Your next favorite story won’t be written by AI, but it just might happen one day

Stories define people – they shape our relationships, cultures and societies. Unlike other skills that have been replaced by technology, storytelling has remained uniquely human, distinguishing humans from machines. But now even storytelling is being challenged. Artificial intelligence, powered by massive data sets, can generate stories that can sometimes match or even surpass those written by humans.

Creative professionals are among the first to feel the threat of AI. Last year, Hollywood screenwriters protested, demanding – and winning – protection against AI replacing their jobs. As college professors, we’ve seen student work that seems suspiciously AI-generated, which can be frustrating.

In addition to the threat to livelihoods, AI’s ability to create compelling, human stories also poses a societal risk: the spread of disinformation. Fake news, which once required significant effort, can now be produced with ease. This is especially concerning because decades of research have shown that people are often more influenced by stories than by explicit arguments and pleas.

We wanted to investigate how well AI-written stories compare to those written by human storytellers. We found that AI storytelling is impressive, but professional writers don’t have to worry — at least not yet.

The power of stories

How do stories influence people? Their power often lies in transport – the feeling of being transported to and completely immersed in an imaginary world. You’ve probably experienced this while losing yourself in the wizarding world of Harry Potter or the 19th century English society in “Pride and Prejudice.” This type of immersion allows you to experience new places and understand the perspectives of others, which often influences how you view your own life afterwards.

When you are drawn into a story, you not only learn by observing, but your skepticism is also suspended. You become so engrossed in the storyline that you let your guard down, allowing the story to influence you without skepticism or feeling manipulated.

Given the power of stories, can AI tell a good story? This question is not only important for people in the creative industries, but for everyone. A good story can change lives, as evidenced by mythical and nationalistic stories that have influenced wars and peace.

By exploring whether AI can tell compelling stories, researchers like us can also understand what makes stories effective. Unlike human writers, AI offers a controlled way to experiment with storytelling techniques.

Outlined results

In our experiments, we investigated whether AI could tell compelling stories. We used descriptions from published studies to prompt ChatGPT to generate three stories. We then asked more than 2,000 participants to read these stories and rate their engagement with these stories. We labeled half as AI-written and the other half as human-written.

Our results were mixed. In three experiments, participants found that human-written stories were generally more “transporting” than AI-generated stories, regardless of how the source was labeled. However, they were not more likely to raise questions about AI-generated stories. In several cases, they challenged them even less than human-written cases. The only clear finding was that labeling a story as AI-written made it less attractive to participants and led to more skepticism, regardless of the actual author.

Why is this the case? Linguistic analysis of the stories showed that AI-generated stories tended to contain longer paragraphs and sentences, while human writers showed more stylistic diversity. AI writes coherently, with strong connections between sentences and ideas, but human writers vary more, creating a richer experience. This also points to the possibility that encouraging AI models to write in more diverse tones and styles could improve their stories.

These findings provide a first look at AI’s potential for storytelling. We also looked at research in storytelling, psychology and philosophy to understand what makes a good story.

We believe four things make stories compelling: good writing, credibility, creativity, and lived experience. AI is great at writing fluidly and making stories believable. But AI falls short when it comes to creativity and practical experiences. Creativity means coming up with new ideas, while AI is designed to predict the most likely outcome. And while AI can sound human, it lacks the real-life experiences that often make stories truly compelling.

Close?

It’s too early to come to a definitive conclusion on whether AI can ultimately be used for high-quality storytelling. AI is good at writing fluently and coherently, and its creativity rivals that of average writers. However, the power of AI lies in its predictability. The algorithms are designed to generate the most likely outcome based on data, making the stories engaging in a familiar way. This is similar to the concept of beauty in mediocrity, the documented preference people have for composite images that depict the average face of a population. While this predictability limits true creativity, it can still resonate with audiences.

For now, screenwriters and novelists are not at risk of losing their jobs. AI can tell stories, but they aren’t quite on par with the best human storytellers. Still, as AI continues to develop, we may see more compelling stories generated by machines, which could pose serious challenges, especially if they are used to spread disinformation.