Rose

Plastic Byers

My very first Byler fic! I just finished writing the fourth chapter, so enjoy!

Chapter 4: Martyr Couple Summary (Mike POV):

Mike, wracked with jealousy, goes to El for advice, finding that she has some problems of her own.

0~0 hellooo who sent this???

Before I continue, I will explicitly mention that I don't support AI in creative spaces and have not finished reading Super Soaker. I did end up reading the author's apologies and clarifications on the discourse, and had read around five of the beginning chapters before the controversy even started. I stopped reading because I didn't like how much Mike and Will used substances, but my personal preferences can not decide whether an author deserves to write or not.

Read further if you want details on the Super Soaker controversy:

I for one, do not readily believe wheezingwheeler’s explanation, and here’s why:

- It took her a long time to address this and she did it in a way that gives her a chance to minimize and polish her impact

- Her apology came out on the same day as a fic she’s known to be competitive about updates

- She didn’t update her tags to say something like “ai assisted” after unhiding her hidden work

- She didn’t solicit a beta reader when her fic was so popular that she could have easily found someone (one of her friends/mutuals perhaps) to check grammar

- She didn’t start using the “grammar” checker until after chapter 6

- Claude artifacts in question are used irregularly. If you are checking grammar you don’t suddenly decide to use a checker on random chapters. The pattern is not consistent with someone looking to check grammar for their entire fic because they are insecure about their grasp of the English language

- She reposted instead of deleting the story completely which is inconsistent with the claim that she “learned her lesson”. She ghosted all her accounts and turned comments off, cementing her claim as the number 3 byler fic on ao3 with no way to respond, reprimand, or demand accountability. It’s convenient when her statement gets to stand as the last word. So we are left with only the option of calling her out on fan spaces and educating each other

- Her initial dishonesty about Ai use doesn’t give me any reason to trust her now. And it doesn’t seem like an honest mistake when you lie about it, knowing that it’s frowned upon to use Ai.

I’ll also address the fallacies present in OP’s argument:

- Just because you can’t think of a reason for a fanfic writer to use ai doesn’t mean there isn’t one. (And I can think of several!)

- Claude artifacts in the coding didn’t show up in the fic until after the point Op stopped reading.

- Not everyone is claiming that it was entirely written by ai. In fact all the claims I have seen are that there were over 500 instances of copy/pasted Claude artifacts in the entire fic, which is verifiable. I went and looked at the html code myself and searched “Claude” in the finder and found that claim to be correct.

- Checking the code of an internet page html is NOT the same as running the fic through an ai checker, do your homework.

- I’ll state it again because OP was very passionate about the point that English as a second or third language writers need ai grammar checkers to improve their English: you do not need to run your fic through an ai grammar checker when the fandom is full to the brim with creatives willing to SPAG read for you for free, and organically. Also, if fanfic is a labor of love as OP claimed, I promise you don’t need to have a perfect grammatically correct fic to post. Hell, I’ve been in fandom for years and had mutuals beta check my work and STILL miss errors but it’s not the end of the world. I’ve even attempted to write characters in a variant of my language that I am not a native speaker of, and asked mutuals from that country to “britpick” my work. It feels so much better to say I did something myself and didn’t resort to ai, which is unethical, bad for the environment, and the death of creativity and critical thinking. I’ve read so much amazing fic from authors who don’t have English as a first language and it’s not always perfect or translated exactly to fit english customs or colloquialisms, but it’s still beautiful as it is.

However, I would like to say that when I asked why any Ao3 author would want to use AI in their work, that was a rhetorical question. I quite literally reasons for why someone would use AI while writing fanfiction in the very next sentence (and, of course, I can think of countless reasons why someone would feel insecure posting about their own mind), but I mostly agree with your critique other than that. One of the main things about writing is that it requires honesty. The best work I have ever written has always been about my own honest, human experiences. To be dishonest about how you think is to destroy how you write.

Before the clarification, I had taken Wheezingwheeler's words at face value. At first, I really did sympathise with her. This next part addresses your next critique that I believe is a misunderstanding. Non-native speakers do not need grammar AIs to improve their grammar. I was simply stating that it is often highly encouraged to use by our peers and even teachers, as most people are oblivious to the dangers of using AI as a crutch. This is one the things that inspired me to beta reading people's work for free, actually. I mentioned in my post that I do not use AI grammar checkers anymore, and that is not because I suddenly became some grammar god, but because I realised that it was harmful in the long run. My point isn't that people need AI to learn English, it is that people don't know that it could harm them.

Obviously, you checking out the html version and finding AI written sections changes things. Also, I said nothing about checking the html version being equivalent to running it through an AI checker. I simply discouraged people from running it through AI checkers as I have seen many people do so without people's consent. If you find anything in the code itself, that truly is a different thing, but I believe that you are taking my words out of context here. So, taking your advice anyway, I decided to "grow up" and write this for clarification.

Finally, critique and hate are two very different things. I encourage critique. Go talk about it, spread awareness, and make sure more people are aware of the dangers. However, since the author has claimed that she and her close friends were recieving threats, I had to speak up about it. Hate does not solve any problems, and targeting people around her instead of critiquing the writing is us losing the point.