Write a science fiction story in which the villain or antagonist is an artificial intelligence.
This Halloween, there's a lot of scary stuff happening in the world. As science fiction writers, let's be brave and talk about that one bogeyman that's coming to take away our joy and perhaps our jobs: Artificial Intelligence.
Self-driving vehicles, self-targeting drones, AI physicians and therapists, autonomous factories, robot caregivers, robocops, and many more near-futuristic applications of AI have appeared in stories published here at SFS and elsewhere. As machine intelligence advances, it will inevitably clash with humans — economically, emotionally, physically, and sadly, militarily.
How will we cope with this kind of post-human competition? Can we imagine a future where we do us and they do them and everyone lives happily? If not, if there must be a victor in such competitions, who will it be? Who should it be?
There is one profession/avocation where we don't have to imagine such a struggle between humans and AI because it's already upon us. The current batch of Large Language Models, LLMs, can write stories and articles in just a few seconds that use perfect grammar and punctuation. And they are as engaging and creative as anything we human authors can come up with.
Or are they?
I believe there is a qualitative difference between AI-generated content and human writing. Others have written that AI content is soulless, repetitive, and derivative. LLMs have been referred to as plagiarism machines because they learn from past human writers. Is any of that true, or just knee-jerk reactions?
This is a dangerous topic for publications and writers' groups. Just this past week, the novel writers' community known as NaNoWriMo was thrown into turmoil at the mere suggestion that AI might have a place in the future of creative writing. The ensuing row could still destroy that well-established (though misguided, IMO) community.
We are science fiction writers, dammit! If anyone should be able to have a reasoned discussion of this sensitive topic, it is us. Looking toward the future of science and imagining rational scenarios for it, good or bad, is what we do.
But you can't judge a dish until you've tasted it. And so, this month, we're going to try an experiment that we'll run alongside the usual theme prompt. For this month only we invite you to send us a second theme story generated by the LLM of your choice.
We will not and cannot publish such stories on our website. However, we will share them on our private Discord writers' channel and invite discussion of their quality and potential. After the theme prompt ends, the results and conclusions of those discussions will be shared in a blog post.
This does not in any way signal a change in SFS policies regarding AI content. We do not and cannot accept submissions for our publication that are written by non-humans.
The rules for the theme prompt are essentially the same as always and are repeated in the next section. The rules for the AI experiment are detailed in the section below that.
Rules
Entries should be submitted in the usual way using the Write for Us submissions link.
Mention the title of the prompt (The Bogeyman Cometh) in the Notes field of the submissions form.
Submissions must be received by October 15 to qualify.
Entries must comply with all the usual SFS Guidelines.
Your work can be horror, romance, dystopian, alien, or whatever, as long as it’s Sci-Fi and addresses the prompt's theme.
Submit only one story for this prompt.
You may continue to submit stories to SFS that are outside the contest, and we encourage you to do so.
If you have more than one story that fits the theme, please submit your best one for the prompt and send us the others as non-theme entries. Also, if the editors feel your theme entry is good enough to publish but does not satisfy the theme requirements, we reserve the right to accept it as a non-theme submission.
After the prompt has ended and all the entrants have been processed, we will list and link to the participating stories in a blog post. The editorial staff will choose one story for special mention as the Editors' Choice of the Month.
Rules for the September/October AI Experiment
If you wish, you may send in a second theme story that you generate using any of the public LLM engines currently available.
Send your AI example in the usual way, using our submission page.
Mention the title of the prompt (The Bogeyman Cometh) in the Notes field of the submissions form.
You MUST identify it as an "AI Example" in the Notes field.
Your Notes field MAY also include the name and version of the LLM you used (ex. "GPT-4o") and the prompt you used to generate it.
Examples must be received by October 15 .
Examples must comply with all the usual SFS Guidelines.
Examples must address the prompt's theme.
Submit at most one AI example.
Our editors will read and evaluate each AI example as we would your own writing, with the following exceptions:
AI examples that do not comply with the guidelines, are too long, or that do not address the theme prompt will be declined and then deleted.
There will be no opportunity to revise AI examples.
Accepted AI examples will NOT be published, but moved to a separate queue and immediately shared to our Writers' Discord group for their evaluation and discussion.
Some time around Halloween, after the prompt has ended, our writers will be given the opportunity to vote on the "best" AI-generated example. This winning AI story will be copied in its entirety to a blog post, along with a summary of the discussions and opinions of our writers.
Note: AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted or licensed, and it enters the public domain as soon as it is generated.
You will not be paid for these AI stories, and they are not eligible for either the Reader's Choice or Editor's Choice award. SFS will not sell or use AI content in any way beyond the purposes of this experiment. Participation in the experiment is entirely voluntary; if you wish, you may submit only a single theme story written by you.
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So go ahead, face your fears. Write a flash sci-fi story about a competition or conflict between humans and the AI bogeyman. And if you're up for it, ask an AI near you to do the same. Let's have a friendly, informed discussion to find out where we stand.
— The Editors
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