Ben Affleck recently went viral for his take on artificial intelligence (AI), which includes his opinion that it can be useful for writing Succession fanfic.
But what does the fanfiction community have to say about AI?
A quick search on fanfiction forums on Reddit illustrates that fanfic lovers have been concerned about the issue of AI for years. The site hosts numerous posts from two or three years ago of readers first encountering AI-written sites on Archive of Our Own (AO3), the most popular fanfiction platform. All of these early posts are highly critical of practice, expressing worry over the future of the medium.
Many fanfic readers and writers also expressed anger about the revelation that Open AI models such as Elon Musk’s Sudowrites scrapes and mines data from AO3 to train its language models.
“So let me get this straight, fanfiction writers aren’t EVER allowed to monetize their work (despite other fanworks being fine to do so), but this asshole can go ahead and steal them to power what will undoubtedly be used for profit?” one writer posted on Reddit.
How fanfiction communities are reacting to AI
In response to the uproar, AO3 instituted policies to prevent any further data scraping from the site. However, they also made a statement indicating they would support AI-created works posted on the platform.
“If fans are using AI to generate fanworks, then our current position is that this is also a type of work that is within our mandate to preserve,” reads the statement.
Responses to the latter change were largely critical online. “I disagree that AI-generated fic is fanwork. a computer cannot be a fan of anything, and good or bad, the act of putting prompts into a generator does not constitute work. human fans need to be protected, not AI,” wrote one X user.
So what is the solution? On Reddit, some have proposed banning AI-created fanworks altogether. But others have noted this policy could be problematic because it means people would post AI fics anyway and no one would be the wiser. Some have suggested creating a tag for AI-generated works would be a better solution, as users could then opt out of reading those fics.
This tagging system has since been adopted on AO3, which now includes tags like “Created Using Generative AI,” which applies to several thousand works on the site.
This debate has generated a secondary problem as well––a sort of air of suspicion around AI use in fanfiction.
As one X user wrote, “y’all NEED to tread lightly accusing fanfic writers using AI for their works, because there is a large possibility that if they’re not using it, then y’all quickly diminish their hard work.”
AI use in the fanfiction community is quite divisive
Indeed, AI use in the fanfiction community has become quite divisive, and the issue deeply angers many. Reddit and X are filled with users shaking their first at AI in fanfiction, lamenting how it cheapens the craft and harms both the creative community and the planet.
Others are shocked to find more positive takes on AI on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, particularly among Gen Z users. It’s very possible that opinions on AI in fanfiction vary depending on age group, especially considering how many high school and college students use ChatGPTfor schoolwork.
On TikTok, one user posted her “trick” to turn fanfiction into an audiobook using AI, while another user saw an ad encouraging her to do the same thing. “This is in so many levels fucked up i dont even have words for it ??” a user wrote in response on X.
Many fanfic writers have pointed out the double standard between visual arts and writing. “fighting the urge to go into instagrams comment sections on posts about fanfic and AI and ask everyone who is arguing pro AI “would you say the same thing about fanart?” one X user posted.
These discussions have caused some to seriously ponder what fanfic is, or at least what it should be. Those against the use of AI in fanfiction argue that writers create fic for the love of the craft or the love of the characters, rather than creating content for content’s sake. “There’s no reason to tarnish it with a heartless bot,” one fan wrote.
As for Ben Affleck’s excitement about the possibility of Alternate Universe Succession episodes, fanfic writers want him to know he doesn’t need AI for that. “sorry just obsessed with that Affleck clip that makes me understand that men love AI because they haven’t discovered fanfiction,” one fan quipped.
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