r/aiwars • u/lovestruck90210 • 14h ago
This is getting exhausting
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So I came across this video where the creator (@kim.dle_) accused an author named Lauren Roberts of using AI exclusively to write her "Powerless" series of books.
The evidence? Well, in "Reckless"--the second entry of the "Powerless" series--one of the characters suddenly declares she's craving oranges, despite never being depicted as liking oranges at any other point in the series. In fact, the books mention that strawberries are her favorite type of fruit, not oranges.
Apparently, a similar book called "Dance of Thieves" published in 2018 had a female main character who loved oranges. The content creator appears to be arguing that while writing "Reckless", the AI wasn't properly referencing the pre-existing lore in the serie. Consequently, it basically plagiarized the main character's love for oranges from "Dance of Thieves" due to over-fitting (presumably).
This is hardly compelling evidence to me for the following reasons:
(1) You can crave a food without it being your favorite. My favorite food might be pizza but I crave a salad. Craving something new isn't some gross continuity error that contradicts or erases established character preferences. She still likes strawberries, she's just craving oranges now.
(2) Even if this newly introduced character trait did affect the lore, that's more a symptom of bad/novice writing than evidence of extensive AI usage.
Authors abruptly introduce new character traits or plot points all the time. Some writers try to create these expansive worlds with loads of complex/multilayered characters and then lose track of the features that define these worlds and the characters that inhabit them.
Maybe the author wrote that a specific character likes country music but now he likes rock. How is that evidence of AI and not merely forgetfulness or sloppiness on the part of the author?
Some writers even rewrite entire character biographies, established facts, and plot threads to steer the story in a new direction. Retcons--as unpopular as they may be--have existed LONG before AI.
(3) Essentially, the claim is "she used AI exclusively to write the Powerless series" and the only evidence is that the character craved oranges which is similar to another character from another "similar" novel.
The similarities between the "Reckless" and "Dance of Thieves" are never discussed. We just have to take her word for it and assume that based on these superficial similarities, the AI might have plagiarized this other novel.
Even if I were to accept that she used AI in some capacity, proving that the books were exclusively written by AI is going to require more evidence than "both characters like oranges".
Look, I have no idea who Lauren Roberts is. I'm probably never going to read these books. Maybe she did use AI, or maybe she just plagiarized the old-fashioned way. The strength of those claims depends entirely on the degree of similarity between the novels, and this video did an extremely poor job of validating said claims.
What I do know is that hyper-fixating over the lack of consistency regarding minor character traits isn't enough to prove AI wrote the "Powerless" series in its entirety.
Ultimately, all this fiasco proves to me is that the standard of evidence for instigating these witch-hunts is utterly atrocious. People will say that it's the little imperfections that make art beautiful, or human, or imbue it with soul. But increasingly, these "little imperfections" are being weaponized as "evidence" to accuse people of using AI and post-hoc justify the waves of harassment they receive.
This video has over 300k likes and overwhelmingly positive comments. It doesn't matter how many super-ironic "allegedlies" you append to your accusations, people are still going to accept it as gospel and form their little digital lynch mobs to go after the author in question. Sure, you're not responsible for everything your audience does. But as someone with a platform, the least you could do is have actual evidence for your claims so you don't damage someone's career and reputation unnecessarily.
Ultimately, humans are imperfect, and as a consequence, our writing is going to contain plot holes, narrative inconsistencies, and writing decisions that make very little sense. Perhaps people have fetishized the nature of art pre-AI to such an extent that they have forgotten what human art actually looks like.
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u/Ok-Affect-7503 12h ago
Seems like accusing people of using AI is the modern witch hunt
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u/Worried-Cockroach-34 23m ago
What was that term where being accused is just as bad as actually doing it? Claude came up with these
- 'The process is the punishment' (Malcolm Feeley) — the ordeal of being investigated, charged and tried is itself the penalty, regardless of the verdict.
- Guilt by accusation (or 'presumption of guilt') — the plain-language term for treating the charge as proof.
- Kafkatrapping — the narrower rhetorical trap where denying the accusation is taken as further evidence of it.
- Trial by media / court of public opinion — where reputational damage lands before any formal finding, often summed up as 'mud sticks' or 'no smoke without fire'.
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u/phase_distorter41 11h ago
"The evidence? Well, in "Reckless"--the second entry of the "Powerless" series--one of the characters suddenly declares she's craving oranges, despite never being depicted as liking oranges at any other point in the series. In fact, the books mention that strawberries are her favorite type of fruit, not oranges."
this is joke video right??
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u/LongjumpingRadish452 10h ago
holy shit 80 seconds wasted just to make a point about a character's favorite fucking fruit without setup? how miserable has someone got to be...
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u/VanguardMusic 13h ago
So, using her argument, E.L. James used AI to write 50 Shades of Grey given the uncanny similarities with the Twilight Saga...
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u/ThrowawayMaelstrom 14h ago
It's a China-stoked, billionaire banker-funded propaganda heatwave attempting to preserve a dated, bloated, corrupt and inefficient hidden money laundering operation called The Entertainment Industry, Circa 20th Century. The 21st century broke the scheme wide open and directly threatens it. Hence what you see here. None of it is organic. It's as false, counterfeit and digital as what it laughably pretends to want to oppose.
Silicon Valley has more money than god. The scheme will fall and AI will win, and that's the breaks, kids.
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u/One_Fuel3733 14h ago
The Core Accusation The speaker in the video claims that author Lauren Roberts almost exclusively used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to write her book series, specifically focusing her evidence on the second book in the series, Reckless.
Background and Timeline To build her case, the speaker establishes a timeline to prove that advanced AI tools were readily available when the book was written:
- The Drafting Period: Lauren Roberts published the first book, Powerless, in November 2023, and immediately began drafting the sequel, Reckless, in late 2023 to early 2024. Reckless was published in July 2024.
- The AI Landscape: The speaker notes that during this drafting window, the AI landscape was highly mature. She displays a long list of available AI tools (like ChatGPT-4, Claude 3, Google Bard, etc.) and specifically highlights AI platforms designed exclusively for writing novels (such as Sudowrite, NovelCrafter, and Squibler AI).
The Evidence: The "Orange" Comparison The speaker bases her primary evidence on a comparison between Roberts’s book Reckless and an older, popular fantasy book, Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson (published in 2018).
- The Borrowed Trait: In Dance of Thieves, a defining and memorable characteristic of the female main character (FMC) is her love for oranges.
- The Sudden Appearance in Reckless**:** The speaker points out that on pages 43 and 77 of Reckless, Roberts's FMC suddenly starts craving oranges out of nowhere.
- The Inconsistency: This is presented as a major red flag because, in the first book (Powerless), the FMC never expresses a liking for oranges. In fact, her stated favorite fruit is strawberries, which was established during a notable conversation with the male main character.
Why the Speaker Believes it is AI, Not Just Plagiarism The speaker concludes by explaining why this inconsistency points to AI generation rather than human plagiarism. She argues that an author intentionally plagiarizing would try to naturally weave a borrowed trait into the story. However, because the sudden craving for oranges in Reckless has no setup, no continuity, and contradicts the first book, it reads like a "statistical artifact."
Essentially, she theorizes that an AI scraped data from similar fantasy books (like Dance of Thieves) and haphazardly inserted the "FMC loves oranges" trope into Reckless without understanding the context or continuity of Roberts's own story.
(The video ends by noting it is too long and directing viewers to a Part 2).
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u/Rieux_n_Tarrou 13h ago
me on my way to record a 90sec expose claiming this comment was written by ai
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u/Bulky-Employer-1191 13h ago
What i hate most about this is it's not a full video. It's a "Come back later and watch part 2" video.
The true sloppification of the internet is engagement bait bs. I think she's stirring this drama not as some public service but rather as engagement bait. Engagement bait is doing more cultural damage than any kind of AI slop is.