We have been having a great deal of difficulty managing AI use. AI use being defined as someone using AI to make a majority if not their entire post. As most of us are aware, it is pretty obvious when someone uses AI, AI has a talent for using a lot of words to say almost nothing and there is a specific tone as well as a few other elements that contribute to these posts. We see it in the common rooms rather regularly where someone would spam "AI slop" solos either in the common area or pepper them throughout the forum, congesting the community, using it to cheat in systems such as classes, falsely adding work to staff and creating topics that suggest a real person will interface with them when in fact it is AI.

The fact of the matter is: we are a roleplay community and we wish to use our creativity to make a story. Most members find it offensive when someone ignores their efforts as a creator and uses AI to respond to their carefully crafted post. Most members are also able to visually identify either through posting patterns (we notice when you make 3 posts in under an hour) or through content in the post that it is AI.

This has resulted in a lot of wasted time for staff as players continue to lie about their AI use, claim to have made edits that were either not done or continue to be AI derived and create a tone of frustration for community members when we have members that use generative AI elements in ways in which they were intended such as translative assistance. This has resulted in my personal involvement.

So why am I here and why is there a thread?

Essentially to allow the playerbase the opportunity to have a discussion regarding AI use, how they wish to manage AI use and the players that insist on continued AI use.

1. We grade users using AI with a T (for troll) when we discover that they have used AI. This means that their grade average is reflective of this T, they do not get house points and they do not get the spell or potion learned. If someone keeps this up long enough, I eventually take away their access to the HW system because it wastes staff time.

2. We ask members who have posts that are AI derived to edit their post within a prescribed time period (such as 3 days), failure to do so will result in their post being deleted. In some, rare cases, we end up having to temporarily (or even permanently in even rarer cases) ban these users from the community.

3. We attempt to avoid shaming members that use AI. This is why there is no public blotter, we are not stating in these AI threads that the posts are AI and we do attempt to manage this privately. However, some members feel that they have the 'right' to know if they are interfacing with AI rather than a user. They have been putting forth significant effort and wish to invest their efforts in another user that is also submitting similar effort which is not the case with AI.

4. We have several users who I define as habitual AI users who have claimed that they are not using AI, that they just "write like AI" or that they are "using a translator." In a minority of cases this proves to be true, but this has been in my experience exceedingly rare. Their lies and our attempts to perform our due-diligence contributes to burn-out and a loss of time that could be invested in other facets of community improvement, which brings us around to "how to deal with proved liars."

This thread is the community's chance to talk this through. Maybe most members here do not care if they are interfacing with AI. Maybe not as well.

I sustain my personal opinion about this matter in two things. First, that in my perspective, this is a place to have some fun with friends, to unwind after a busy day with real responsibilities. Second, no one has to role-play with who they don't feel motivated to write, means, there's always an individual choice associated with who we are going to thread. If I don't like to write with someone using AI, then I do have that choice. But maybe, I really don't mind, and the joy I take over this place is the time I spent writing my post not the quality/quantity of the reply I'm going to obtain.

Another important aspect of this all that makes me strongly consider that the use of AI is not much reprehensible is that it's being used in actual education and workplaces nowadays. Many are incentivised to make use of it in their daily lives, why wouldn't they be able to use it in a place meant for entertainment? I agree, it is my personal opinion and preference to read and write with someone that actually made the effort to offer something of their own to their RP partners, but isn't that just that? A personal opinion and preference? And again, I'm entitled to have it and make my own choices.

Other thing that I think is very relevant, is that this community is a worldwide community. Maybe the majority is a native English speaker, but many are not. Doesn't require the same effort, an English native writing a full post on their native English and another writer writing on their own native language but using a translator simultaneously so they actually participate and have fun here? This is very different from giving AI a prompt and have something written for themselves, this actually requires their creativity and time.

And having in mind that many of our users are still only 13 years old and in some cases younger, this means different levels of English skills. Don't they all deserve to be here and have their fun no matter the place they are from? AI and translators can be tools for accessibility and to help developing knowledge if used properly.

In the end, my personal opinion, is that the users can decide for themselves what its best for them. They can decide with who to role-play, they can decide how to have fun here as long as they stay respectful with their partners and acknowledge their boundaries, they can decide how to better use AI and translators, if wisely they can use it to learn and develop their skills.

I will be very blunt, but I disagree with you, Meyra. Of course, this is just my personal opinion, but I don’t want to ever say on this site I don’t want to role play with a bot. That should be a given, not a preference. I can seriously not imagine a line like “Are you fine with AI usage” being added into RPG partners reqs. If one wishes to roleplay with a bot, they should not waste theirs and others time on a role play site and instead go to AI directly. We might just be very different people, but to me I care a lot about the post I receive. I have never denied someone due to their lack of experience, nor have I stopped a thread with someone due to response time. What really matters to me is the soul in the piece. Something written by AI has none. To me it is pointless. We are here on a writing site to write with others; if no writing is being done, there is no reason to be here.

We are not stopping anyone from using ai for their entertainment, I just don’t believe this is the right place for it and it should be taken elsewhere. Also, I do value this site as more than just entertainment. While this is obviously a hobby site for everyone, to me writing together is also a sort of art and having AI involvement (by which I mean completely writing a post, not just making edits/translating) is an insult to it.

I don’t believe we have anything against translators being used, as long as the original text is provided. For your point on age and experience, I agree they can be helpful. For example, while I would not do it, I would have no objections if someone else gave AI their work and asked “how do I make this better?” Then, they follow the suggestions and edit it themselves. Something like that is not going to get flagged as AI. Something like that has the potential to be educational. Also, using an AI is just not having fun in my opinion. Maybe it’s just a me thing, but I personally cannot understand how someone can be having fun when not even doing the writing themselves.

This is just a response, I will be posting my own ideas soon.

I suppose my major inquiries here are as follows:

Using Ai to complete HW. This does not require effort, this requires the input of data and then copying the output, there is no learning here. However grading does take conceited human effort. We maintain 16 staff members for the sake of grading assignments. We have an alternative means of obtaining spells and potions, it is not required that one completes a lesson. If AI were to be permissible, I would seek to remove the class system as we know it.

Further, activities such as errands where a user gets a prize or reward for completing a particular prompt. There is often a theme or a topic as well as a deadline and a WC minimum. If users are bypassing effort and just using AI, however staff who review this work are exerting human effort, why are we rewarding users. Similar to the HW system, I would likely be seeking to dismantle these systems.

As for adventures. I do them rarely due to an incident a few years ago that demoralized that system, but adventures take weeks to prepare. I would rater not run the event or review that user's post as I develop the adventure if they are not placing in effort themselves.

As for peers who roleplay, if AI was allowed then players should have the right to know that they are dealing with an AI partner rather than an actual person. I'm sorry to say but in a place where I see more people lie rather than be honest when the consequence was "please fix your post", I have severe doubts in their veracity when being transparent about AI use and their peers being able to make an informed decision regarding wanting to RP with them if it would reduce their pool of interested partners (a more severe consequence). Roleplay relies on the assumption that posts represent a player's own creativity, effort, and intent. When AI-generated content is used without disclosure, it creates an uneven playing field and undermines trust. Players may feel deceived, especially if they have been emotionally or creatively investing in shared scenes and this has been happening in this community for a long time.

In short these are the major issues I see with Ai use:
- AI can rapidly generate long, polished-seeming posts that give users an artificial edge in WC-based rewards, events or errands; increases their visibility in public threads due to artificial spam and skews participation metrics we we reward speed over effort.
- AI systems tend to have lore inaccuracies as we have customed some of the setting to the modern age. You have no idea how many times I have seen Snape as an active professor on this forum.
- AI creates scenes to pass written requirements rather than tell a story, this lowers the narrative quality of the site.
- AI allows for spam-like posting behavior.
- AI use increases staff workload leading to disputes appeals and enforcement fatigue.
- Roleplay communities are spaces for creative development and AI use short-circuits writing improvement, problem-solving in scenes, emotional intelligence in IC interactions. AI causes players to stagnate rather than grow.
- AI damages accountability for content. If you did not write the inappropriate or careless post are you responsible or is AI?
- AI damages community culture due to the low-effort participation, reduced engagement in peer writing and reduced pride in authorship.
- AI diminishes the recognition earned by players who spend time drafting their posts, developing consistent character voices and improve their writing organically.

I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me that I am vehemently against AI. I don't think anyone who uses it is outright evil, nor will I pretend to be a saint and say I've never touched it myself; however, I don't believe it has a place on a role-playing site. If someone wishes to use AI for role-play, they can go right ahead, but I come to HiO for the community: not to read ChatGPT's output.

I don't consider myself a writer. In real life, I'm a visual artist; I'm currently studying digital art, and that's where most of my concerns lie. I'm not going to pretend that my writing is particularly great. I'd like to think it's above average, but if I'm being honest with you? I don't particularly care. What I do care about on HiO is other people — the collaborative nature of roleplay. And to put it plainly, if I wanted to collaborate with a bot, I would do that myself.

The joy of plotting and writing together lies in other people: the unpredictability of it all. I would have never considered some of the character beats that Esme or my professor character, Kitty, now have in their plots. Esme's family life has been plotted out with @Stella Bianchi, who is her in-character cousin, and one of the most incredible people I've had the pleasure of threading with. I would not have come up with any of our plans for our dynamic on my own, and I don't believe any AI is nuanced enough to come up with it, either. That was all Stella and her own plans for the Cavaleri family. Esme's relationship with @Cecilia Merrick was a complete accident: and now we have plans for it going six years into the future. I don't know how they will evolve, but I'm excited to see them. Same goes for any other plots I have, really: my future iNPC's plans with @Nico Dawson or @ Marina Alacrán, for example. There is no way I would have been able to come up with Nico as a character or to do what I want to do with Thales if not for Rina/Koko's incredible character work with every single character of hers; but I will now get the absolute pleasure of writing it all out with two close friends of mine.

Even putting aside my personal/religious views on AI-generated material as a whole, and my views on what some call AI "art": community is what has kept me coming back to Hogwarts.io, and I do not feel any community towards AI. In its current state, all it can do is algorithmically regurgitate real people's ideas, thoughts, and emotions. There is no element of surprise, of human soul, or passion. It has made a commodity of something that I believe is beautiful and intrinsically human. I do not like it. I do not want it anywhere near me or my characters.

To add to the concerns people may have about age or English not being someone's first language: I started my journey on Hogwarts.io in 2018, as an 11 year old, with the character Ava Silver. My first language is Polish. I fully sympathise with being a kid and being insecure about your output. So was I. But I would have never gotten better if I didn't do the writing, both in my brief tenure as Ava, and as my later character of Thea Knott.

I usually hate sharing these because they are not the greatest writing ever, but below are some of my early posts as Ava. I remember writing them keenly: sitting down after getting home from school at my dad's desk in an apartment my family doesn't live in anymore. I encourage you to compare them to quite literally any post as Esme (or Thea, for that matter); improvement is possible. It just takes time; and while this might be harsh, good art — visual or written — is not a commodity. It is a honed skill. Being bad is the price of admission to being good.
I'd also like to add, if anyone would like to discuss this further outside this thread, my DMs and owls are always open. I like yapping about writing : )

Because I know things tend to be read in an aggressive tone or combative, let me just underline that I'm talking very calmly and in a pondering tone, not meant to be judgemental. Everyone is entitled to have their opinions and I do respect them all.

The way people see and feel things in this place will inevitably always be different. Like in another place in another context of life, things will always be seen, thought and felt differently by different people. The way I see it, the way I want to spend my time here is my decision, my way of processing things with my own experience and background. I can't impose to others my ways of seeing and wanting things to be. What I can, is decide by my own how I want to share my writings and other things I'm allowed to share here with others. To enjoy the time I spend here the way it brings me more joy, to me, my friends and my writing partners. Focus on the part where I said that being respectful of others and acknowledging others' boundaries and also respect them its essential for this to work, for everything to work really.

If me and my partner decided to write a thread with the use of AI, why would that change your personal enjoyment of this place? In which part of that thread is your personal taste implied? Is your evaluation of it required? Is it your thread? Is it your story? Does it make part of your character's development? Does it influence your writing or your partners writing? Are you demanded to read and like it? This is my point. If its not lore breaking, if you are not implied in it, if the existence of that thread does not concerns you in any way, what does it matter to you personally that AI was used there?

If it was even a choice, that any of us could be a train to stop the AI development in society, then I would think about trying to rule it. But it's an impossible demand. What happens when you can't distinguish between one thing and the other? One way, you're imposing your ideals on something, in another way, you're just living your choice and allowing others to do the same, since you are nor dependent from what others do here with their own experiences and writings. You prefer to read something genuine and I totally agree, me too. I give loads more of value to something written from your heart than something where you did less than the minimum effort. I really do, and it's painful to see how art is being suffering with all this. There are places though, where things can be impactful, meaningfully impactful, but that is not here. I feel here we will go into circles and will always have this discussion over and over, because we can't stop it, not truly. No against a society that has been forcibly told to use AI as a tool and not been given real limitations.

Going back to the part where I talked about respect and boundaries, that's where the issue of fairness towards others comes in. Very much including what you mentioned Lear. Everything that concerns to acquire an actual advantage above others: Errands, Events, Adventures, open threads (not having others agreeing with AI use), Homework, sports... That is not being respectful of others. And ending these systems is being unfair to those who actually care to give their time and heart to this place, definitely not something deserved.

My point is, can't a balance be found in something that is inevitable? I've been here for 4 years, during these 4 years I've been witnessing this discussion countless of times. Something tells me this will not be the last time this will be spoken about. And AI will not stop being developed. As an art and communications student and professional this is personally heartbreaking, but it's a reality.

Staff members must be respected and the extra effort that you guys make here must be appreciated and valued. That is a point that shouldn't be flexible. Apart from that, if it's something written in a private scene with someone that couldn't care less about the use of AI, I don't see why it should be an extra effort. Does it even deserve that extra effort and time? It's not lore breaking? Okay, cool, move on. If it's lore breaking, one call of attention, time given to correct it and if not corrected it is erased, like it is nowadays. I don't think there's ever going to be a day where, specially young players, will not break lore by accident. The fight against AI is going to be exhausting and I don't personally believe it's going to be possible to avoid it forever. Going for a balance, I think it's the better way.

There are two standard uses of AI.

• The generation and summarization of assignments and RL homework/work in the workplace, not using the whole thing, but pieces of it to aid your writing and understanding
• The generation of creative image, text and music in the creative aspect, and using AI to replace human interaction.

One, in my opinion, is unhealthy and unrealistic, and the other is suitable when used appropriately. Can you guess which is which?

I recently had a college professor assign us a survey. He asked us whether or not we used AI to complete our classwork, giving us choices such as "I create whole paragraphs and edit them" "I use AI to grade my assignments before submitting them" "I use no AI", etc etc. He had written down the answers he thought every student in the class would respond. Some he was right about, some he was wrong. 100% of the students in our class used AI in some capacity, even the A+ Class President. Now, he has assigned us to write a fairytale about a modern day issue we wrote an annotated bibliography and completed the CRAAP test for. To me, this is fine. Then he dropped the ball and gave us three options.

• Our story may be ENTIRELY AI generated, no original work, by prompting it with your topic, but this means it is ENTIRELY graded using AI. He will not edit AI's grade.
• Our story may be PARTIALLY AI generated, but we must edit parts heavily and include human, our own writing in them, also. He will then grade it after reading it, and if he believes it is more AI, he will use AI to grade it, and his own grading if he believes it is more human.
• Our story must be HANDWRITTEN in class where he can see us using our own ideas and 0% AI. He will then hand grade it, including notes and his opinions, and use NO AI to assess it.

I personally applaud him for this writing assignment. I think it is a very clever way to get us to think about what we are submitting and the amount of AI used in it, and to balance out the pros and cons of using AI at the risk that our grade could be perfect or horrible. Now, there are ways to cheat the system, asking the AI to write an A assignment, in a human tone, with no flaw, and giving it the rubric to check all of the boxes for us. I personally am going to write my own ideas and include a few sentences of AI just to see what he thinks. (He says I already write like an AI, which, mind him, hurt my feelings </3)

@Meyra Lancaster, you said the following; My point is, can't a balance be found in something that is inevitable? I've been here for 4 years, during these 4 years I've been witnessing this discussion countless of times. Something tells me this will not be the last time this will be spoken about. And AI will not stop being developed. As an art and communications student and professional this is personally heartbreaking, but it's a reality.

The staff of Hogwarts.io is aware of this. In my time on the site, (Im pretty sure this is true, someone correct me if I'm wrong,) AI use was entirely banned at first. This was to keep content, photos and writing, the creative ideas we are taking from our brains and putting down onto paper, from being messy and half hearted. Slop. This rule did not stop people from using it, at the cost of the content being deleted or them getting banned. Then the rules on AI generated photos were changed and the content was allowed. (If I had a say in this I would not be in favor for this fact, but alas) Has this stopped people from using AI yet? Still no, I believe this is the most AI content I have seen ever, both allowed and not allowed.

Human creativity is a gift. If I wanted to roleplay with AIs, I would ask ChatGPT to roleplay with me, or Character AI for a themed character. But this is not the case. I want others to see MY handiwork, MY character, and to roleplay with THEIR characters, not something an AI has written, that is surface level and shallow. Yes, AI is always going to be here, but Hogwarts.io is NOT the place for it. Either of the two websites mentioned are perfectly capable, if that is what people are geared towards.

I am here for the human interaction, not the AI generated slop that is being churned out at a ridiculous rate.

I’ve been tagged here for a different reason, but my feelings about AI can be only classified as strong, and so my further points are more personal rather than objective.

I believe my perspective is a bit different than my extraordinarily talented friend Esme, ever so kind Archer with his posts ranging from thoroughly entertaining to tugging on my heartstrings, or the headmaster himself, all of whom have years of experience behind them. I however come here as someone with little to no writing background (unless my childhood fanfiction endeavours count), especially not roleplay wise. But I did always admire writers, especially coming from an artistic family, so the idea of getting better at it in such a fun and non-judging community was enticing.

I don’t post that much, but seeing my google doc tab list getting a little longer brings me joy. Even though I haven’t had much time to actually improve, I can see that words slowly start flowing more naturally compared to my first post, and in my heart, this is what this website is about. Slowly developing your skills in a kind community, experimenting with longer and shorter posts to discover what fits your style more - those things are not something AI can replicate. If you don’t like 1000 word long threads, don’t join them. No one is forcing you to write long posts, and the 200 word minimum is not that hard to reach (and if it is, join a discord roleplay). I simply don’t see the point in joining this website just to generate replies.

To reference previous statements, in my opinion it’s not a matter of not having time either. As a university student I rarely have it, and because of personal life I often feel unmotivated to try and write. And yet, I would never try and give someone an AI reply, out of basic respect. They put in time and effort for my sake, so they only deserve the same, even if it takes a bit longer on my side. I also have a suspicion that no one on this website will genuinely get mad at you for taking a while - but they might if you use AI which is against the rules.

Even in my short time here one of my few posts has been taken to generate a reply. The difference between feelings I had reading it compared to other threads was palpable - when others replied, it was nothing but joy and excitement, meanwhile the AI post just filled me with confusion, and when learning it was generated, I just felt hurt and cheated. I came here to learn the craft with others, so why and am instead met with soulless slop that doesn’t make sense? I’d much prefer reading something that’s less than ideal and has mistakes but was made by a person who came here to improve just like I did.

Now, I hate to say it, but I’m anxious to thread with others. I figured that outside of my dear friend I could roleplay with people who are new to the website just like me, so we can be on even ground - I’m aware that the more experienced members might be wary of a new account, or simply busy. Instead, I myself became wary. I’m not that good at recognizing AI when I see it (despite my age, I may be a grandparent in that regard) and so I’m uneasy when I see a new account with an AI generated profile picture, and I do not wish to thread with them out of simple fear of being cheated. And so, between the older members already having their affairs set, and new members being a roulette whether it’s a person or not, I’m left in a confused spot. I don't want to meet people by having to ask "by the way, do you use AI?"

My point is, I sincerely disagree with AI use in any capacity. You can learn, you can improve, you can be an inspiration on your own. So why ruin the fun for others? Why come on the website that focuses on writing and not write? Don’t waste people’s time, if you want to roleplay with an AI, you can do so yourself.

Withdrawing slightly from the global and media-related implications of Artificial Intelligence, I'd like to center in specifically on the impact of AI on a writing-specific website. I did not join Hogwarts.io with the sole intention of garnering a reputation and playing in the games forum. I came to be a part of a community that shared a love of writing and character development, and to seek out an opportunity to improve on my own writing skills. What I don't understand is why a person would even join a writing website if they have no intention of actually writing.

I have been a part of this site long enough for my writing development to be on full display, a fact that I am both embarrassed and proud of. It shows a continued effort to improve in a craft, and I feel fulfilled knowing that I have grown this much over the past few years. Writing is an intrinsically accessible pursuit. I have multiple friends with severe Dyslexia that have created beautiful poems and narratives, and are continuing to improve despite their challenges. There are very few things that will fully limit you when it comes to writing. You don't have to be Shakespeare. You just have to be passionate about the things you write.

AI is strictly void of passion. AI is a prompt hastily entered into a generator that produces a generic paragraph of cobbled together concepts and words from other pieces of fiction.

However, reeling back into the website, I'm once again restating that this is a writing website. It's a community, of course, but it's also a writing website. When I come on here, I expect to find other people who want to put in the effort. If it were up to me, the usage of AI to generate any type of writing would be banned completely. But, I understand that there is more nuance to the situation, and with the emergence of user-friendly AI resources, it needs to be handled with care.

So, I'm just throwing my thoughts out here. I don't think AI writing should have any place on this website.

In truth, I can stop AI but it would isolate members. I could say no grammerly, no translators. If I see AI pinging, yeet. AI can be a tool, I am in full support of it being used to edit bad grammar as long as your voice is not lost in the process. We are fully transparent about the tool we use to check, check yourself. Did you become AI because of the massive edits being made? If so, write that post now in your own voice. That is improving your skills.

As for translators, we have many users that use translators. I'll be honest 90% of the "AI being pinged because of translators is bull" because there are certain words and phrases that just do not translate effectively. Puns that are no longer punny. Words that have no equivalency. Strange word choices that are technically correct but lack the linguistic flow of a native speaker or what AI in their polished soulless formats will regurgitate. But there is an absolute risk, so when someone claims they are a non-native speaker and the result is from a translator rather than AI-derived we ask them to start leaving their original efforts in a reducio (spoiler). We can and are willing to check.

Beyond this, AI use is (and should be limited). This is not to say I do not use AI, I do in real life and sometimes creatively but not in replacement of my own efforts.

As for all forms of AI being banned. While I understand how and why some people want this, there is AI in art that we do not even know about. If someone finds an avatar and uses it because they like it, they may not be aware that it was AI generated. Someone getting in trouble for this would be unfair.

However, people do get in trouble for plagiarizing. Some people would claim they made something when in fact it was AI-derived. Some people also stole art from other artists and claimed it was their work - we treat it the same way, they are plagiarists.

AI in art is discouraged but there is use for it. AI can be used to effectively convey the appearance of a setting that does not exist in generated works. The problem generally comes from users that pull images and then claim that the images are their personal effort. But using images in the context of "this fits the mood, theme, or setting" from AI when it is not being falsely attributed as your work is no different than pulling an image offline that fits per a google search. I did not take the picture of the man in my avatar, nor am I Bernard Hill (the man who played Théoden in Lord of the Rings). If you believed either, I am sorry to disappoint. The issue with AI in art is often with deception and undermining the effort of others. If someone says "I will find you a great AI generated image" and you say "sure", there is knowledge of this between you both. However if you sell these AI generated images as "digital art produced by you" then there is an issue because this is deceptive. Further, if we had an activity that involved art and Ai submissions were being used in replacement of actual effort, this would be problematic. It is why we had to remove mARTch - users were submitting AI and it was unfair to those who made actual effort. When AI is used in that way, it ruins things for everyone.

Much like AI use in posts (translators, grammerly) even being used inspirationally (I ask Ai to sometimes list my thoughts based on my writing so I can find inspiration), AI use in art can have its place. I have used AI to develop images of areas that there was no image for in adventures or because I lacked the time to develop a dnd style map (maps are something I do heavily) but there is never a claim I made those AI generated (non-map) images, it was no different than me finding them online.

The balance here is in using AI as a supplementary tool, not as a replacement of your own creativity. Also not being dishonest about art that is being shared on site. We have had members simply steal googled collages and claim they were their work, using AI and claiming it is their own work is no different.