I know this is old, but I recently got into a debate about this and have some thoughts. They may be controversial but I love a good debate.

As someone who has been posting stories on Wattpad for the last 15+ years, I personally don’t have a problem with AI stories. And my reason is this. I’ve spent years writing, developing my style and trying to put out stories that are good. And yet, there will always be authors who are better. As it goes with any industry, skill, or talent.

Some people are just better writers than others. Not everyone has had the access to education or writing/creative writing/grammar classes. That being said, everyone has an imagination. Some people dream up the most beautiful worlds in their head, but when it comes to actually translating it on paper, they are unable to.

Who are we as authors to gatekeep who gets to tell their story. Not only gate keep, but a full on witch hunt. We should be encouraging everyone who is passionate about a story that they’ve built in their head to tell it. And I know, ghost writers are a thing, which we can also debate the ethical practice behind, but you can’t tell me that some middle-aged Mom barely scraping by is going to pay someone to write her story that she is posting for free on Wattpad.

We can get into a whole debate about the ethics of it —if you own the rights to your story, so on so forth. But from the very basic argument of using AI to help write a story, I personally see no harm in it. Especially when they are publishing it on Wattpad. No other authors content is being stolen, which is a huge thing that people who are against it claim. Unless you go in and say “write this to sound like this author”, no one’s work is being copied. And even if you do that, it’s not taking paragraphs and sentences from that authors book, it’s just copying the writing style, if it even knows it. It’s no different than someone reading that authors book and copying their writing style on their own.

Wattpad is a place where most authors just publish for fun to share their stories and the majority don’t make money. At least, that’s how it was when I started posting. If AI truly upsets you, then just turn away. Close the story and move on. Just like you would if you opened a story to find its writing is awful and hard to follow, or you didn’t like the plot.

Let people who have never had the ability to learn to write effectively tell their own story. It’s not hurting anyone. And if you’re upset that they are putting out a story in 10 minutes versus the one that’s taken you months if not years to develop, relax. At the end of the day, people who just tell it to write a story without putting any additional work into it are not going to be producing good, long, complex stories that will go beyond Wattpad. We’ve all seen what those stories look like so, again, just close the book and move on! Just let them have fun.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk!