Sci-fi publisher stops submissions after influencers promote AI 'get rich quick' scheme

Science fiction magazine Clarkesworld has temporarily closed submissions after receiving an influx of AI-generated sci-fi and fantasy stories from people looking to make money quickly.

On Monday, the magazine tweeted: “Submissions are currently closed. It shouldn’t be hard to guess why” followed by a thread explaining that “side hustle experts” have encouraged others to use ChatGPT and other AI to create stories and submit them.

Clarkesworld, which was first published in 2006, publishes between six to eight works of original science fiction or fantasy stories every month from authors.

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The magazine pays 12¢ per word.

With the average story being approximately 6,000 words, accepted submitters can receive $700+ for writing a story.

According to Clarkesworld, influencers that find and promote “side hustles” have claimed people can generate stories using AI and then submit them for the money.

But the publication caught onto the get-rich-quick scheme and closed submissions temporarily, hoping to find a solution to weeding out disingenuous writers.

Clarkesworld said the problem with AI-submitted stories is driven by "'side hustle' experts making claims of easy money." They said despite their guidelines stating "we don't want 'AI' written or assisted works" submitters don't care.

On TikTok, similar side hustles have been promoted.

Most commonly, TikTokers have encouraged people to use ChatGPT or other chat AI technology to write children’s books and combine it with other AI software to create illustrations then self-publish the books on Amazon.

Artists have criticised AI technology saying it uses human-generated art as a reference to create AI-generated art and takes the need for artists away.

As AI becomes more widely accessible, its ethics of it are under question.

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