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The future of literary fiction/‘high art’ in the age of AI : r/TrueLit

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While the topic of the future of writing in the age of AI has been discussed extensively in a number of literary subs, I think not enough analysis is directed specifically towards the future of ‘literary’ or ‘high-brow’ fiction. For the sake of this discussion, I think the delineation between ‘literary fiction’ and ‘genre fiction’ lies in a few factors, mainly the former’s tendency towards inventive/non-formulaic plots, emphasis on character depth, and the impartment of certain human values and experiences, even if the depiction of such do not necessarily lead to an entertaining or enjoyable read. Now, since LLMs are logic-based models, it is no surprise that to a certain extent, they are currently able to generate passable prose within the genre fiction category wherein narratives are formulaic, but still struggle significantly in producing more in-depth and complex narratives. Furthermore, since LLMs are also currently incapable of possessing its own consciousness and subjective inte

To answer a couple of the questions: the problem with AI fiction as a product is a) it is competing with a vast over abundance of existing human literature (there is already more than anyone could possibly read), b) many people don’t like AI, c) people who actually read books are disproportionately likely to dislike AI. Given that books are already relatively cheap, particularly in digital form, there is little reason for anyone to buy AI literature, which is likely to be only slightly cheaper. Basically no-one at the moment is buying AI literature AS AI literature- if they buy it, it’s…

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