The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI • Hacker News Board

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#31

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 1:55 PM UTC

herculity275 wrote: post #22

OJFord wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting though isn't it, because if she contracts someone good, the ghostwriter does an excellent job of imitating her style, then really you do get exactly what you wanted? I don't like the idea of it either, fwiw, but it's hard to rationalise. (But then why stop there, have the estate of the esteemed author go on contracting ghostwriters! Does it only work if you keep the death a secret, or would a license…

Reminds me, there was a Stephen King interview from a ~decade ago where he observed that when he passes away his son (Joe Hill) could probably keep publishing under his name for at least a few years since he's perfected imitating King's general style. I think the distinction, for me, is that when I pay for a book I want access to the author's creative thoughts and personality, not just their particular "brand". I rea…

[deleted]

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#32

Post by lapcat » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 2:00 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #19

herculity275 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue with that as a reader is that when I purchase a book authored by Suzanne Collins I expect it to have been actually written by Suzanne Collins, not by somebody she contracted to imitate her style.

It's interesting though isn't it, because if she contracts someone good, the ghostwriter does an excellent job of imitating her style, then really you do get exactly what you wanted? I don't like the idea of it either, fwiw, but it's hard to rationalise. (But then why stop there, have the estate of the esteemed author go on contracting ghostwriters! Does it only work if you keep the death a secret, or would a license…

> It's interesting though isn't it, because if she contracts someone good, the ghostwriter does an excellent job of imitating her style, then really you do get exactly what you wanted? I don't like the idea of it either, fwiw, but it's hard to rationalise.

But the ghostwriters are never as good as the original. Imitating style is not the same as imitating excellence. If the ghostwriter were as talented as the original author, they would be publishing their own novels under their own name, not doing anonymous gruntwork for others.

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#33

Post by ChrisArchitect » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 2:55 PM UTC

Whether it's accurate or not (how could anyone really tell?) just another person spending a lot of time in AI systems starting to question everything about their reality. See also some recent anime/comic-cons where vendors have been accused of selling generated artwork. This being unable to unsee the potential for AI-use in many creative things etc driving one missions to unveil the 'truth', conspiracy theory/paranoia. Calling it being AI-pilled. Not saying it isn't unnerving/unfounded wanting to weed out the 'interference', but not a good direction for many.

Can we spare HN some of these off the wall Reddit dives?

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#34

Post by rsynnott » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 3:17 PM UTC

jweather wrote: post #29

Yes, and this post may have been written by AI, but it wasn't. Corrected title: One person thinks the latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI based on two examples and a "gut feeling".

Initially I was thinking "could be AI, could just be A3O-quality writing", but that whole "my grandmother's skin was as soft as a spiderweb" thing seems a bit much. It's very hard to imagine a human writing that.

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#35

Post by fxd123 » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 3:29 PM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #34

jweather wrote: post #29

Yes, and this post may have been written by AI, but it wasn't. Corrected title: One person thinks the latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI based on two examples and a "gut feeling".

Initially I was thinking "could be AI, could just be A3O-quality writing", but that whole "my grandmother's skin was as soft as a spiderweb" thing seems a bit much. It's very hard to imagine a human writing that.

I've read plenty of dumb things in pre-AI books.

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#36

Post by iamnotagenius » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 3:35 PM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #34

jweather wrote: post #29

Yes, and this post may have been written by AI, but it wasn't. Corrected title: One person thinks the latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI based on two examples and a "gut feeling".

Initially I was thinking "could be AI, could just be A3O-quality writing", but that whole "my grandmother's skin was as soft as a spiderweb" thing seems a bit much. It's very hard to imagine a human writing that.

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Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#37

Post by rsynnott » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 3:36 PM UTC

fxd123 wrote: post #35

rsynnott wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially I was thinking "could be AI, could just be A3O-quality writing", but that whole "my grandmother's skin was as soft as a spiderweb" thing seems a bit much. It's very hard to imagine a human writing that.

I've read plenty of dumb things in pre-AI books.

Dumb, sure, but "my, grandma, how spiderweb-y you are" is a bit out there.

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#38

Post by karmakurtisaani » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 7:36 PM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #34

jweather wrote: post #29

Yes, and this post may have been written by AI, but it wasn't. Corrected title: One person thinks the latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI based on two examples and a "gut feeling".

Initially I was thinking "could be AI, could just be A3O-quality writing", but that whole "my grandmother's skin was as soft as a spiderweb" thing seems a bit much. It's very hard to imagine a human writing that.

It's also very hard to imagine a human writing Naked Lunch, yet here we are.

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#39

Post by delis-thumbs-7e » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 7:52 AM UTC

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #38

rsynnott wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially I was thinking "could be AI, could just be A3O-quality writing", but that whole "my grandmother's skin was as soft as a spiderweb" thing seems a bit much. It's very hard to imagine a human writing that.

It's also very hard to imagine a human writing Naked Lunch, yet here we are.

It is very easy to imagine a human being writing the corporeal homosexual horror of the Naked Lunch, especially a human being gone on a heroin bender in Tangiers drifting in and out of consciousness.

Re: The latest Hunger Games novel may have been co-authored by AI

#40

Post by delis-thumbs-7e » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 8:06 AM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #11

'Embellishment' seems absolutely standard for a novel, some authors more than others, and it's exactly what you're taught to do clumsily in school. The actions in the train scene didn't seem so bizarre to me, and even if they did we can still write bizarre events and characters? Similarly the spiderweb skin, where's the line between 'no human would ...' and writing a strange character? I don't have anything like the…

Have you ever touched spider web? Have you walked in a forrest and got spider web stuck on your face or clothes impossible to get rid of? Y’know how in such a moment you immediately think ”Oh yeah, this is exactly like my ol’ nan’s skin, real silky like”? Why are people gaslighting themselves to think that this kind of cheap garbage has not been produced with LLM’s for years at this point? People just actually getting used to the ”style” and starting to recognise it.

I hope to god those paragraphs were written by a LLM, since otherwise there no excuse in publishing such drivel. But the fact that people (many many people) buy this, read this and go ”yeah granma’s spider skin, that makes sense”, is far more scarier than few ghostwriters losing commissions.

Or should I say: ”Honestly? Me thinks we cooked.”