Over the past week or so, we have noticed a huge uptake in AI-produced stories. Sometimes people openly say they are AI, other times people try to hide it. Either way, the last week has been a problem.

To be clear

AI-generated responses are not allowed on r/WritingPrompts.

It is included as a subsection of rule 1 of the subreddit and has been there for a very long time.

No joke, copypasta, or AI-generated responses

AI-generated stories will be removed from the sub, and the authors likely banned without warning.

If you see a story that you suspect is written by AI then please report it so we can have a look.

To answer a couple of questions people may have about this.

Why are you making this post?

Because we have had so, so, so many AI-generated stories lately we felt an announcement to the community was warranted. We hope that (a) some people will see this and not post their AI-generated stories, and (b) people may be more willing to report stories we have missed,

Why not allow AI-generated stories?

The purpose of this sub is to inspire authors. We want to give aspiring authors a place to practice their craft and give them small ideas that may spark an interesting story. We are not a sub dedicated, or interested in, being a playground for AI tools. There are plenty of other subs for that. Needless to say that given how easily AI-generated stories can be made and posted that if they were allowed they would likely quickly outnumber the number of stories written by actual authors.

How do the mods tell if a story is AI?

We're not going to get into the specifics as this encourages people to find ways around the rules. What we will say is we use a mixture of features that use both our own experience and judgment, as well as machine tools. We only remove once we feel that there is a significant burden of evidence, and don't just remove every story that someone says might be AI.

What if I suspect a story is AI-generated?

Report it, so we can have a look. As with any rule breaks, we'd rather have false-positives - reported stories that we as a modteam decide can stay - than false negatives - stories that are rule-breaking that we miss. Obviously don't just report every story you see, but if you are suspicious, please report it.

Can I call the author nasty things if the story is AI-generated?

No. Rule 3 still exists.

Be civil in discussion, feedback, and critiques

Users are held to a higher standard here. Think before posting

Just report it.