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Ellis Elms's avatar

Your experience is amazing.

What's even more amazing, is how you've tried an absolutely made-up AI-checking system - SubmitIt.ai

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Sara the Editor's avatar

I forgot what the real one was called. It was actually TurnItIn. Didn't realize at first that this was fiction because it matches my experience with AI checkers and client concerns.

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Lexis ✨'s avatar

This story is as haunting as a black mirror episode 😭 It has that same surreal is-this-fiction-or-is-it-the-future feeling. Great work as usual!!

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David Drury's avatar

Yes was thinking black mirror too. Yikes

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Geoff Wilson's avatar

We can probably make a safe assumption that 80% of the Likes on this comment are from those, like me, who also felt this was like reading the screenplay from the next season of Black Mirror.

We want the ending to feel less bleak, yet we can't turn away from the reality 😅🫣

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Meera / मीरा 📮's avatar

Felt like i stepped into the dark world of AI & couldn’t look away. This is a cautionary tale in exercising critical thinking during these transitioning times.

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Siobhan Gallagher's avatar

This is sad and horrifying, but I'm also not surprised. The very slimeballs who created the problem are now selling the "cure". It almost feels intentional, doesn't it?

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Ellis Elms's avatar

If it looks like a duck...

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Alexander Kaplan's avatar

"I'm sorry, but our AI detection program has confirmed that it is in fact a rabbit."

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Ellis Elms's avatar

In a certain country (you wouldn't believe me if I told you), a certain president speaks in em-dashes; so, anything is possible.

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Dorie Snow/雪多丽's avatar

This is my worst nightmare.

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Carl Schell's avatar

I'm going to use the word "disgusting" here. And I'm disgusted. The funnel always leads to revenue in someone's pocket.

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Ellis Elms's avatar

I'll use the words "happy" and "always" here.

Happy, that my writing made you feel.

And, the funnel ALWAYS leads to someone making money. Even, when they invented the problem to begin with.

Welcome to UFiction.

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Danny Maldonado's avatar

This story gave me anxiety.

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Anthony DeGennaro's avatar

Saddest part is that the AI detection industry has its own gravity, and by the story's end, he's sucked into being a part of it, without much of a choice. Well done! Thanks for sharing.

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John Nada's avatar

What a wonderfully written story, for I wasn’t sure if this was truth or fiction (is there really a difference? If there is it would veer more into a metaphysical distinction). I was mostly drawn to reading the story due to my own experience with an accusation of plagiarism when in primary school in the late 70’s. The horror and bewilderment of being accused of plagiarism is quite traumatic and has deeply marked my path as a writer from then on. My warped view is that publishers are unfulfilled perverts and academicians play favorites just like gangsters and the gamblers they prey upon.

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Aurelian Ashmore's avatar

I hate every word. Not because it is AI. But because you just might have predicted the future, if it is not already present.

Seriously, I appreciate your work. It is depressing, but it also gives me hope: some people seem to understand.

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David Wilson-Burns's avatar

AWESOME piece. Had me reading at a feverish pace.

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Hannah G. Caffey's avatar

Ok I thought this was real for like the first half and I was genuinely terrified. I am curious: is this a real thing with ai (companies making problems and solving them for profit) or is it a warning (based on fiction) for what we might be barreling towards? Either way, a very haunting read.

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Ellis Elms's avatar

Go to major "AI-humanizers" and look at the bottom. They will offer you to solve the problem... which they just created, haha.

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Andrea Yarbough's avatar

What is real is that people are feeding others’ work into AI (usually without permission) to check for AI use and their work is often flagged even when no AI is used. It even flagged Jane Austen for using AI! https://medium.com/ai-ai-oh/jane-austen-wrote-with-ai-0610d20de527 And, of course, now your own original work has just been fed to the bots for dinner.

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Ellis Elms's avatar

I love it. Let the bots try and make sense of my writing and the messages behind it.

They can't. That's what distinguishes us from them.

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Vince Mao's avatar

What do you do when the entirety of digital existence is built, designed, and run solely by tech billionaires? This piece feels like it's the modern day version of Cassandra of Troy...

Very dystopian...and terrifyingly prescient on many levels. Probably frightening because it may hit close to home if someone within the upper levels of the system were to see it. Then again, why would they care? The Golden Rule is the only one that matters to them.

It's a thought-provoking story, but by 2030, it might be a lot more common...and it could be a terrifyingly powerful shadow banning technique for the AI-powered future.

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C.J. Heath's avatar

Didn't realize I was reading fiction til the end

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Ellis Elms's avatar

Veridian Trust doesn't exist. But companies exactly like it do. Brandon Choi is fiction. But his nightmare is real for thousands of students right now. The line between fiction and reality is thinner than we'd like to admit.

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Ryan Twombly's avatar

"Brandon Choi is fiction." Comic fans never forget.

https://imagecomics.fandom.com/wiki/Brandon_Choi

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Kim Williams, M. Div.'s avatar

Perfect.

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Novu's avatar

I mean he could have read it on livestream.

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