A study by UNC-Chapel Hill computer scientists found that artificial intelligence struggles to create complex characters when tasked with writing fiction.
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1. The mystery is missing
A study by UNC-Chapel Hill computer scientists found that artificial intelligence struggles to create complex characters when tasked with writing fiction.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that while artificial intelligence can spin increasingly convincing stories, its characters may still lack one of the qualities that make human-written fiction memorable: mystery.
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Their findings suggest that, despite advances in technology, AI still tends to rely on familiar patterns.
2. arxiv.org › abs › 2604[2604.03136] StoryScope: Investigating idiosyncrasies in AI ...
More broadly, these results suggest that differences in underlying narrative construction, not just writing style, can be used to separate human-written original works from AI-generated fiction.
[2604.03136] StoryScope: Investigating idiosyncrasies in AI fiction
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Computer Science > Computation and Language
[Submitted on 3 Apr 2026 (v1), last revised 10 Aug 2026 (this version, v6)]
Title: StoryScope: Investigating idiosyncrasies in AI fiction
Authors:Jenna Russell, Rishanth Rajendhran, Chau Minh Pham, Mohit Iyyer, John Wieting View PDF HTML (experimental)
Abstract:As AI-generated fiction becomes increasingly prevalent, questions of authorship and originality are becoming central to
3. Human–AI relationships in fiction: Theoretical cultural ...
Published in the journal AI & SOCIETY, their analysis indicates that AI is portrayed not only as a technological tool but also as a supporter, collaborative companion, and, in some cases, an equal partner.
Human–AI relationships in fiction: Theoretical cultural framework developed to understand AI representations
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This figure summarizes the theoretical foundations—anthropomorphism, mind perception, narrative identity, and ethical rehearsal—and shows how they inform the narrative coding process, from four relational dimensions to six narrative types and three narrative phases.
Researchers at University of Tsukuba examined how
4. Generative AI & Fictionality: How Novels Power Large Language ...
Through our study of an influential open-source model (BERT), we find that LLMs leverage familiar attributes and affordances of fiction, while also fomenting new qualities and forms of social response.
arXiv:2603.01220v1 [cs.CL] 01 Mar 2026
Generative AI & Fictionality: How Novels Power Large Language Models
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Generative models, like the one in ChatGPT, are powered by their training data.
The models are simply next-word predictors, based on patterns learned from vast amounts of pre-existing text.
Since the first generation of GPT, it is striking that the most popular datasets have included substantial collections of novels.
Through our study of an influen
5. Visions of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Science Fiction: a computational analysis - PubMed
The results suggest the prevalence of four distinctive categories, including human-like characters, intelligent machines, helpers such as vehicles and equipment, and infrastructure, which may be mapped to a two-dimensional space with axes representing intelligence and humanity.
Visions of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Science Fiction: a computational analysis
Int J Soc Robot.
2022;14(10):2123-2133.
doi: 10.1007/s12369-022-00876-z.
Epub 2022 Jul 18.
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Driven by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and anthropomorphic robotic systems, the various possibilities and risks of such technologies have become a topic of urgent discussion.
6. Visions of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Science Fiction
First, 115 AI systems described in SF were selected based on three criteria, including diversity of intelligence, social aspects, and extension of human intelligence.
Visions of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Science Fiction: a computational analysis - PMC
Int J Soc Robot.
2022 Jul 18;14(10):2123–2133.
doi: 10.1007/s12369-022-00876-z
...
Visions of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Science Fiction: a computational analysis
Driven by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and anthropomorphic robotic systems, the various possibilities and risks of such technologies have become a topic of urgent discussion.
Although science fiction (SF) works are often ci