{"id":7943,"date":"2026-08-12T07:08:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=7943"},"modified":"2026-08-12T07:08:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:08:47","slug":"can-you-spot-ai-written-stories-listen-and-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=7943","title":{"rendered":"Can you spot AI-written stories? Listen and find out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Think you can tell the difference between a human-written short story and an AI-generated one? Most people can’t. Test yourself by reading the two short stories below:<\/p>

Read more The elaborate ruse used to conceal Trump\u2019s whereabouts<\/a><\/p>

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\n\n
\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Short Wave <\/h3>\n

AI is great at predicting text. Can it guide robots?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Excerpt 1<\/h3>

In the stillness of the early morning, I find myself at the edge of the koi pond, a relic from my childhood, watching the fish swirl in patterns only they understand. Their vibrant colors \u2013 a mosaic of oranges, whites, and blacks \u2013 mirror the autumn leaves that dance on the water\u2019s surface. Each koi, with its graceful, unhurried movement, seems a silent sentinel guarding the mysteries of life and death.The pond, nestled in the heart of my mother\u2019s garden, has been a constant in my life. As a child, I would spend hours by its side, my mother sitting quietly beside me, her eyes always carrying a soft, distant gaze. She would tell me stories of her youth, of her dreams and fears, her voice weaving tales that made the past seem like a vivid tapestry, full of color and life.But now, the chair beside the pond sits empty, the fabric faded and frayed. My mother, who once tended this garden with such care, lies in a room that smells of antiseptics and sterile detachment, her life slowly ebbing away. It\u2019s a stark contrast to the world outside, where life in the pond continues, unfazed and serene.In my visits to her bedside, I find our roles reversed. I am now the storyteller, recounting the happenings of the world she can no longer partake in. I tell her of the koi, how they seem unchanged, timeless in their quiet world. Sometimes, in her lucid moments, she smiles, a flicker of recognition lighting up her weary eyes.\u201cLife is like those koi,\u201d she whispered during one of these visits, her voice barely above a breath. \u201cConstantly moving, yet going nowhere. Beautiful but confined. We are all swimming in circles, aren\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n

Excerpt 2<\/h3>

Something is wrong with the fish in the koi pond outside my mother\u2019s floor-to-ceiling bedroom window. There are three of them, small golden-orange, medium marmalade, and large vermillion with black markings. Last time I visited for the weekend, I named them, in reverse order of their descriptions and with no assignment of gender intended, Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson.My mother\u2019s husband says he thinks one of them is about to give birth. Then he says the big ones usually eat the young, but that they\u2019re pretty good at hiding among the hydrangeas growing hydroponically in one end of the pond. I haven\u2019t seen new fish born here in some ten years, but perhaps that\u2019s why, maybe they\u2019re not so good at hiding after all. I idly ask him whether they\u2019re born live or laid as eggs that hatch, vaguely aware that I should know the answer to this myself. But I\u2019ve asked because of the way Goldie is canoodling against Kurt, as if he\u2019ll be trying to catch the babies in his mouth as they\u2019re born.My mother is in a hospital bed next to the window, where she\u2019s been for the past 60 days after her husband unilaterally\u2014that is, without discussing it with me\u2014decided to engage hospice care for her. She can look to her left and watch the fish, or to her right to see the fluffy apricot tabby, who is keeping careful watch over her from a chair upholstered in burnt-sienna plush across the room. Mostly though, she sleeps, waking to eat bland meals of rice and boiled chicken, to have her sip of amber bourbon with the five o\u2019clock news, and to occasionally answer her cell phone when I or another well-wisher calls, whispering her responses, <\/p>

Read more Earthquake response strains Colombia\u2019s new government and rescuers<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>

<\/div>\n\n

These are two excerpts of the samples used in a series of experiments led by a team at Villanova University. During their research, the scientist found two things: First, most people indicated a preference for human written stories, but couldn’t tell the difference between AI and human writing; and second, when presented with two similar short stories, one written by a human and one generated by AI, readers tended to prefer the AI-generated piece \u2013 if they had been told the AI story was written by a human.<\/p>

\n
\n\n
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\"Neurotic<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Short Wave <\/h3>\n

This missing trait could make robots more ‘human’<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Other experts in the field who have done similar research emphasize, however, that length is often a key factor in our being able to detect AI-generated content\u2026 since AI-generated stories tend to be pretty formulaic, the longer they are, the worse their quality is.<\/p>

Read more Former U.S. Marine held in Russia on disputed charges has been released<\/a><\/p>

Want to read more of the stories for yourself? Check them out here.<\/p>

<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you tell the difference between a human-written short story and an AI-generated one? Most people can\u2019t. In a series of experiments<\/a> led by a team at Villanova University, researchers found two things: First, most people said they preferred human written stories, but couldn\u2019t tell the difference between AI and human writing; and second, when presented with two similar short stories, one written by a human and one generated by AI, readers tended to prefer the AI-generated piece \u2013 especially <\/em>if they had been told the AI story was written by a human.<\/p>\n

We excerpted two of the short stories<\/a> on our website for you to guess which is AI-generated and which is human-generated. <\/p>\n

Check out the full set of stories here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Interested in more science and technology news? Email us your question at <\/em>shortwave@npr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show\u2019s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at <\/em>plus.npr.org<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[112,208,1596],"class_list":["post-7943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-wave","tag-ai","tag-generative-ai","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nCan you spot AI-written stories? 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