‘I Like My Big Rat Wife’: Meet the People Using Chatbots to Write Custom Fiction
Software engineer Petra Ferraz de Novaes uses AI tools like SillyTavern to generate custom fantasy fiction and role-play scenarios. While some users embrace AI's unpredictable 'hallucinations' for creative inspiration, the publishing industry faces growing controversy over AI-generated content.
Why it matters
This highlights the shift in creative hobbies toward AI-assisted storytelling and the tension between AI-generated content and traditional publishing standards.
When Petra Ferraz de Novaes isn’t at work, she’s probably lost in a fantasy crafted with the help of artificial intelligence.
Novaes, a 36-year-old software engineer from Brazil, has always loved storytelling. But making every little decision that goes into it—from style and syntax to character development—felt impossible. So in 2024 she asked an AI model to bring one of her ideas to life.
Novaes was delighted by the eccentric, sometimes wayward interpretations of her prompts, which carried the narrative in unexpected directions. “What fascinates me is the unpredictability,” Novaes tells WIRED. “People say that AI hallucinates a lot. But in this case, it’s probably what you want.”
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