SFWA And The HWA In Panic As AI Writing Is Clogging Submissions At Sci-Fi Magazines Like Clarkesworld

AI Writing is generally low quality, so why is SFWA so concerned if they're professional science fiction writers?

It’s been a tough year for mainstream science fiction publishing. With The Science Fiction And Fantasy Writers Association in disarray as no one wants to run the social club, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction failing to publish due to a diversity hire editor, and now Clarkesworld is struggling with AI-written stories flooding their inboxes to the point where SFWA got nervous enough to make a statement.

Mainstream science fiction has been in a bad state for a long time, with stories and works often getting picked by editors due to identity rather than the writer's quality work. Fandom Pulse did an expose earlier this year on how that directly impacted The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. As of this writing, F&SF still has not produced a magazine in 2024.

Clarkesworld is another science fiction and fantasy magazine hailed by mainstream publishing as one of the best in the last decade. Editor Neil Clarke is much the same brand of woke activist pushing for diversity that has led to the industry's decline.

Clarke opened up 2023 about AI already causing him problems, telling New York Magazine, "We had reached the point where we were on track to receive as many generated submissions as legitimate ones.”

He also blamed other technological forms and influencers for the wave of AI writing, saying, "People waving a bunch of money on YouTube or TikTok videos and saying, 'Oh, you can make money with ChatGPT by doing this.'"

Though he’s made a spam filter to weed out AI-generated content, one wonders how he can tell AI-written work from that of SFWA authors. Most of the complaints about AI writing are that the quality is low, so if it takes so much time for the first readers before it gets to editorial, it must be very similar to the quality he’s generally getting from the writers who typically submit. 

AI is a threat to SFWA types. Most of their membership comprises imposters using short story magazines like Clarkesworld and anthologies to pretend they’re professional writers. The quality of writing isn’t much higher than one would typically get from AI. 

The SFWA Board put out a statement yesterday in similar panic, saying, “On October 30, the SFWA Board and the SFWA Legal Affairs Committee sent the following letter to the US Copyright Office in response to their August 2023 Notice of Inquiry regarding copyright law and policy issues in artificial intelligence, which is part of their AI Initiative.”

“We are aware that there is a wide range of opinion on the subject within our community, but the issues of known damage to fiction marketplaces and threats to original IP copyrights that these new AI tools pose must be made known to bureaucrats and lawmakers recommending and making policy. By doing so, when consensus emerges about the proper use of generative AI in art, we can ensure that such AI is created and utilized to respect the rights of creative workers.”

“In the near future, we’ll have the opportunity to read other letters submitted to this call for comments, and both SFWA and individuals will be able to review them and respond. We invite all our members, but especially those writers working in gaming and comics, to make known the effects you are seeing of artificial intelligence on your careers, for good or ill.”

They concluded, “We will continue to study this issue and speak up where we feel we can do good. The more we learn from our membership, the more effective we will be.”

The Horror Writers’ Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association made similar statements on AI last week.

It seems mainstream publishing is in disarray because of low-quality AI writing. But why would these professionals be worried if the quality is that low? 

What do you think of SFWA and Clarkesworld, among others, going crazy over AI writing? Is Science Fiction doomed? Leave a comment below.

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