You Can Find It! Identifying AI-Assisted and Generated Content
Introduction and Table of Contents
When I was a bookstore manager one of the things I did every Spring was make sure my CliffsNotes displays were full and that I had plenty of backstock for the always-assigned classics that students were assigned to complete over the Summer.
Early August the parents and students would come to the store with the reading list and try to fit all of the prep that they should have been doing for weeks into the final days of Summer vacation. They would buy CliffsNotes to 'read' the books and prepare for the upcoming semester.
Of course, we would suggest they also buy the book, or at the least borrow the book from the library, too. Because CliffsNotes aren't a substitute for reading a book; they are a tool that can help the reader understand it better.
I am reminded of those students often these days; people that wanted a shortcut, to take credit for work that they didn't do, to be rewarded for effort that they didn't give.
I am reminded of them every time I see unattributed AI-Assisted or generated online content. And I do see it, almost every day, and I feel the same way for these wanna-be authors that are passing off the work of a tool as a replacement for their own efforts and expecting to reap rewards.
I am an author/creator on the Vocal platform, where content is shared and the creators receive payment based on the reads of their work. That enticement of financial gain is a carrot for some 'authors' to cut corners and pass off post after post of AI generated content as their own, hoping for the big bucks and perhaps also the dopamine rush of seeing their name in print.
Vocal does allow AI generated and assisted content, but their policy states that AI use must be called out at the beginning of that content. Their policy can be encapsulated in this sentence from their AI Policy:
At this time, any content that utilizes AI to support its creation must contain a disclaimer.
With such a clear policy it would be tempting to believe all content that uses AI would include that disclaimer. However, that is not the case. On a daily basis I see multiple posted content that is clearly AI assisted or completely AI generated among Vocal's 'Latest Stories', and within the past month at least two of these were recognized with the coveted Top Story designation. Some also receive positive and encouraging comments from other Vocal creators.
Puzzling on how something that was so clear to me could be overlooked or undetected by others I realized that a guide on identifying such contact would be useful.
To prepare I identified twelve AI assisted and/or generated pieces on Friday August 18, 2023. All twelve of the pieces were posted by different Vocal members within three hours of each other, and all of them received a comment from me pointing them towards the Vocal policy and the need to add a disclaimer.
One of the stories has since been removed, but the other eleven remain and will be used as examples within the guide to illustrate the hallmarks of AI-generated content. I have blocked their names and will use screen shots of the content, with links to the originals in the index.
This guide will focus mainly on Fiction, with subsequent guides devoted to non-fiction and poetry.
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Titles and Subtitles
- Featured Images
- Opening Paragraphs
- Location Names
- Character Names
- Story Arcs
- Vocabulary
- Descriptions of Time
- Morals of the Story
- Tagging and Community Placement
- Index and links to the AI-Generated articles on Vocal used in this guide.
All content is the property of the author: Judey Kalchik
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The above content is the beginning of my work-in-progress. I would very much appreciate your feedback as I complete the guide: Please leave me a comment below!
Here is the first chapter:
Please Subscribe to me (it's free! and available to ALL Vocal members) to receive a notification when the other chapters are posted.
Here are two other Vocal stories that I've written on the subject, some of the content will be included in the completed guide.
About the Creator
Judey Kalchik
It's my time to find and use my voice.
Poetry, short stories, memories, and a lot of things I think and wish I'd known a long time ago.
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Comments (16)
https://vocal.media/writers/from-llama-to-chameleon-this-is-meta-s-new-multimodal-man-made-intelligence
Thank you for this information
Great resource!
Yesssss!! Thank you for writing this, Judey!!!
I recently decided to branch to new communities and was so put off by the sheer volume of AI work. It is so very obvious, how can they not see the similarities between each other's work. This needs to be written. Good luck with it.
Judey, thank you for the great information and for your vigilant efforts to combat AI-generated content. It is bad enough that we have to sift through the AI junk, but even worse, our REAL stories are being stolen (I am assuming by the very sites pushing out the fake AI stories). This is so disturbing, that I am contemplating deleting everything from my profile! Again, thanks!
Thanks Judey! This is great content
Excellent work
Thanks for the information 👍
Excellent guide and really useful. Thanks for all your hard work Judey
I look forward to your guide, Judey.
Thank you for this, Judey. For me, at least and sometimes, it can be hard to notice AI creations (assisted or otherwise). It will be helpful to have a guide since it doesn't always seem to be caught.
Thank you! I am anxious to read more. I don't know if I know for sure. Is a comment like, "now we will talk about..." It is one author identified but we is used in the story.😊💕
Yes! This is great. I sometimes find it hard to catch, to be honest.
Thank you for this
YES! Thank you for doing this, Judey! AI-generated content is so easy to spot. It doesn't take a genius to recognize it. But as I always say, I highly doubt that cheaters are interested in respecting the rules. They just go from one platform to the next, trying to make a quick buck. Vocal now seems willing to do something to slow down the increase in crappy content.