Readers are not only encountering fiction made with artificial intelligence; some are repeatedly generating stories for themselves. Research covered by WIRED suggests that this private, highly customized activity is concentrated among dedicated users and may represent a different market from books produced for public sale.
The evidence does not establish that most chatbot users want AI fiction. Competing datasets produce sharply different estimates, and the larger study’s sample is not representative of all ChatGPT activity. It does show that machine-generated storytelling can be the intended experience rather than concealed authorship.
Prompt Logs Reveal a Concentrated Hobby
Researchers analyzed more than 500,000 prompts sent to ChatGPT in the public WildChat dataset. They found that more than a third of interactions involved some form of fiction generation, including prose, poetry, fan fiction, erotica and role-play. Much of that activity came from a relatively small group of heavy users who generated and revised stories repeatedly.
After adjusting for those power users, the researchers estimated that 7% of chatbot users engage in fiction generation. The number carries important limitations. WildChat prompts are anonymized, so demographic patterns cannot be measured, and participants agreed to make their prompts public. OpenAI told WIRED that the dataset does not represent all ChatGPT users.
A separate 2025 study by OpenAI and the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that 1.4% of prompts related to fiction. WIRED notes that this measure excluded role-play and may not have counted erotica. The gap between 1.4% and 7% reflects different units and definitions, not a settled market share.
Readers Value Control, Speed and Privacy
WIRED profiles Petra Ferraz de Novaes, a Brazilian software engineer who uses SillyTavern to run open-source models on her computer. She supplies a concept, lets the model fill gaps and moves among several fantasy worlds in one session. Some outputs become stories as long as a short novel; others remain private role-playing sessions.
For Novaes, unpredictable model behavior is part of the attraction. A hallucination that would undermine a factual task can introduce an unexpected direction in fiction. The process also removes the need to decide every element of syntax, style and character development before a story can begin.
Researchers interviewed by WIRED say users may value rapid iteration, direct control over plot and an environment they experience as nonjudgmental. One adult user described generating highly specific erotic role-play that published material would be unlikely to match. The article presents this as private customization, not evidence about the preferences of readers generally.
The interaction changes the reader’s role. Instead of accepting an author’s decisions, the user can redirect a scene, repeat a favored scenario or keep a quest continuing indefinitely. That responsiveness may matter as much as literary quality for the people studied.
Demand Does Not Remove Literary Limits
The latest models still struggle with ornate prose, complex characterization, stylistic nuance and coherence across book-length narratives, according to WIRED. They perform better in genres that rely on familiar arcs and tropes. Researchers expect some weaknesses could diminish as models improve, but the source offers no benchmark or timetable.
One concern is that endlessly tailored fiction may reduce exposure to writing that challenges a reader. A study coauthor also suggests it may expose a simpler demand: some people want immediate entertainment more than communication with an author.
The researchers speculate about a tiered future in which abundant generated fiction serves mainstream preferences while human-written work occupies a smaller market for formal experimentation. That is a projection, not an observed publishing structure.
Novaes’s experience complicates a pure replacement story. Generating fiction led her to read creations shared by other users, even though she had not previously considered herself much of a book reader. For this emerging audience, the chatbot is simultaneously a writing instrument, an interactive storyteller and a route into a new reading community.
