“Just over half (51%) of published novelists in the UK believe that artificial intelligence is likely to end up entirely replacing their work as fiction writers, a new University of Cambridge report shows.
Close to two-thirds (59%) of novelists say they know their work has been used to train AI large language models (LLMs) without permission or payment.
Over a third (39%) of novelists say their income has already taken a hit from generative AI, for example, due to loss of other work that facilitates novel writing. Most (85%) novelists expect their future income to be driven down by AI.
Genre authors are considered the most vulnerable to displacement by AI, according to the report, with two-thirds (66%) of all those surveyed listing romance authors as “extremely threatened,” followed closely by writers of thrillers (61%) and crime (60%).”
creaturefeature16 on
So sad. What a horrible invention.
If someone can’t be bothered to write it, I can’t be bothered to read it.Â
spaceraingame on
Here’s a question: what percent of readers would want to read a novel written by AI?
SallySpaghetti on
As a reader and writer, this scares the hell out of me.
aeonrevolution on
I’m nearing the completion on my first novel. It is a pet project for my son who is about to be born, no real intentions to try to get published.
I’m about to have one of my friends read it and I’m already terrified if he thinks it’s good, that he’ll also think I used AI.
stellae-fons on
Bullshit. AI can’t coherently write a short story, let alone an entire novel.
sneakypiiiig on
I think we should all resist solely AI produced content in every way we can. It’s going to get to the point where our whole lives are just AI’d away. Why do we need clankers to do shit humans are perfectly capable of doing? Ask yourself that question. AI should make our lives better, not destroy our livelihoods.
FennelDull6559 on
Nobody is interested in reading the disconnected text of a robot even if that’s a badass biography title for the book
lonegungrrly on
I think it’ll kill a lot of self publishing. People will not want to chance that they’re buying AI slop. Traditional publishing should make some stance to prove books are 100% human made
rotator_cuff on
AI is motivating me more than ever before to do stuff. And I mean without AI. I craft, I write, I paint, and start playing DnD with people in real life after more than a decade. I have always been a MASSIVE tech nerd, but over the last 3 years, it’s sucking all the joy I’ve ever felt about it. AI can do whatever; I don’t really care about it.
TheFinestPotatoes on
Half of all novelists are writing trashy airport romance novels
AI can definitely replace that
Craniummon on
I have so many problems with AI, but the main one it’s on core level, I always wonder if creativity will die with that.
We are sensorial beings and our knowledge come from it. AI is nothing more than a parrot who amass data and show it up for us. Humans has indeed strong behavior who can be predict, humans are also amazing in copy and learn patterns due it, but it also make us have critical thinking, which is what I believe IA lacks. Because IA will always keep on doing what believe it is correct due programming, but not change and update this new setting by itself.
Humans due being social and have multiple point of views has also the ability to construct and discriminate through discussions and idea change. I imagine the IA keep on same loop because it doesn’t update without an input.
For majority, I do believe AI will destroy the creativity, but for a minority it will mean nothing because IA will live in an eternal catch up game against them… And due our resilience, the majority of humans might be able to surpass the AI to the point people will reject it since we need to experience in multiple ways and the experience of many to reach a new knowledge. These ones I believe will reject Ai almost entirely and will chase the experience on first hand whenever it’s possible.
Writing in special I believe where this catch up will be easier to notice. After all, can an Ai say why the Goddess Morrigan is being compared with a Cadillac?
Basset_found on
You know, we’d probably just stop reading ‘new’ books, right? There’s a lot of other stuff available.Â
emorcen on
Recently many AI musicians got huge listenership and some hid the fact that everything was AI generated until exposed. They do the job better than 90+% of professionals and it’s at that point where you can’t tell anymore. People will be reading AI written novels and loving them without even knowing AI generated them in the first place.
CelticSavagery on
The irony being that AI could provide me with the leisure time to read and enjoy more books, yet, it will simultaneously kill most of the media I enjoy in my leisure time, including books – it’s already happening with gaming.
imnota4 on
AI can mimic language, but it can’t replace the way a human actually *sees* the world. Your value as a writer isn’t in producing grammatically correct sentences, it’s in generating experiences, insights, and emotional truths that come from living a human life. AI is trained on language, not on ideas or lived perspectives.
If a writer’s sense of value comes only from linguistic skill rather than from the originality or depth of their ideas, then yes, AI will feel threatening. But that just reinforces how important it is to write from a place that machines can’t access: your own consciousness, context, and meaning.
Distinct_Ad_5492 on
Put a label on AI works and then we’ll see who actually is interested in it. It’s inevitable that people in a system that demands profit for survival will use this tool. But you can regulate and curb its influence or outright ban it.
this_is_me_drunk on
Can AI come up with a compelling story, unprompted? Or should I say with a generic prompt, like “write a book about a love story with a tragic twist that no one has thought of before”.
I doubt. That’s the domain of human creativity. Once an author comes up with that special story, they can use AI to make their work easier. It’s something some famous authors already do, through hired human help, and AI without a doubt.
Ok-Mathematician8461 on
OK – here is the counter argument – novelists will adapt and adjust. A huge amount of the stuff on on-line bookstores (like Apple) is just romantic drivel for people to read on a train during their commute. AI can churn that out and novelists won’t even notice. But it’s likely AI will take over Hollywood first – because the humans there are already making monotonous and repetitive drivel. Has anyone been surprised by a Hollywood plot this century? By getting AI to write the scripts it will just remove the processes like test audiences that Hollywood use to remove any spark of joy or creativity from their current product. They might even be able to eliminate many of the Botox clones that some like to call actors. But novelists with real life experiences to draw upon will be able to create new plots and spend more time on their characterizations because they will have AI editing tools to speed up the necessary but monotonous work of turning 100,000 words into an internally consistent narrative. Work is work – even when it’s writing a book. AI can help with the drudge work.
mynameizmyname on
It essentially relies on a massive amount of copywrite infringement if I understand the way AI works?
abhorrent_pantheon on
One of the really key points that a lot of people in this thread seem to have glossed over is the line
*”Over a third (39%) of novelists say their income has already taken a hit from generative AI, for example, due to loss of other work that facilitates novel writing.”*
I’m sure a lot of many writer’s income doesn’t come from the actual writing output, but more things like reviewing other works, editing, *etc*. AI can definitely do that fairly well now and it’s likely to improve more.
If someone who defines themselves as a novelist is no longer doing this work, they are likely not going to be staying in the field (writing/editing) but rather earning money doing something else. This could have so many different paths of impact – no longer seeing good/bad examples of writing to reflect and hone your own skills, being too tired to sit down and write, *etc*.
egowritingcheques on
I agree that 50% of novelists could be replaced by AI.
What I would like to know is what percentage of the population would even notice?
bananasoymilk on
I’m picky about the authors that I read and support. I look into their backgrounds or see if my friends who work with books (a librarian and a bookseller, both who avoid AI slop) recommend them.
Although I do miss the old days where you could grab anything off the shelf and it would be made by a human.
youneedtobreathe on
Believe? It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t expect it to happen already
RickdiculousM19 on
I don’t want to read anything by AI. There’s plenty to read published before 2019. If I even suspect a writer or a publisher of condoning AI use, especially undisclosed AI use, I’ll just go ahead and blacklist them. There’s so much to read anyway.
25 Comments
“Just over half (51%) of published novelists in the UK believe that artificial intelligence is likely to end up entirely replacing their work as fiction writers, a new University of Cambridge report shows.
Close to two-thirds (59%) of novelists say they know their work has been used to train AI large language models (LLMs) without permission or payment.
Over a third (39%) of novelists say their income has already taken a hit from generative AI, for example, due to loss of other work that facilitates novel writing. Most (85%) novelists expect their future income to be driven down by AI.
Genre authors are considered the most vulnerable to displacement by AI, according to the report, with two-thirds (66%) of all those surveyed listing romance authors as “extremely threatened,” followed closely by writers of thrillers (61%) and crime (60%).”
So sad. What a horrible invention.
If someone can’t be bothered to write it, I can’t be bothered to read it.Â
Here’s a question: what percent of readers would want to read a novel written by AI?
As a reader and writer, this scares the hell out of me.
I’m nearing the completion on my first novel. It is a pet project for my son who is about to be born, no real intentions to try to get published.
I’m about to have one of my friends read it and I’m already terrified if he thinks it’s good, that he’ll also think I used AI.
Bullshit. AI can’t coherently write a short story, let alone an entire novel.
I think we should all resist solely AI produced content in every way we can. It’s going to get to the point where our whole lives are just AI’d away. Why do we need clankers to do shit humans are perfectly capable of doing? Ask yourself that question. AI should make our lives better, not destroy our livelihoods.
Nobody is interested in reading the disconnected text of a robot even if that’s a badass biography title for the book
I think it’ll kill a lot of self publishing. People will not want to chance that they’re buying AI slop. Traditional publishing should make some stance to prove books are 100% human made
AI is motivating me more than ever before to do stuff. And I mean without AI. I craft, I write, I paint, and start playing DnD with people in real life after more than a decade. I have always been a MASSIVE tech nerd, but over the last 3 years, it’s sucking all the joy I’ve ever felt about it. AI can do whatever; I don’t really care about it.
Half of all novelists are writing trashy airport romance novels
AI can definitely replace that
I have so many problems with AI, but the main one it’s on core level, I always wonder if creativity will die with that.
We are sensorial beings and our knowledge come from it. AI is nothing more than a parrot who amass data and show it up for us. Humans has indeed strong behavior who can be predict, humans are also amazing in copy and learn patterns due it, but it also make us have critical thinking, which is what I believe IA lacks. Because IA will always keep on doing what believe it is correct due programming, but not change and update this new setting by itself.
Humans due being social and have multiple point of views has also the ability to construct and discriminate through discussions and idea change. I imagine the IA keep on same loop because it doesn’t update without an input.
For majority, I do believe AI will destroy the creativity, but for a minority it will mean nothing because IA will live in an eternal catch up game against them… And due our resilience, the majority of humans might be able to surpass the AI to the point people will reject it since we need to experience in multiple ways and the experience of many to reach a new knowledge. These ones I believe will reject Ai almost entirely and will chase the experience on first hand whenever it’s possible.
Writing in special I believe where this catch up will be easier to notice. After all, can an Ai say why the Goddess Morrigan is being compared with a Cadillac?
You know, we’d probably just stop reading ‘new’ books, right? There’s a lot of other stuff available.Â
Recently many AI musicians got huge listenership and some hid the fact that everything was AI generated until exposed. They do the job better than 90+% of professionals and it’s at that point where you can’t tell anymore. People will be reading AI written novels and loving them without even knowing AI generated them in the first place.
The irony being that AI could provide me with the leisure time to read and enjoy more books, yet, it will simultaneously kill most of the media I enjoy in my leisure time, including books – it’s already happening with gaming.
AI can mimic language, but it can’t replace the way a human actually *sees* the world. Your value as a writer isn’t in producing grammatically correct sentences, it’s in generating experiences, insights, and emotional truths that come from living a human life. AI is trained on language, not on ideas or lived perspectives.
If a writer’s sense of value comes only from linguistic skill rather than from the originality or depth of their ideas, then yes, AI will feel threatening. But that just reinforces how important it is to write from a place that machines can’t access: your own consciousness, context, and meaning.
Put a label on AI works and then we’ll see who actually is interested in it. It’s inevitable that people in a system that demands profit for survival will use this tool. But you can regulate and curb its influence or outright ban it.
Can AI come up with a compelling story, unprompted? Or should I say with a generic prompt, like “write a book about a love story with a tragic twist that no one has thought of before”.
I doubt. That’s the domain of human creativity. Once an author comes up with that special story, they can use AI to make their work easier. It’s something some famous authors already do, through hired human help, and AI without a doubt.
OK – here is the counter argument – novelists will adapt and adjust. A huge amount of the stuff on on-line bookstores (like Apple) is just romantic drivel for people to read on a train during their commute. AI can churn that out and novelists won’t even notice. But it’s likely AI will take over Hollywood first – because the humans there are already making monotonous and repetitive drivel. Has anyone been surprised by a Hollywood plot this century? By getting AI to write the scripts it will just remove the processes like test audiences that Hollywood use to remove any spark of joy or creativity from their current product. They might even be able to eliminate many of the Botox clones that some like to call actors. But novelists with real life experiences to draw upon will be able to create new plots and spend more time on their characterizations because they will have AI editing tools to speed up the necessary but monotonous work of turning 100,000 words into an internally consistent narrative. Work is work – even when it’s writing a book. AI can help with the drudge work.
It essentially relies on a massive amount of copywrite infringement if I understand the way AI works?
One of the really key points that a lot of people in this thread seem to have glossed over is the line
*”Over a third (39%) of novelists say their income has already taken a hit from generative AI, for example, due to loss of other work that facilitates novel writing.”*
I’m sure a lot of many writer’s income doesn’t come from the actual writing output, but more things like reviewing other works, editing, *etc*. AI can definitely do that fairly well now and it’s likely to improve more.
If someone who defines themselves as a novelist is no longer doing this work, they are likely not going to be staying in the field (writing/editing) but rather earning money doing something else. This could have so many different paths of impact – no longer seeing good/bad examples of writing to reflect and hone your own skills, being too tired to sit down and write, *etc*.
I agree that 50% of novelists could be replaced by AI.
What I would like to know is what percentage of the population would even notice?
I’m picky about the authors that I read and support. I look into their backgrounds or see if my friends who work with books (a librarian and a bookseller, both who avoid AI slop) recommend them.
Although I do miss the old days where you could grab anything off the shelf and it would be made by a human.
Believe? It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t expect it to happen already
I don’t want to read anything by AI. There’s plenty to read published before 2019. If I even suspect a writer or a publisher of condoning AI use, especially undisclosed AI use, I’ll just go ahead and blacklist them. There’s so much to read anyway.