ChatGPT is making it LESS likely aspiring authors will be able to sell their work
This is something I predicted in an OP here a couple of weeks ago. But I just found confirmation via a message on Mastodon from the editor of the science fiction magazine Clarkesworld. ChatGPT-using fake writers are flooding submissions, making slush piles impossible to deal with even with publishers BANNING authors who use AI to write for them.
Post late this afternoon from Neil Clarke, editor and publisher of Clarkesworld ( https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarkesworld_Magazine ) :
https://masto.ai/@clarkesworld@mastodon.online/109871320856437472
That links to this new post on his website:
http://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/
-snipping a graph I don't want to hotlink to-
(Note: This is being published on the 15th of February. In 15 days, we’ve more than doubled the total for all of January.)
I’m not going to detail how I know these stories are “AI” spam or outline any of the data I have collected from these submissions. There are some very obvious patterns and I have no intention of helping those people become less likely to be caught. Furthermore, some of the patterns I’ve observed could be abused and paint legitimate authors with the same brush. Regional trends, for example.
What I can say is that the number of spam submissions resulting in bans has hit 38% this month. While rejecting and banning these submissions has been simple, it’s growing at a rate that will necessitate changes. To make matters worse, the technology is only going to get better, so detection will become more challenging. (I have no doubt that several rejected stories have already evaded detection or were cases where we simply erred on the side of caution.)
-snip-
Thanks to ChatGPT, more than a third of the submissions are spam from writers (fake writers) who have to be banned. And the problem is rapidly getting worse.
Clarke mentions some possible remedies. One is limiting the submission window, which would probably mean closing the magazine to new submissions at least temporarily. Another would be soliciting submissions from specific professional authors or accepting submissions only from a narrower set of known authors (my guess is that with a science fiction magazine, that would probably mean SFWA members). He also mentions blocking submissions from people using a VPN, and possibly even banning by region where regions are known for fraud.
He says he's reached out to other editors dealing with the same problem.
He says "business as usual won’t be sustainable" and he worries abour how much rougher this will make it for new and international authors.
Response times for submissions will get worse.
ChatGPT is creating a nightmare for aspiring authors.
This is what I predicted two weeks ago:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217612552
Newcomers' work, and even their query letters asking if they should submit work, typically end up in what is usually called the slush pile. It's called that because most of what's in it is dreck and it's always been a chore for those assigned to the slush pile to get through it, before sending back a reply, most often a standard rejection letter. Ray Bradbury received hundreds of rejection letters before selling his first published story.
ChatGPT will increase those slush piles by orders of magnitude. Making the odds of ever getting out of them, unless you can make the right connections, much worse for aspiring artists.
Especially if the people who are those filters do not want to approve AI-generated work, and there are no good tools for automatically detecting and rejecting it, to weed it out. If anything, AI-generated submissions are likely to make them more likely to rely on established artists if they're determined to promote and sell work created by humans rather than AI. Finding great new talent in a slush pile was always like searching for a diamond needle in a haystack. AI-generated submissions will make that a mountain-sized haystack.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Maybe that should be updated to computer & AI ChatGPT.
Not sure how they would know & I'm not asking, but I have no doubt it will get worse & catalyze more self-publishing.
Ty for sharing info.
All I can say is… great.
My publisher went under in 2008. It’s been self publishing ever since. The odds just keep getting longer.
And the bot cranked it right out. 
Dunno anything more about it.
How will teachers discern whether students are using this for papers? (Asking rhetorically.)
This is a very interesting topic to me, and I appreciate it. 
