Do people prefer stories written by AI?

This is a bit like asking "do people prefer vegetarian meals if we don't tell them there's actually meat in it?"

People care about the production process even if they can't tell you're lying to them about it.

It's quite likely that many survey participants were AI bots, and hence preferring AI generated content. And certaintly, that of the 1600+ people whose 15min they rented, few were paying any meaningful levels of attention to earn their 3 USD.

"We assume creative writing requires uniquely human qualities, such as emotional understanding and lived experience, which leads people to underestimate AI's capabilities."

It's not about the relative "creativity" of it. Art is fundamentally about communication. It's a social activity, whether you're reading a book or listening to music or looking at a painting. Even a mid-average author is going to make something more compelling, on a human level, than extraordinary prose generated by a machine.

AI-generated creative artifacts are as interesting as the fractals in a snowflake. Interesting, sometimes beautiful, but void of human meaning.

It's pseudoscience no matter what, but I'd like to see the results sliced up for an age range of roughly 35-70. I would heavily question the taste and judgment of those outside that range. Or at the very least note that people's personalities will change significantly when entering/exiting that range.

> That's why those "we prefer human writing" polls (such as the one cited in [0]: whooping 98% readers say they prefer human writing to AI!) are just noise.

Why would they not?

> They'll tell you that they prefer imperfect or even bad writing as long as it's not AI slop,

But I do, and it's very clear that the online communities I frequent prefer people write in their own voice, even with very bad grammar and spelling, rather than resort to chatgpt for their posts and comments — this comes up all the time

> just like how they'll tell you they like healthier food

But lots of us do? Once you are over 30 and you control your own fridge and cook your own food, why would you not?

> they prioritize personality instead of look for potential dates

But (in a fair context for comparison) people actually do, especially women. As long as someone is presentable and shows a bit of self-care and self-respect, for the most part looks rank at least on a par with personality, if not below it.

> how they use LLM "only as a spellchecker"

I don't use it at all for writing; I do know people are weak on this point but I also know that people understand it fosters distrust

> how they use tiktok for educational videos

Huge chunks of people don't use it at all.

Most of what you are saying here sounds like you are projecting low mood and your own personal prejudices and insecurities. Try to be less misanthropic.