A new study reveals a surprising gap between people’s stated preferences for human-created content and their actual consumption behaviors when it comes to AI-generated stories. This discrepancy highlights important questions about the future economic impact of AI on creative industries, as consumers may claim to value human creativity while their spending and engagement patterns suggest otherwise.
The big picture: Research shows that while people explicitly prefer and rate human-authored stories more highly than AI-generated ones, their willingness to invest time and money in reading these stories doesn’t differ based on perceived authorship.
Key details: Researchers used ChatGPT-4o to generate a short story in the style of acclaimed fiction author Jason Brown, then presented it to a nationally representative sample of over 650 participants.
What they found: Participants who knew they were reading AI-generated content rated the story more negatively across multiple dimensions including predictability, authenticity, and evocativeness.
The contradiction: Despite lower quality ratings, participants demonstrated identical behaviors regardless of the story’s labeled authorship.
Behind the numbers: Almost 40% of participants claimed they would have paid less for AI-written content, revealing a significant gap between people’s stated preferences and their actual consumer behavior.
Why this matters: This discrepancy between perception and behavior has profound implications for creative industries employing millions worldwide, suggesting consumers might not actually alter their consumption patterns as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent.