist as a comparison, by juxtaposing the idea of the ships and a brick, it brings to mind the size of the ships, their impossible weight, and how unnatural it is for them to be flying in the first place. This is not the only example of his distinct humour hiding other messages, such as "Nothing happened. And then, nothing continued to happen." cementing the finality of death, or "It's unpleasantly like being drunk", "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?", "Ask a glass of water." subverting the expectation that drunk refers to being intoxicated, when in reality it is referring to the act of drinking fluids at all, and illustrating the danger the characters are in. All in all, a witty writing style that allows the reader to lower their guard while painting a vivid picture at the same time.
I am not saying to mimic the writing style of Douglas Adams. For as much as I like it personally, it's his, and it should remain that way. Do, however, take inspiration from writing styles you enjoy.
How do I protect myself?
Honestly, there isn't a ton you can do, but that doesn't mean there is nothing. Hiding your work is probably safest. If you're posting to AO3, like I do, click the "only show work to registered users" box. The harder it is for A.I. to access your work, the less likely that work is to be scraped. There is no poisoning LLMs in the same way that one can poison an image. There is, however, something to be said about how this discourages fandom practice and etiquette. Fandom exists to be shared, hundreds or thousands of people coming together to share their interpretation of the story, how they feel a character should or shouldn't act according to their interpretation. The harder it is for A.I. to access your work, the harder it is for fans to do the same. I can't count the amount of fics or AUs I've personally abandoned because viewing required an account on a site I didn't use. A.I. based paranoia, as much as it is justified, rips fandom apart from the inside.
Until laws change, be vocal. Join protests, online or in person, sign petitions. Do not engage in witch hunts, it harms fandom and it fosters distrust.
Turn to writing software that is either offline or vehemently against generative A.I., such as ellipsus. They actually sell merch to fund their development, such as their "defend the em-dash" stickers, "resistance starts with words" shirt, or "this machine kills fascists" typewriter stickers. On top of that, their "plus" model is based on aesthetics along with showing your own personal statistics and operates on a "subscribe to own" model, meaning that if you've subscribed for 24 months (continuous or not), you no longer have to pay. In case it isn't clear, this is the software I personally use after I abandoned google docs.
What if I use AI?
Then that is your choice. I disagree with it, but what lines are drawn are up to the individual. All I ask is that you disclose it. Not doing so, you're betraying your readers, and making them engage in content they would otherwise avoid. AO3 even has a tag for AI-generated works! The best example I could give for this, if someone with a peanut allergy orders chips/fries at a restaurant, can you blame them for getting upset when they have an allergic reaction? No, you would instead get mad at the restaurant for not disclosing that their fryers use peanut oil. In the same way that it's reasonable to assume the fryers use vegetable oils, it's reasonable to assume fanfic, a section of the internet based on human creativity and passion, is made by humans.
A take away
A.I. usage is looked down on in fandom, I believe the reasons for this are reasonable. There have been studies documenting the negative effects of A.I. generated texts on authors, and how it saps creativity. Hunting for people who may or may not be using A.I. sows distrust in a space that has always been collaborative by nature, we wouldn't have omegaverse if not for team world building. If you use A.I., please disclose it, so people can make informed choices about whether or not to engage in your work. Consent remains important, informed consent even more so.
