Editorial illustration for Readers Use Chatbots to Write Custom Fiction, Study Finds
Chatbots Help Readers Write Custom Fiction, Study Shows
Petra Ferraz de Novaes spends her evenings building fantasy worlds with a chatbot, not writing them alone. The 36-year-old software engineer from Brazil runs open-source AI models on her own computer through a program called SillyTavern, feeding it story premises and letting the software fill in the gaps. One session might involve an elven warrior seizing a throne from the queen of the Amazons. The next might drop her into Star Wars or Pokémon or Mass Effect, worlds she didn't build but still gets to play in.
Novaes isn't alone in this. A new study looked at people who use AI models not to answer emails or summarize documents, but to generate fiction, sometimes sprawling, sometimes strange, always shaped by a back-and-forth between human prompt and machine invention. Some users publish finished stories online.
Others keep their sessions private, treating them more like an ongoing role-play than a manuscript. The researchers wanted to understand what draws people to this particular use of chatbots, and what it says about how readers and writers are starting to blur into the same role.
“There are a lot of qualities of AI models that are different from what human writers have that are actually appealing to at least some segment of users,” says Walsh. “These models are judgment-free; they can produce stories instantaneously; they are nearly inexhaustible.”
Why this matters
We keep hearing that chatbots will replace novelists. Walsh's research points somewhere stranger: readers already know the prose is machine-made and don't care, because they're not consuming a finished product, they're steering one in real time. That's a different market than "AI writes your bestseller." It's closer to a private role-play engine with infinite patience for a reader's specific fixations, rat wives included.
For founders building on top of these models, the lesson is that engagement doesn't require literary polish, it requires responsiveness and tolerance for weird, niche prompts that a human editor would reject outright. For researchers, Novaes' case is a reminder that "creativity" here often means outsourcing craft decisions, not replacing imagination. And for anyone trying to build a business around AI fiction tools, the real product might not be stories at all.
It's a personalized improv partner. Worth watching whether platforms start designing explicitly for that, rather than pretending they're building the next great American novelist.
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Common Questions Answered
What is SillyTavern and how do readers like Petra Ferraz de Novaes use it for fiction writing?
SillyTavern is a program that allows users to run open-source AI models on their own computers to collaboratively create custom fiction. Users like Petra feed the chatbot story premises and let the software fill in narrative gaps, enabling them to build fantasy worlds and explore existing fictional universes in real time without writing alone.
According to the research cited in the article, what are the key advantages of using AI chatbots for custom fiction compared to human writers?
AI models offer qualities that appeal to users including being judgment-free, producing stories instantaneously, and being nearly inexhaustible in their creative output. These characteristics make chatbots particularly attractive for readers seeking personalized storytelling experiences without the limitations of traditional human writers.
How does the article distinguish between AI-generated fiction as a finished product versus a role-play engine?
The article explains that readers using chatbots for custom fiction aren't consuming a finished product like a traditional novel, but rather steering and directing a story in real time based on their specific interests. This positions AI fiction generation as a private role-play engine with infinite patience for a reader's unique fixations, which is a fundamentally different market than AI replacing novelists.
What does the research suggest about readers' awareness and attitudes toward machine-generated prose in chatbot fiction?
According to Walsh's research, readers already know the prose is machine-made and don't care, because they're engaging with an interactive experience rather than evaluating literary quality. This indicates that the appeal of chatbot fiction lies in its interactive and personalized nature rather than in deceiving readers about its origin.
Further Reading
- Readers rated AI stories higher than human fiction in study ... - Earth.com
- AI Fiction in the Wild - alphaXiv / arXiv
- I, ChatGPT: linguistic properties and human experiences of human - University of Würzburg
- Lit bots beware: AI creative writing faces reader skepticism, study shows - Phys.org
- KoboldAI Review 2026: Open-Source Local Story Generation for ... - GenFindr
