My Inner Debate About AI
Why has Top in Fiction consistently been several days to a full week behind its regular schedule? I know many of you have noticed because many of you have DM’d me about it. And the honest answer? I’m fed up with AI.
It’s become more real and plain to me that the possibility that something Top in Fiction features has a higher probability of having used AI in any number of ways. The thought of this has made me pause and reflect and spend much longer time with each and every submission. Too much time. I can’t catch AI use. Well, I can catch image AI use. But if it’s been used in any way to tell a fiction story, sure there are key elements to assist in uncovering the truth but I don’t want to have to do that!
I miss the days when I could confidently just pick a story that I liked or that maybe wasn’t my cup of tea but that I hoped the community of readers as a whole would appreciate more than I. And to think that time wasn’t too far away. Nowadays AI simply cannot be avoided, no matter how hard I may try to do so. It’s forced upon me in my 9 to 5 paying job and now I’m forced to confront it here, in a place I consider very much my passion playground.
All I can do is apologize to you, the readers and writers, who’ve been patiently waiting for those Monday emails or this Monthly Recap email, only to be left wondering if Top in Fiction is perhaps no more.
Top in Fiction is still very much here. It’s just taking me a while to reconcile that I can’t police the work. I just have to continue to do what Top in Fiction was created for in the first place and have blind faith that those who contribute here are doing so AI free.
In other news:
The discussion I had with Simon K Jones and S.E. Reid has really helped so many people. So much so that they are both collaborating on a series of Lives that will begin this week! I urge you to follow them both so you don’t miss when they go Live to discuss even more things around serial fiction and as a preamble, you can watch the lengthy discussion they took the time to have with me below:
Any errors seen below such as typos, miss-labeling of genre or category, wrong link, wrong person mentioned, etc. please state the error in the comments and I will update immediately. Mistakes can happen. I am only human.
POETRY
heart-nose mother by Bruce Dobbins of Bruce Dobbins [Free Verse]
How to love crazy by Nicole of Permission to Weird [Literary Fiction]
SHORT STORY
I’ll Wait for You on the Roof by Adrian Fares of Adrian Fares [Horror]
Nerissa by Coral Evermore of Tales From a Wilted Rose [Fantasy]
Thought Canvas by James Kenwood of Grim Acres [Science Fiction]
The Heirloom by S. L. Linton of The Forgotten Library [Horror]
Killing Chekhov by Lucien Wolfson of One More Draft [Historical Fiction]
SHORT SERIAL
The Sour Wines of Westmost [Ch. 1] by Latter-Day Wood Pulps of Latter-Day-Wood Pulps [Fantasy]
The struggle over AI is so real and your hesitations are so understandable.
Thanks for all you work building connections and community, Erica! It makes a difference.