Most people prefer AI-written stories – and can’t tell when they are made by humans
People appear to prefer short stories created by AI over those written by humans. They are also no better than chance at telling which is which
Recent research suggests that many individuals favor AI-generated literature, despite the ongoing backlash against machine-authored content. Sydney Sears and Deena Weisberg from Villanova University in Pennsylvania conducted a study involving 1,682 adults, chosen to represent the US population in terms of gender, age, and race. Participants read either a story crafted by a human or one generated by AI, with the source of the story concealed from them.
Half of the participants were misled into believing the AI-generated story was human-written, and vice versa.
When reading AI-generated stories, participants rated their quality 1.54 out of 3 on average, compared to 0.97 for human-written stories. Additionally, the AI-created narratives were perceived as more engaging, with an average score of 1.42, while human-written stories scored a mere 1. The researchers also observed that participants rated the AI-generated stories higher when informed they were created by humans.
In further studies, where several hundred participants were asked to differentiate between AI- and human-written stories, only 39% correctly identified the AI-generated story in the first test, and 52% in the second. The researchers surmise that people may be adapting to better comprehend AI-generated output over time. However, Claire Hardaker from Lancaster University points out that humans are struggling to accept that they may not excel at writing short stories compared to AI.
She notes that people are particularly bothered when AI generates art, which poses a significant challenge for the future of human creativity.
While AI's capabilities continue to improve, the creation of AI-generated literature and art has sparked a backlash. A story in Granta magazine was accused of being AI-generated, though the competition prohibited such use. Artists also protested an AI-generated art auction at Christie's, deeming it "mass theft" due to the models being trained on existing images.
Researchers involved in the study suggest that participants' preference for AI-generated writing could be attributed to the literary journal's origins, as people generally favor accessible and popular genres over more challenging human-written works. Future experiments will explore if AI can maintain its perceived quality across various writing styles.
Written by urgent.news from New Scientist's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
