Fans have reacted angrily to the use of AI in fanfiction.

Writing fanfiction has benefits as a form of imaginary play that reduces stress and increases well-being.

Similar to expressive writing, writing fanfiction can be therapeutic in reducing anxiety and depression.

Fanfiction is also great practice for writers — but only if you actually write it yourself!

The movies, books and television shows we love are particularly good at engaging our imagination because of their rich narratives and complex characters. When fans become fascinated by their favorite media, they naturally want to extend the story and explore other scenarios for those characters. For many fans, the way to do that is through fanfiction. Created by fans solely for the enjoyment of other fans, fanfiction is part of the "gift economy" of fandom, with writers investing a great deal of time in their stories and then sharing them for free. Thus, the culture of fandom has been one of appreciation instead of critique.

Recently, however, fanfiction writers have been criticized by readers for allegedly using AI to generate stories. In the booming Heated Rivalry fandom, fans recently took to reddit to expose some of those writers, effectively pushing them out of the fan community. Fans posted that knowing some of their favorite fictions were created with AI broke their hearts. Many felt deceived and betrayed because the writers had anti-AI tags on the works but had actually used AI, breaking trust within the fandom community.

The comments focused on the harm to readers, but using AI to write fanfiction also involves a loss for the writer. It means missing out on some of the benefits of writing fanfiction the old fashioned way (not using AI). If you’re a fanfiction writer, or you’ve considered........

© Psychology Today