Precarity and Solidarity: Preliminary results on a study of queer and disabled fiction writers' experiences with generative AI

TL;DR

This study explores how queer and disabled fiction writers perceive and experience generative AI, revealing increased pessimism and highlighting their strategies to mitigate AI-related industry harms.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into marginalized writers' attitudes towards AI and documents their coping strategies to protect their industry from AI-induced precarity.

Findings

Queer and disabled writers are more pessimistic about AI's impact.

Generative AI exacerbates existing industry precarity.

Writers employ individual and collective strategies against AI harms.

Abstract

We have undertaken a mixed-methods study of fiction writers' experiences and attitudes with generative AI, primarily focused on the experiences of queer and disabled writers. We find that queer and disabled writers are markedly more pessimistic than non-queer and non-disabled writers about the impact of AI on their industry, although pessimism is the majority attitude for both groups. We explore ways that generative AI exacerbates existing sources of instability and precarity in the publishing industry, reasons why writers are philosophically opposed to its use, and individual and collective strategies used by marginalized fiction writers to safeguard their industry from harms associated with generative AI.