Clarkesworld Temporarily Closes Submissions due to massive amount AI submissions

[Sarah]

Wow, thanks for posting!

[Rick]

Terrible timing for them but I think (hope?) that this is a fad that will die down, though it won't disappear.

[Stephen]

I really don’t understand why anyone would do this.

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

I need someone to argue with about the role of magazines like Clarkesworld and also about 'AI' generated stories at a time when so much of publishing is derivative are 'new' old stories.

[CBRetriever]

Stephen wrote: "I really don’t understand why anyone would do this."

money

[Willow]

Wow, I hope they find a solution for this

[Rick]

CBRetriever wrote: "Stephen wrote: "I really don’t understand why anyone would do this."

money"

The odd thing is that a random AI generated story isn't likely to get published AND how much does a small indie outlet like Clarkesworld really pay?

[CBRetriever]

revenge?
general mayhem?

[Sarah]

From what it sounds like, it’s mostly AI generated and then edited/added to by a live person?

[Sarah]

I just re-read that post and thought - As apposed to an ‘un-live’ person but you know what I mean :)

[Ruth]

Rick wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "Stephen wrote: "I really don’t understand why anyone would do this."

money"

The odd thing is that a random AI generated story isn't likely to get published AND how much does a..."

Clarkesworld pays 8-10c per word, which is one of the best pay rates out there for SFF short fiction, and it’s probably the most prestigious/high profile SFF magazine there is. It might be a small indie outlet compared to say, Penguin, but so far as the SFF short fiction market is concerned, it’s a big deal. The scammers are targeting it because it’s relatively high profile, and usually has an “always open for submissions from everyone” policy, but if they are trying to make money this way then they’re in for a disappointment. There just isn’t much money in SFF short fiction, and despite that it’s *ferociously* competitive. I think the chances of one of these stories actually being accepted- with the technology in its current state- is close to nil, and the chances of anyone making decent money like this is absolutely nil. I don’t think these guys understand how the market works *at all* and hopefully they will quickly wise up and go away.

I’m a slush reader for Apex Magazine, interestingly we haven’t seen any major influx of these stories yet but we’re looking out for them.

[Stephen]

Locus just published a review of the pro and semipro sf fiction magazines out there, including their pay rates.

https://locusmag.com/2023/02/year-in-...

[Stephen]

copied from @clarkesworld twitter feed:

“ 5. The people causing the problem are from outside the SF/F community. Largely driven in by "side hustle" experts making claims of easy money with ChatGPT. They are driving this and deserve some of the disdain shown to the AI developers.”

[Bobby]

Eventually we will have AI writing the stories, reading the stories, doing reviews, and discussing the books on Goodreads. No humans required! :)

Seriously, I feel bad for people who run the web site. It's incredible the amount of criminal/malicious/annoying behavior there is out there on the internet.

[Rick]

Ruth wrote: "Clarkesworld pays 8-10c per word, which is one of the best pay rates out there for SFF short fiction, and it’s probably the most prestigious/high profile SFF magazine there is..."

Sure, but at those rates a 10,000 word story grosses $1000. Then add in the odds of any decent story getting in... then decrease those odds because AI stories aren't that good... and it's just not that good a return.

I imagine this is somewhat like email spam - very low odds of any one submission making money but it's cheap to generate lots of them