Let's Talk About AI and Vocal Challenges
AI-generated content will not win
We might as well cut to the chase. Yes, we run every challenge entry through our AI detector; if we find an entry has been generated, it’s disqualified. As Justin Maury, Founder/CEO of Vocal has written, we use these detection systems because we know our readers enjoy authentic content; we also ask you to disclose when you’ve posted on the platform using AI assistance. But a different issue comes into play when we’re thinking about Challenges, and we believe it’s an important one.
For us, it comes down to what Challenges are for. Absolutely, there’s a cash prize and that’s a nice enticement to enter! But really, our Challenges are part of building our Vocal community, and we really hope you enjoy them for that reason. We love to see how supportive you are of each other’s writing, both in the comments you leave and even outside our Vocal ecosystem; and we know — because we’re creators ourselves — what your writing means to you.
Let’s not beat around the bush: writing can be hard! Sometimes we all draw a blank, or feel like what we’re doing isn’t up to scratch. But hey, we also know that’s part of the process. It’s what a friend of ours calls ‘productive discomfort’: it’s the only way you challenge yourself and discover what’s really possible for you. Art — let’s call it that — certainly has a final result. You finish something (at least you tell yourself it’s finished, for now…) and you write ‘The End’ with a flourish. But it’s the process that has got you there: the work of innovation, of seeking new depths (and new heights) in yourself. You know how good it feels, the surprise when you’re working away and it’s as if some other voice is speaking through you. You’re in flow, you’re enriching your work and your life by the power of your creativity.
Let’s be frank: content generated by AI can never make anything new. It’s all a kind of plagiarism — if we’re being blunt — a hoovering up of pre-existing work to create a mash-up replica. Have a listen to the brilliant novelist Min Jin Lee (author of the fantastic Pachinko) on this episode of the Wall Street Journal’s podcast series ‘Artificial’ if you want to hear more in depth; it’s fascinating. She calls ChatGPT’s attempt to replicate her style as ‘a bastardization and a caricaturization of what I care about’; we’re inclined to agree. Readers respond to Lee’s work because of its originality and its humanity. Neither of those qualities can be found in generated text.
We love to read the work you submit to our Challenges. But that’s what we love about it. It’s YOUR work. Keep at it, fellow humans!
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Vocal Curation Team
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Comments (41)
Thank you for this great piece on AI. I don’t know how to generate AI content fortunately. Reflects my age perhaps! It took me time to discover my authentic voice - and I still have so much to learn. It’s hard to understand the satisfaction gained by such non-creatives. With kindness Pauline 🌸
Second this. Authentic writing should be celebrated.
Hear hear!
Just reading this and it answered some of my questions so thank you!
AI is getting better and better, soon you will not be able to differentiate much. We need to maintain our people status...hopefully. Good luck.
I had this problem with my Medium publications two years ago. Some new writers just copied and pasted content from those generative AI tools. Readers instantly sensed it and blocked those types of profiles.It became so widespread that I had to create a publication and transfer those types of writers there. I am glad Medium stopped monetizing such content. One issue with the detection tools is they produce too many false positives or false negatives. It is not too hard for editors to notice them.
I l9ve this and I am so happy that we as a community create our words with human hands
I’m glad Vocal has a policy against the use of AI in writing for challenges.
The AI checkers are not 100 percent efficient either. First, they give false positives many times. Second, all what you feed to them will be used to train them, so it's always a vicious circle.
I am now back here after three months of absence. I took that long break because I got annoyed at the amount of AI content I saw on this platform three months ago. I don't remember if some of the challenge winner stories were AI created, though. But yes, I get annoyed at people who call themselves writers or creators or whatever they want to call themselves and are just plain cheaters. I have written about AI for about 18 years and I know how it works. And the fact that people are misusing the technology is simply outrageous. AI is not to replace creative work. That is the one thing that was supposed to remain human.
Good to hear!
AMAZING
AI can be positive in terms of ideas, but a true and authentic story is written in your own words. Many people have difficulty winning challenges, as do I but when I enter a challenge or write anything on Vocal, my biggest pleasure is knowing this is my work and my words that people are reading.
Ha ha ha! Great article and thanks for posting. The amusement is that anyone thinks they can win a challenge using AI. I use what is laughingly described as 'AI' quite frequently for research and for image generation. I have also written several articles on the subject from a writer's perspective. In short, AI can be a great addition to the writer's toolbox along with wordprocessing, spell-check, straight google search. It's useful so use it. But there is no way that AI (currently) can produce anything original (as your article says) emotional or exciting, which is what we look for as readers. The best AI article I have generated was dull, lifeless, lacking in real interest, and included many 'facts' that were just made up. Presumably swept up in the AI engine's plagiaristic trawl. Another feature of AI writing is that it cannot discern truth from made up stuff. AI does not have any kind of critical faculty. It is able to process complex language questions and answers, which is what it was designed for. Asked to 'generate a story to make me cry' it can only splurge together other such stories flagged as being sad. If an AI can generate a winning story, I say let it, as an indication of what we are up against. Just don't award any prizes, as an AI cannot enjoy the accolade or spend the money. Thanks again
👍👏👏
The issue is not with Challenges or with Top Stories. The issue is with basic submissions. The fact that Latest Stories is overwhelmingly spam and AI means that our (human) work is being drowned out. That's the problem that we want you to address. This post is a duck-and-weave, and only highlights the fact that Vocal is failing to take action where it is needed.
Thanks for the clarification. it's appreciated.
Thank you for saying this about the Challenges and AI. The overwhelming amount of AI stories is burying the written ones, and it is commendable that Vocal will ensure AI-generated pieces will not win challenges.
That subtitle 😅 Will not - as in - future tense, yes? That’s reassuring. Glad you are cleaning up the site and making the competitions genuine at last 👏
Yes. There's a place for AI - it helps with ideas, research, prompts, models, examples. But....they're not us.
Thank you for clarifying! I used AI once in my skunk story. I couldn't get anyone who knows about the smelly skunk marijuana to comment on the reasons people would want to smoke that. I had the conversation with myself and then did an AI and said if it isn't okay for the challenge to please erase. If it was clear to me before, I wouldn't have entered it. Thankyou.
Thank you so much for taking a strong, anti-AI stance. People deserve to know when the content being presented is authentic.
Thank you so much for this Vocal Team. I appreciate this a lot but I also would love to hear if there is anything being done to curb plagiarism. There are some people who plagiarise a creator's story word to word. There are also some who run it through an AI program to reword it. I'd love for something to be done about this. Thank you in advance!
I just joined vocal few days ago and I am happy to find out vocal platform takes out AI generated contents. Thanks for that.
Commendable and reassuring, thank you.