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Text | Mouyu

#Jackie Chan's new film uses AI to change his face and return to youth#

#I earn over 10,000 yuan a month as an AI teacher#

#The first batch of young people who fell in love with AI have already broken up#

These are the AI-related terms that were trending on Weibo on the same day. Being flooded with AI has become the norm when surfing the Internet. While the film and entertainment interactive markets are promoting AI with great fanfare, the online literature circle has also been "sanctioned" by AI, and Tomato Novel has quietly started something.

Recently, Tomato Novel Official sent "AI Training Supplemental Protocol", a supplementary clause on the application of AI technology was added to the contract. AI writing is about to be put on the table, which has been questioned by the contracted authors and boycotted by a number of text creators.

AI writing is actually not a new term. In fact, the first industry to be impacted by AI technology was the writing industry. However, when Tomato Novel, a leader in the online writing industry, used its influence to promote the development of AI creation, it inevitably caused panic among writers, and the application of AI technology caused an uproar in the online writing circle.

AI-assisted or pure AI novel?

Some of Tomato’s contracted authors posted the “AI Training Supplementary Agreement” sent by Tomato Novel.

According to the agreement signing reminder,After the agreement is signed, all/part of the author's content will be used for platform AI model training, or other new technology research and development application scenarios。

In the specific agreements disclosed by some authors, the relevant clauses clearly define the application areas, including but not limited to the editing, conversion, synthesis, virtual reality technology, etc. of works such as intelligent dialogue and intelligent text, as well as providing synthetic data for AI artificial intelligence model training. In the eyes of most authors, this actually means that their original works are used by Tomato Novel to feed AI.

After the announcement of the supplementary provisions on AI, the concerns of text creators mainly focus on two aspects:

One is the issue of copyright protection.The agreement signing reminder clearly states that "the content produced by training is protected by the platform's copyright", which means that the content produced by AI is protected. So is the original text used as the model training database protected by copyright? If the original text of the creator cannot be protected, then "originality" loses its meaning.

The second is the problem of platform streamingOnce the author's original work is treated as a database, the high-quality text, plot, and content are taken away by AI, and AI novels become a culmination of all, it will inevitably affect the traffic of the original text. At that time, whether Tomato Novel is still willing to promote the original work will further affect the income of the original author.

In fact, this is not just a dilemma faced by Tomato Novel’s contracted authors. Once AI creation is widely used in the online literature market, all online literature creators will encounter the same problem. This is why Tomato Novel’s supplementary agreement on AI was questioned and opposed by the online literature circle after it was exposed. Some of the boycotters are not even contracted authors of Tomato Novel.

After causing a stir in the online literature circle, Tomato Novel released a statement on Longkong, explaining the application of AI technology:The platform is currently developing AI-assisted writing, not pure AI novels.。

Tomato Novel clearly stated that the addition of AI-related clauses in the contract is to develop auxiliary tools that can help authors significantly improve their writing efficiency and reading experience. It is not an attempt to replace authors with AI, and it will not use AI writing capabilities against the author's personal wishes. There are no plans to create pure AI novels at this stage.

Regarding the concerns of some contracted authors, Tomato Novel also stated that if there are still doubts about the AI-related terms, they can feedback to the platform, and a special channel will be opened to terminate the relevant agreements later.

In fact, whether it is AI-assisted writing or pure AI novels, online writers are opposed to it. Essentially, it is because it involves their own rights and interests. Once the door to online AI writing is opened, it will inevitably have a greater impact on the creators. But it is obvious that Tomato Novel is now trying to tear open this door.

Tomato's continued exploration of AI creation

At the beginning of this year, Tomato Novel invited authors to test its new AI writing function.

According to the authors who participated in the internal test at that time, some auxiliary functions provided by AI writing, such as expansion and rewriting, are not as omnipotent as imagined. The generated text language is stiff. For some skilled writers, this function is relatively useless and will lower the quality of the work to a certain extent.

Although the feedback from internal test authors on the AI ​​writing function was generally not very good, Tomato Novel still launched the AI ​​toolbox in May this year.Seven major functions have been launched: AI expansion, AI rewriting, custom description, AI continuation, AI naming, writing tips, and AI assistant, the author only needs to provide creativity and settings, and the rest can be assisted by AI.

After the AI ​​toolbox was launched, it naturally needed more literary works to feed it, and more data to support AI writing. So Tomato Novel set its sights on the contracted novels on the site, and thus came up with the "AI Training Supplementary Agreement" that caused a sensation in the online literature circle.

Judging from the path that Tomato Novel has taken in exploring AI technology, the platform is indeed determined to open up the door to AI writing for online literature. Although it has been opposed by a large number of writers, for the platform, AI writing does have its own position and value.

On the one hand, based on Tomato Novel’s profit model and user group characteristics, AI writing can maximize profits.

Compared with paid platforms such as Jinjiang and Yuewen, the biggest difference between Tomato Novel lies in the different profit models. Tomato, which adopts a free model, relies on the "traffic + advertising" path, turning online literature from a content business into a traffic business, which in turn leads to changes in the content ecology.

To make a simple comparison, Jinjiang's payment model requires authors to attract readers to pay with higher-quality content, but Fanqie has broken the "pay wall" of reading and retained users in the sinking market with low willingness to pay. These users have relatively low requirements for content quality and are satisfied with obtaining shallow pleasure and "killing" time, while lowering the threshold for authors and readers.

The use of AI-assisted tools can help authors improve their productivity and make typing easier. Even if the output quality of AI is relatively low, it is enough to meet the needs of Tomato users. At the same time, the improvement of content production capacity can also bring more traffic and revenue to creators and even platforms.

On the other hand, based on the construction of the Tomato Novel IP industry chain, AI algorithms are used to incubate IPs with higher market value.

Opening up the IP copyright operation industry chain has been a goal that Tomato Novel has continued to work hard on in recent years. However, the decline of the content ecology has led to a scarcity of high-quality works, which in turn has affected the film and television adaptation of IP, and to a large extent has made it difficult for ByteDance to enter the upstream of the IP industry chain.

The AI ​​algorithm can create a "masterpiece" based on readers' reading habits and preferences. The author is worried that the good content and jokes he created will be taken away by AI, but it is actually beneficial to the platform. A more market-oriented IP can promote the construction of the Tomato Novel IP industry chain.

Objectively speaking, the popularization and application of AI technology can indeed bring growth to the platform's business. It is not difficult to understand why Tomato Novel launched the AI ​​writing function despite public outrage. However, from the perspective of creators and readers, whether the development of AI writing is good or bad remains to be discussed.

Will AI revolutionize the lives of online writers?

With the development of AI writing, the first people to be impacted will definitely be the creators of texts.

When original works that embody the creator's imagination and creativity can be copied and moved by AI within minutes, the value of the creator and the work will inevitably be greatly reduced, which in turn affects the creator's interests.

In fact, when Tomato Novel first launched the AI ​​writing function, it did not cause a sensation in the online literature circle, because after all, whether to use AI is a personal choice and does not affect the original authors who work diligently. However, the AI ​​supplementary agreement issued recently stated that the contracted works must be fed to AI, and the work name, outline, introduction, characters and even the author's own information will become a database, which truly affects the rights and interests of the creators.

Once AI writing becomes widely popular and original works become AI databases, creators will indeed face the dilemma of being impacted and replaced. Authors who already have a fixed readership and have formed a unique writing style may not be affected too much for the time being, but small authors at the bottom will most likely lose their living space under the impact of AI technology.

However, on the other hand, if creators can use AI to improve their creative efficiency and use AI to assist in the creation of content details, allowing authors to focus more on plot rhythm and creative conception, it will promote the mutual internal circulation of AI and creators, and perhaps also drive the iterative growth of the online literature market.

In fact,Even if AI writing has higher efficiency and lower cost, it is impossible to completely replace real people.。

Creation itself is an act that embodies human wisdom and emotion. Human thoughts and values ​​in creative activities cannot be replaced. AI is, after all, just a technical tool.

In the future, the industry will be looking forward to how to protect the copyright of original works, standardize the use of AI technology to improve quality and efficiency in creation, and resolve the contradiction between AI technology and creators.

From the current perspective, AI writing will not revolutionize the lives of online writers, but it may revolutionize the lives of those writers who give up their writing.