Using AI to write online articles to make money: underlying illusions and technological destiny

With the rapid development of AI technology, the field of online writing has also ushered in unprecedented changes.

On the one hand, the emergence of AI-assisted writing tools has allowed many creators to see new creative possibilities, and even triggered a wave of "AI writing online articles and earning over 10,000 yuan a month"; on the other hand, the attitudes of platforms and readers towards AI writing show complex contradictions.

This article will deeply explore the current situation and challenges of AI writing in the field of online literature, analyze the strategies and dilemmas of leading platforms such as Yuewen and Fanqie in the AI ​​wave, and the impact of AI writing on the online literature industry ecology.

Among the human writers who were deeply shocked by Deepseek and worried about losing their jobs, editors of online writing platforms should be the first to be directly affected - the number of submissions to various platforms has increased sharply, and a large number of them obviously use AI assistance. The workload of editors has doubled, and they are discussing AI every day. The good news is that it seems that the work of editors is still very important, at least they need to be left to identify AI.

To be precise, it is not about identifying AI. The leading platforms are all AI trendsetters. The paid giant Yuewen and the free giant Fanqie have already released their own AI-assisted writing tools. But at the end of February, a group of Fanqie authors found that the traffic of their novels dropped sharply and suspected that they were soft-banned. The reasons given by the platform customer service are mostly "water text", but the authors are more inclined to believe that this is a round of "cleansing" of AI writing not in the name of AI.

After all, there has been a surge in Tomato’s “debut” works in recent times.

On March 1, the number of copies of Tomato's first new book reached an astonishing 5,000. Whether it is to prevent the platform from being fleeced or to maintain the reader experience, Tomato cannot sit idly by. Among the restricted authors, some admitted that they used AI for polishing, while others insisted that it was useless.

Tomato AI writing tool released in May 2024

Tomato has always been recognized as the most active and most suitable platform to promote the integration of online literature and AIGC. In fact, it is still difficult for online literature platforms to fully clarify their position in the AI ​​wave. In other words, even if it is clear from the leadership, there are inherent contradictions in the specific implementation.

Strategically, the leading platforms must of course join in the long-lost technological variables and business imagination of the entertainment industry. On the first day of work after the Spring Festival (February 5), China Literature Group announced that it would "take the lead in deploying Deepseek and invite writers from all industries to explore AI-enabled creation together", which led to a sharp rise in its stock price at the opening.

However, facing every online article in front of them, it is still difficult for editors not to worry about whether it is written by AI. More importantly, readers care, and authors care too. A large number of AI articles pouring into the traffic pool means that each author will get less exposure, and readers will also be overwhelmed by the mixed content.

It is easier to show your sword directly on vertical paid websites.

On February 17, Jinjiang Literature City released strict AI writing standards and punishment measures. According to popular saying, "it fired the first shot in the online literature's fight against AI."

Compared with the previous waves of AI tool craze, Deepseek has undoubtedly made more people feel that "I can write too." Various tutorials on "AI writing online articles and earning over 10,000 yuan a month" are popular again, and online writers and readers feel that the singularity is approaching.

Is online literature a kind of craftsmanship or an entertainment industry? If it is the former, the author can claim to be the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage and stick to handwork; if it is the latter, will those who reject machines eventually be abandoned by the times? Perhaps everything is just as Heidegger predicted long ago: technology is the destiny of existence in this era. The most important thing is not what technology will become, but what technology will turn us into.

One night of spring breeze, different attitudes

The most popular works during the Spring Festival in 2025 are "Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King" and Deepseek. The combination of the two is the "AI Fan Writer" incident of the fan creation community LOFTER.

As the popularity of Nezha 2 has led to a surge in demand for fan fiction, readers flocking to LOFTER have discovered that an author on the revenue list has a "yield of 10,000 catties per mu" - an average writing efficiency of almost 5 articles per day. The Nezha 2 fan fiction he created is full of AI flavor, and the Suzaku model detected that 100% of the content was AI-generated.

After being reported by the public, LOFTER responded quickly by punishing the writer and supporting users to refund money. However, regarding netizens' speculation that the AI ​​author "made tens of thousands of yuan in profit", LOFTER told Hard Candy that this was "seriously exaggerated".

LOFTER's drastic measures against AI writing have won widespread support, with some netizens calling it a "good man" - after all, when it comes to AI painting, LOFTER was once a radical technical school.

"LOFTER itself has also stepped into some 'pitfalls' in AI-related capabilities, and even caused some harm to users. Therefore, in the current situation where the industry is vigorously developing AI-related capabilities, we will be more cautious and will consider the feelings of creators more." The editor of LOFTER replied to Mr. Hard Candy.

In her opinion, doujinshi users emphasize "generating electricity for love" and have stronger spiritual demands. Compared with other readers, they will be more opposed to AI, especially AI profiteering. Therefore, LOFTER's current rule is "not to encourage the use of AI-generated content to make profits on LOFTER."

But the fact that AI writing can make it onto the hot list just shows that the AI ​​writing level can already meet the needs of a large number of fan fiction users, and this is precisely because they attach more importance to emotional experience. A more realistic problem may be that no matter whether a reader accepts AI writing in concept or enjoys reading it, people are usually unwilling to pay for AI writing.

LOFTER authors were caught by the public because of their outrageous update frequency, while long paid online articles often directly deliver evidence to readers. More than one author was confirmed to be writing for AI because he forgot to delete the AI ​​polishing instructions.

A careless author left traces of AI writing in the paid chapters, which greatly displeased readers in the comment section. "I thought you were handmade chocolate, but it turns out you are an assembly line product, but you still claim to be handmade."

We were baptized by Marxist theory as early as middle school, "value is the general human labor condensed in commodities." When AI writing does not condense the kind of human labor we imagine, few people are willing to pay for it.

If you know it’s pre-made food, you will lose your appetite. Handmade food should be more expensive than mass-produced food. If AI writing can really be mistaken for real, then do platforms have an obligation to label it “AI writing” so that readers have the right to know?

Fortunately, AI writing is not as amazing as those who sell courses say. Hu Shuo, deputy editor-in-chief of Yuewen, told Hard Candy that most people still use AI to fill or piece together content, and experienced readers can easily identify AI polishing. "DEEPSEEK's style is particularly obvious, with a strong cyber sci-fi and visual, anti-style writing style that is difficult to correct. If there is no corresponding plot support, it will seem empty and make the novel more empty and watery."

As early as July 2023, China Literature Group released its first online literature model "China Literature Magic Pen" and its application product "Writer Assistant". In his first public statement after taking office, China Literature Group CEO and President Hou Xiaonan said, "AIGC is an important driving force for the IP industry in the next five years."

Facing the huge wave of AI, online literature giants must become the leaders in promoting the integration of online literature and AIGC. However, when facing readers, paid reading platforms that emphasize high-quality products need to have a certain cultural conservative attitude to maintain the dignity of "art".

As the deputy editor-in-chief of China Literature, Hu Shuo believes that "we should not turn AI appraisal into a witch hunt, we should abandon our obsession with AI, and essentially stick to the two principles of originality and quality". However, it is human nature to unconsciously pay attention to AI writing itself in the work of editors and the reading of readers.

A large number of editors publicly reject AI manuscripts. Relatively speaking, free reading platforms seem to be more suitable for AI "evangelism". Readers will automatically lower their requirements for free content. The free purpose of large quantity, personalized needs, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement are all in line with AI writing. When discussing AI writing on social platforms, the free giant Tomato is the most popular. Whether it is self-made by the platform, mass production by the studio, or individual authors using AI assistance, Tomato is undoubtedly the largest AI online writing test field at present.

But the other side of massive content is the dilution of revenue. According to the latest data released by Tomato in December last year, in 2024, there will be 9,374 authors with an annual income of more than 30,000 yuan and 3,228 authors with an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan. And as mentioned at the beginning, this field has now begun to be "weeded by machines".

Running to AI, Finding AI

It is not surprising that Jinjiang Literature City has become the first online literature platform to explicitly restrict AI. Hardcore paid content needs to maintain its purity for senior readers and authors. Even if everyone uses machines to make dumplings, handmade workshops and gourmet diners must be "worthy" of each other. Then even if online literature collapses back to a small field one day, it can still survive in a corner.

On February 17, Jinjiang webmaster Bing Xin published a "Trial Operation Announcement on the Use and Judgment of AI-Assisted Writing" in the author forum of the site. Jinjiang's judgment criteria for AI assistance also clarified the current use of AI by online writers.

Jinjiang divides AI writing assistance into text-based and creative types. The text-based type is divided into proofreading level, description level, and narrative level according to different levels. The creative type is divided into element level, rough outline level, and detailed outline level. Jinjiang tentatively only accepts AI assistance at the proofreading level, element level, and rough outline level. In other words, the so-called "AI polishing" is excluded from Jinjiang.

"Polishing" is the most frequently mentioned use of AI. For young authors, this is a magic weapon to solve their poor writing skills and difficulty in implementing ideas. For experienced authors, this is a weapon to improve efficiency, increase word counts, and cheat on full attendance. "A farming article I followed obviously used a writer's assistant. Every time he wrote about the scenery, it was just like an elementary school text." Online writer Guan Pingchao told Hard Candy that once he went to search specifically, and sure enough, he saw the same description in an article about cultural tourism.

When DEEPSEEK first appeared, people were amazed at its gorgeous writing style. But it must be pointed out that long after the invention of photography and film, long paragraphs of description in literature have largely lost their original value. Rhetorical writing is not the core selling point of online literature. At least with my many years of online literature reading experience, most of the complicated descriptions are skipped directly.

In the view of Hu Shuo, deputy editor-in-chief of China Literature, editing is precisely a function of AI that is more "diverse in terms of opinions", and it is also the "middle ground" that he personally rejects at present. He prefers to regard AI as a search tool and inspiration tool.

"AI can only assist the author within the scope of the author's understanding." Hu Shuo told Hard Candy that the knowledge that the author does not understand cannot be pieced together by AI. On the one hand, AI may make it up, and on the other hand, things that are outside the author's thinking framework can only be filled in dryly.

Hu said that he once tried to let DEEPSEEK create a superpower system based on the increase and decrease of entropy, and then asked it to create another system based on the progress and return of time. Sure enough, the functions were similar but the principles were different. "The more detailed the questions, the more interesting it is, but its ability depends entirely on your own imagination and knowledge."

Hu Shuo believes that AI-assisted online writing has two development directions: one is to summarize the rules and form the best route based on all online articles, and then in turn guide individual writing or simply create independently. The other is to conduct in-depth learning based on the values, writing style and knowledge scope of a specific writer, and then assist the writer in writing.

Yuewen's "Miaobi" internal test demonstration

"Many people think that the first route has made rapid progress, but I think it is far from meeting the standards at present. Even if it is feasible in the future, it is completely meaningless. It will lead to the expansion of the entire content and will soon be disliked by people. Because it has eliminated the diversity of this industry." Hu said.

It is said that technology will liberate humans from repetitive labor, but when technology first arrives, people become more anxious. Will we be left behind by the times if we don't use AI? As a representative writer of the first generation of fairy tales, Guan Pingchao is still in the "trial" stage of AI. He also has colleagues who are doing in-depth research around him, "just like a coachman who is actively transforming to an internal combustion engine."

"The car has already appeared, but it is still moving at a snail's pace. I can still drive a horse-drawn carriage at lightning speed. But I don't underestimate the car. I predict that it will catch up with the horse-drawn carriage one day. When that day comes, I will take a driver's license test," said Guan Pingchao.

Some rise, some fall

In the AI ​​announcement released by Jinjiang webmaster Bing Xin, there is an excerpt of a conversation with AI. Q: Will authors who focus on entertainment lose their jobs on a large scale?

Answer: The unemployment wave is concentrated at the bottom. Writers who rely on routine production will be replaced by AI, but the creative class will continue to increase in value.

This is also in line with most people's speculation. The experience posts about "making money by writing online articles with AI" that are rampant on the Internet can only be the illusions of low-level writers. The more realistic anxiety is that when editors face a sudden increase in submissions and some editors begin to emphasize rejecting AI manuscripts, the living space of new writers may be squeezed, and their works may easily be buried in the massive amount of content produced rapidly. Some authors are also worried that manual typing will also be suspected of being AI and be "accidentally killed".

Now, we can have some simple empathy for the Luddites. Not everyone can go to the new world, and even if you are not the one to be sacrificed, you still have to face learning and adjustment. You technical developers are both financially free and changing the world, a win-win situation; we have to learn new technologies and worry about losing our jobs without provoking anyone, a lose-lose situation.

"In fact, the threshold of the industry has been raised. Now you need to use AI and traditional writing skills, which requires compound talents." Guan Pingchao believes that AI will pose a challenge to new authors, but it is still far from high-level writing. "AI thinks logically, but people are not so logical. There may be something frivolous behind the major events of the country and family. Literature is sometimes against logic and common sense."

Hu Shuo, deputy editor-in-chief of Yuewen, believes that the less AI is used, the more frightening it is. As long as it is used more, one will find that AI has great limitations. "Even if it is a despicable fusion of plot points, it is based on the author's own cognition and values. The work expresses personal experience and values, which AI cannot choose. It can only choose the best route in its own logic, while we look at the wonderful details and deep emotional expression." When AI presents ABCD, the author must have aesthetic taste to choose the best one, and must choose the one that can gain the most universal resonance based on values. In this sense, at least when facing AI, we all have the opportunity to be a party A with or without taste.

The reason why humans have a chance of winning is that this “quality” is not unique. Online literature is a projection of the entire real world, or even bigger than it. The cult of the legitimate and illegitimate gods, the crematorium of chasing wives, and the literature of the womb… these crazy articles that humans find incomprehensible must have hit the nerves of some people.

Jinjiang Romance VIP Gold List

"AI is at most 'an' author. It can write thousands of books, but readers will soon get bored. The moat of mankind is that we express ourselves," Hu Shuo concluded.

This may mean that authors can return to the origin of online literature and write more freely and from the heart. No longer strive to chase those hot topics, hot themes, and hot labels. If you copy them, you will definitely not be able to be understood by the editor or as fast as AI. If you express what you want to express, there will always be people who can empathize with you.

If we regard AI as a kind of destiny for our generation, then perhaps we can really deduce two major "benefits" for online literature. First, if technology takes over labor on a large scale, a large number of people may become "useless classes", then cheap leisure activities including online literature will be a rigid demand.

On this basis, we can also see that technology is constantly canceling the "process". Takeout has canceled the process of cooking, short videos of more than ten seconds have canceled the process of laughing and crying, and even the process of writing with careful consideration and hard work will be canceled. People are enjoying the results more and more directly. It is easy to get, but the feeling is also poor. I don't know how this result was obtained, so there is a strong sense of loss of control.

Many online articles are responding to this lack of process and shallow feelings, such as farming articles and heart-wrenching articles. In a technological paradise where we can enjoy the results directly, we have to experience the "process" in online articles.