Another AI Rejection Post (5/30 Update)

[Britva415]

Maybe the drop off in threads means the site is getting on top of the problem, and fewer stories are getting bounced

I agree with this. I grant that within "the threads" there were certain persons represented week in and week out for a long time, but it was a somewhat small number. This doesn't explain why they stopped posting about it, I think the explanation for that is that they either gave up and moved on or got approved at last. There's evidence for this - some of them have said so and that was the last we heard from them on this subject.

However, they weren't the entire body of people posting complaints.

I think more than half of the individuals who were posting complaints in any given week did not enter that group of regulars who spent weeks re-trying for approval of their stories (or not) and keeping the complaint threads alive. The fact that we mostly stopped seeing these regulars stoking the fire supports the idea that those specific people either got tired and left or finally got approved, but the fact that we mostly stopped seeing multiple first-time complainers per week seems to support your idea that the AI rejections might just not be happening as much any longer.

 

[dppsewardsfolly]

the fact that we mostly stopped seeing multiple first-time complainers per week seems to support your idea that the AI rejections might just not be happening as much any longer.

Or there is just a critical mass of complaint threads that make people are aware of the problem before they make a new post.

All the metrics work in combination: the number of stories submitted, the number of stories rejected, the rejection threshold, the number of authors, the number of first time authors, etc. For example, if the number of stories rejected goes down, but because all the stories started scoring higher, it could just be that AI is getting better at evading detection. But if the number of stories rejected goes down, but the number of stories submitted has gone down by the same amount, it's more likely that the AI or AI-like authors have quit submitting. I wouldn't use a single metric like "the number of first-time complainers posting on the forums" as a measure of how things are working on the back end.

I'll have data of my own soon. I'm lifeboating my Reddit stories onto Lit in anticipation of Reddit doing something stupid in the near future and making me want to jump ship. The first 2/3-3/4 were posted prior to GAI being widely available to the public, so I'll see how many of those get rejected for being AI, and then I can compare it to the last 1/4-1/3 that were written after GAI became widely available to the public. My writing style probably hasn't changed that much in the past few years, but it'll be interesting to see how many of them get flagged.

I don't know what I'm going to do if they get rejected at a significant rate, but as others have pointed out, if it becomes problematic, I'll probably try to find some other venue to archive them. I'm not interested in back-and-forth with stressed admins on a free site (I don't envy this part of their jobs!), and I'm also not becoming an expert on AI so that I can avoid being accused of using AI.

 

[Britva415]

Or there is just a critical mass of complaint threads that make people are aware of the problem before they make a new post.

It's just an opinion, but I don't think that that would keep someone who would be inclined to post from going ahead and posting.

My impression is that for a while there, before all of the various "omnibus" threads started, the number of first-time complainers was about the same as the number of first-time complainers we saw after large, consolidated threads were active.

I'm not going to go back and hand count, but that's my impression and it matches my impression of human nature. Someone who wants to be heard and seen is going to speak up, whether they think it's only happening to them or not.

 

[CarmineBlancheJr]

Reading through some of these made me wonder why some of my work might not have been flagged. To me, it sounds good. But my real job for the last fifteen-plus years has been as a technical writer. Proofing, editing, and creating content for hardware manufacturers (another job that I find is slowly moving to AI.) My writing tends to be, as a result, pretty detailed unless I force myself to be more... er... creative.

That said, I will use some of the AI tools out there to come up with ideas when I am in a brain haze. I will ask them things like, "I have a story that I need eight characters, three men and five women. Make two of the women East Indian, one of the men Canadian, and another Japanese. Please create names and short bios for all of them."

The story I write by myself, but now I do not need to worry about the people.

But... reading these comments has me wanting to pay a little closer attention to my own work.

 

[Codoc24]

Speaking only for myself, I don't frequent this site as often as I used to due to my recent story getting flagged for AI. I resubmitted it once, made a comment in the notes and it was rejected again. So that has pretty much ruined this site for me. I know it's their site and they can do what they want, but it's just not much fun for me anymore. I don't want to spend a lot of time writing a story just to get it rejected. I can submit my stories/books to Amazon and Draft2Digital, and they don't have any problem with them.

 

[Portly_Penguin]

Hi, as someone who was probably the biggest, and perhaps the most annoying, when it came to the mass AI Rejections threads, I can explain why I'm no longer a part of it.

The whole situation, both trying to get things published and discussing it here, was mentally and emotionally exhausting. Every thread will develop into some sort of argument and the same advice would do the rounds even after said advice had already been followed. At the end of the day, it just wasn't worth the aggravation or the hassle it caused and I could no long be bothered having the same fight. I'm also of the belief - though I could be wrong, and I will admit that - that the Anon comments I got on my last published story that referenced it reading like an AI potentially came from the forums and thought it would be funny. Again, I can't prove that, just a theory.

I joined Lit to try to write erotica for the first time. I tried, it read like AI, I did my best to combat that and was unsuccessful, so I stopped trying. The emotional toll the rejections took was too much for me to want to keep going.

The end

 

[STrent]

So having changed my entire writing style to suit the site, having had this checked through by a friend on the site, having written it in notepad, edited to within an inch of its life, having never used any AI in the creation of it…

Yep, rejected for AI.

I am so done with this. Cannot believe it’s happening again.

EDIT: also, making me wait two whole weeks to tell me it’s an AI rejection is just ridiculous.

 

[AndersonsBiographer]

The problem is they're using it the wrong way. AI writes like a human, not an alien. So, if you're good at writing, you'll be flagged most of the time. It's disgusting when they say my trashy writing is AI-written. You shouldn't use an AI detector here in the first place. To sort out bad stories, you need to read them yourself. If I use AI to write a story, then my stories will be so much better due to a good writing style. It still makes no sense who brought this idea. I mean, AI writes like us. We train them to write like this. They didn't innovate it, duh.

You sound just a bit like an AI. You wouldn't mind me dunking you in the nearest lake to see if you short-circuit, would you?



I'm only joking.

I'm joking. But others, who say things like that, are not.

One of my students was accused of submitting AI-generated content in another class, and even threatened with disciplinary action for doing it. I found the accusation unlikely, and asked him to write a short essay for me while I watched. Had the essay checked, AFTER I PERSONALLY WATCHED HIM WRITE IT, and I was informed that an AI wrote it. So, that should prove that the test is flawed and can’t be used to accuse him, right?

The other teacher didn’t think so. She thought he deliberately wrote like a bot so that we won't notice it when he uses AI to write his regular school essays. She doesn't believe that any student can be as well-informed or erudite as he is, when fifteen seconds of speaking to him should confirm the fact.

So... I guess that's just where we're heading. If you're not a semi-literate ignoramus, you will automatically arouse the suspicion of those who are. If you can physically prove that you're not using an AI in your writing, they’ll suspect that you *are* the AI. What do you do then? Take the Voight-Kampff test?

 

[TheLobster]

She thought he deliberately wrote like a bot so that we won't notice it when he uses AI to write his regular school essays.

We have robots pretending to write like humans, so why not humans pretending to write like robots?

The future sure is wild.

 

[AndersonsBiographer]

We have robots pretending to write like humans, so why not humans pretending to write like robots?

The future sure is wild.

What's scarier, robots who can pretend to be humans or humans who can't?

 

[STrent]

I am struggling with the idea that an AI can write a detailed description of a car accident, knowing all the ins and outs of the case history of an individual, put it into a meaningful storyline that has multiple characters in, and has to line up with the chronology and storylines of other chapters that have already been published: it’s not possible and is an absolute nonsense.









Here’s some samples. You can read my other works by using the links in my signature. There’s no way in hell this was AI generated - I know, I wrote it! And I haven’t used any kind of spellchecker for this work.

This is ridiculous.

 

[nice90sguy]

You're clearly not an AI, but the word "kinder" stood out. I assume German is your first language. I think it will be too difficult for you to change your stiyle to get past the rejection, even if you tried to.

If I'm right about English not being your first langauge, perhaps a PM to Laurel explaining this, and that your style is not something you can do anything to change.

The "AI-ness" I noticed in what you posted is the uniformity and shortness of sentence length, lack of unusual words, grammatical "correctness".

 

[STrent]

You're clearly not an AI, but the word "kinder" stood out. I assume German is your first language. I think it will be too difficult for you to change your stiyle to get past the rejection, even if you tried to.

English is my first language! I have German speaking characters. They speak German, they use German phrases. That’s the point, otherwise they’re not German speaking.

If I'm right about English not being your first langauge, perhaps a PM to Laurel explaining this, and that your style is not something you can do anything to change.

How is the use of words from a different language an AI thing though? Are we saying no one else on this forum uses any phrases from any other language?

The "AI-ness" I noticed in what you posted is the uniformity and shortness of sentence length, lack of unusual words, grammatical "correctness".

Those were all the things coming up as “AI” previously which is why everything I write now is edited to within an inch of its life in notes before I publish it, without any AI influence.

Lack of unusual words is an ai thing? Really?

This is nuts.

 

[ElectricBlue]

English is my first language! I have German speaking characters. They speak German, they use German phrases. That’s the point, otherwise they’re not German speaking.

How is the use of words from a different language an AI thing though? Are we saying no one else on this forum uses any phrases from any other language?

Those were all the things coming up as “AI” previously which is why everything I write now is edited to within an inch of its life in notes before I publish it, without any AI influence.

Lack of unusual words is an ai thing? Really?

This is nuts.

I've got to say, your prose does read like it's a translation - that was my first thought too, English as a second language. I'm going to hazard a guess that you might be a technical writer in your day job? There's an oddness to your prose (which I can't put my finger on without looking at it more closely, which I'm not going to do) and somehow a lack of logic in the connection of ideas.

It's as if you know the entire connectivity in your head, but something's gone missing (I was going to write, "in translation," but from what you're saying that's not the case).

I can't follow what's going on in those extracts, to be honest. You've got four characters jumping in and out of paragraphs, seemingly unrelated sentences, the section break in the middle. It's a real struggle to follow. I think there's been a car crash and someone's in hospital, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Bazzle]

I am struggling with the idea that an AI can write a detailed description of a car accident, knowing all the ins and outs of the case history of an individual, put it into a meaningful storyline that has multiple characters in, and has to line up with the chronology and storylines of other chapters that have already been published: it’s not possible and is an absolute nonsense.

That first paragraph.

If she is emotionally drained....you could go along the lines of

'Peta had reached out to him by WhatsApp. The two grey ticks showed it arrived. But they never went blue. However much she willed them. He was ignoring her. Not even giving a minute of his time by reading her messages. She was sitting there her elbows leaning on the steering wheel breathing deeply. The whole last x months swirled through her brain. That magical moment where they bumped into each other, the amazing wedding to that awful lean period where he vanished from her life.'

That whole time where their child Annika had gone from crawling to talking. All the time he was not there. At least she had....

Give the sentences flair? Give the reader vision?

Oh and there is no space between the comma and together in the first screen shot.

Just ideas... I am dyslexic and fail every English test.

B

 

[nice90sguy]

I am dyslexic and fail every English test.

Pretty sure that gives you a strong immunity to AI rejections!

 

[ZackRiley]

I know this is kinda a roundabout way of doing things, but would it be worth screen recording your desktop for each chapter, including edits, uploading it to youtube unlisted and submitting it in the notes to the editor?

Or would attaching the document with tracked changes enabled help?

Like Bazzle, I too am Dyslexic.

 

[STrent]

I've got to say, your prose does read like it's a translation - that was my first thought too, English as a second language. I'm going to hazard a guess that you might be a technical writer in your day job? There's an oddness to your prose (which I can't put my finger on without looking at it more closely, which I'm not going to do) and somehow a lack of logic in the connection of ideas.

It's as if you know the entire connectivity in your head, but something's gone missing (I was going to write, "in translation," but from what you're saying that's not the case).

I can't follow what's going on in those extracts, to be honest. You've got four characters jumping in and out of paragraphs, seemingly unrelated sentences, the section break in the middle. It's a real struggle to follow. I think there's been a car crash and someone's in hospital, but I don't know for sure.

That would be because they’re excerpts out of the full story and not the whole 4000 word story. They’re examples of parts of the story.

I have purposefully not posted the whole story to prevent spoilers!

Yes I am a technical writer in my day job.

Yes, English is my first language.

No, it’s not translated from another language.

Yes, it is meant to feel as if it’s someone else’s second language - that is the point, it is for the German speaking characters. That’s literally the point of writing like that when they are in the room/etc.

That first paragraph.

If she is emotionally drained....you could go along the lines of

'Peta had reached out to him by WhatsApp. The two grey ticks showed it arrived. But they never went blue. However much she willed them. He was ignoring her. Not even giving a minute of his time by reading her messages. She was sitting there her elbows leaning on the steering wheel breathing deeply. The whole last x months swirled through her brain. That magical moment where they bumped into each other, the amazing wedding to that awful lean period where he vanished from her life.'

That whole time where their child Annika had gone from crawling to talking. All the time he was not there. At least she had....

Give the sentences flair? Give the reader vision?

Oh and there is no space between the comma and together in the first screen shot.

Just ideas... I am dyslexic and fail every English test.

B

Thanks for your thoughts - that’s not far off how some of my stories looked like at the beginning of this AI back and forth mess.

I know this is kinda a roundabout way of doing things, but would it be worth screen recording your desktop for each chapter, including edits, uploading it to youtube unlisted and submitting it in the notes to the editor?

Or would attaching the document with tracked changes enabled help?

Like Bazzle, I too am Dyslexic.

This feels like a lot of hard work for an internet forum, I must confess.

I’m not on trial here.

I’ve written stories, published them in good faith, changed my style multiple times and changed how I phrase things multiple times to get through the forum’s exacting standards.

I succeeded, and now randomly, I am having to jump through the hoops all over again.

This is meant to be fun, no?

And I write these in notepad now - do you have tracked changes in notepad?

Just feels like a total waste of my time to spend three months writing and re writing work to not get to finish the novel after all.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That would be because they’re excerpts out of the full story and not the whole 4000 word story. They’re examples of parts of the story.

An excerpt should still make sense within itself. These samples are hard to follow, just saying.

 

[Tir_an_Beithioch]

I read through several other threads on this topic before posting, but I am no closer to figuring out what to do.

After a 15 year hiatus, I decided to start publishing here again. My 1st new work was approved and published without issue, so I submitted the next chapter. Today, 11 days later, I get a rejection for AI. I don't use AI, I don't use Grammarly or anything other than Word and my typing fingers. I've got a BA in English, I've never used a grammar checking program in my life. I write the way I write. My style is my style. The "conventional wisdom" I've read around the forums seems to be A) stop using Grammarly and B) become a better writer, whatever that means. And that "How to Avoid AI Rejection" thread didn't help me either. I don't know what in my work is getting flagged, and I'm not about to play blindfolded whack-a-mole with my sentences. So, I'm at a loss.

Out of curiosity, I used three different free AI checker tools on my work. Two said my work was written by a human, and one said that 34% was AI. So, I added the word "motherfucking" to every sentence that was flagged, and oh, gee, now it's all written by a human. Here's a fun example: "The next day, Lacy was in a rush to get out of her 6th period class." is a sentence that a human definitely didn't write, but "The next motherfucking day, Lacy was in a rush to get out of her 6th period class." is definitely written by a human. I know these aren't the tools that Laurel uses, so it isn't particularly helpful, but it is frustrating to me that these programs detect AI when a basic, natural sentence is used. Here's another good one: "Let's help each other out" was written by an AI, but only a human could write "Shan’t we assist one another in jolly cooperation, my lady?" Maybe I need to write all my stories while role-playing as Solaire from Dark Souls.

So, authors who have more experience with this, hopefully you can help me figure out what to do. Do I resubmit as-is with a note to the admin? Do I try to DM Laurel through the forums? I've got 8 chapters of this story written with 8 more planned, and I'd just really like to get them all published.

You're inadvertently training the new Motherfucking A.I.

 

[lustychimera]

You sound just a bit like an AI. You wouldn't mind me dunking you in the nearest lake to see if you short-circuit, would you?



I'm only joking.

I'm joking. But others, who say things like that, are not.

One of my students was accused of submitting AI-generated content in another class, and even threatened with disciplinary action for doing it. I found the accusation unlikely, and asked him to write a short essay for me while I watched. Had the essay checked, AFTER I PERSONALLY WATCHED HIM WRITE IT, and I was informed that an AI wrote it. So, that should prove that the test is flawed and can’t be used to accuse him, right?

The other teacher didn’t think so. She thought he deliberately wrote like a bot so that we won't notice it when he uses AI to write his regular school essays. She doesn't believe that any student can be as well-informed or erudite as he is, when fifteen seconds of speaking to him should confirm the fact.

So... I guess that's just where we're heading. If you're not a semi-literate ignoramus, you will automatically arouse the suspicion of those who are. If you can physically prove that you're not using an AI in your writing, they’ll suspect that you *are* the AI. What do you do then? Take the Voight-Kampff test?

Chat GPT, the leading software, says right there:

 

[Thanatos_X13]

You're inadvertently training the new Motherfucking A.I.

That assumes the AI hasn't already crawled everything posted to Literotica and these forums already. Inadvertently training the AI is the least of my concerns when we already know that they've illegally trained their data sets on billions of written works, including copyrighted news articles and published novels. Contributing a couple thousand words of smut isn't moving the needle. Hell, for all I know, whatever system this site is using to falsely flag my work as AI in the first place is feeding it directly into the AI also.

EDIT: After posting, I realize this reply might not read the way I intended. I realize you are being facetious, so I am more replying to the idea that some folks seem to have that we can "do not interact" our way out of the AI problem.

 

[AndersonsBiographer]

Hell, for all I know, whatever system this site is using to falsely flag my work as AI in the first place is feeding it directly into the AI also.

I find that to be a distinct possibility.

"Our program is pretty sure that an AI didn't write this, but thanks for teaching AI how to write like this!"

 

[Agent0069]

I’m now worried about not getting any AI rejections, even though I use Grammarly (free tier) as English is not my first language. Is my writing so flawed that there’s no way a LLM would write like that? I want to get AI-rejected too, damit!

 

[STrent]

I’m now worried about not getting any AI rejections, even though I use Grammarly (free tier) as English is not my first language. Is my writing so flawed that there’s no way a LLM would write like that? I want to get AI-rejected too, damit!

My first stories written for here went through grammerly and every single one was rejected. I ended up completely rewriting entire chapters for publication here.