eighty-two miles

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022 – ) 1x09 "The Lord of the Tides" || 3x03 "Rhaenyra Triumphant"

TLDR; when claude-generated output is copied and pasted directly from claude's UI to ao3, the entire chunk of html code is pasted. this means claude's signature, specifically its css class name "font-claude-response-body", and possibly-accompanying tailwind css classes "break-words" "whitespace-normal", will be visible in the ao3 fic's code. this can be viewed by using browser inspect/f12. if anyone would like me to go into what this code does and why it serves as a signature, feel free to ask.

an absence of the code snippet does not rule out the possibility that a fic has been generated with Claude, or any other AI model. copying and pasting text from Claude to another editor before ao3 will eliminate this signature. however, when the signature is present, it functions as a positive.

claude's prose style is known to be quite descriptive compared to, say, chatgpt or what we would usually "recognize" as AI-generated output. but while claude's cadence is distinctive and offers hints as to whether or not a fic has been AI-generated, it is quite subtle and cannot be detected accurately by every reader. by contrast, its HTML signature deterministically points towards its use.

i suspect that many fanfiction works on ao3 are generated by claude, enough to make a conversation about it important. i'm posting this NOT because i want to bully authors off the platform, but i think it's important for us to be mindful of what we are reading especially in this day and age, and we deserve to be aware if a fic we are reading is ai-generated! the tweet linked HERE and the pdf in its replies has more details. they have also created an ao3 site skin that changes ao3's background to red if claude's code is present, so that readers can know when they are reading ai fic without opening f12.