Hobbyists Embrace AI Chatbots as Co-Creators of Personalized Fiction
Users like software engineer Petra Ferraz de Novaes spend hours crafting fantasy stories with AI models, enjoying the unpredictable and sometimes bizarre outputs. A University of Washington study found many readers knowingly consume AI-generated fiction and are drawn to it precisely because of its machine origin. This enthusiasm contrasts with publishing industry scandals over suspected AI use by professional authors.
The study referenced in the article analyzed over 500,000 public ChatGPT prompts from the WildChat dataset, finding that more than a third of interactions involved fiction-related tasks such as prose, poetry, fan fiction, or role-play. A small group of "power users" drove most of this activity, with one individual generating thousands of variations of a single fan-fiction narrative over several months. Researchers estimated that roughly 7 percent of chatbot users engage in fiction generation, though OpenAI has contested this figure, citing its own 2025 study suggesting only 1.4 percent of prompts are fiction-related.
The hobbyist community operates largely through tools like SillyTavern, which allows users to run open-source AI models locally on their own computers. This grassroots enthusiasm stands in sharp contrast to recent publishing industry controversies, including a canceled $2 million book deal, a novel pulled from shelves, and allegations surrounding a prize-winning short story—all involving suspected AI use by professional authors.
This trend may signal a growing divide between professional publishing norms and grassroots reader preferences. If hobbyists genuinely value machine-generated fiction for its unpredictability, publishers could face pressure to reconsider blanket bans on AI assistance. However, the economic stakes differ sharply—amateur experimentation carries little risk, while professional authors' livelihoods depend on perceived originality and craft. The phenomenon may also normalize AI co-creation more broadly, potentially reshaping reader expectations about authorship and creative labor across the industry.