Study Reveals Preference for AI Writing Over Human Authors

WHO:

Fast Company - The study was conducted by researchers from Cambridge University Press, including Deena Skolnick Weisberg from Villanova University’s department of psychological and brain sciences.

CNET - The study involved 1,682 adult participants.

WHAT:

CNET - Participants rated AI-generated stories higher than human-generated stories.

Fast Company - The study involved six short stories, three written by humans and three generated by ChatGPT.

Fast Company - Readers rated AI-written stories as more engaging and of higher quality than human-written counterparts.

Fast Company - When participants believed AI stories were written by humans, they gave them even higher scores.

WHERE:

Fast Company - The study was published by Cambridge University Press.

WHEN:

Fast Company - A different study published earlier this year found that LLM usage contributed to the “blandification” of human writing.

WHY:

Fast Company - The study suggests that readers have an implicit bias against AI-generated content, regardless of its quality.

Fast Company - Deena Skolnick Weisberg stated that public assumptions about AI's capabilities are increasingly out of date.

Fast Company - Weisberg noted that people assume creative writing requires uniquely human qualities, leading to an underestimation of AI's capabilities.

HOW:

Fast Company - The study involved participants reading stories and being told whether they were written by a human or AI, though not always truthfully.

Fast Company - AI-generated writing is trained on human work, specifically based on existing human-written narratives.

Fast Company - Weisberg suggested that AI writing tends to be clearer, more direct, and easier to process compared to human-written stories.

(UPDATED August 7, 2026 00:55 UTC)

A new study from Cambridge University Press, involving 1,682 adult participants and led by Deena Skolnick Weisberg from Villanova University, found that readers rated AI-generated stories higher than those written by humans. The research, which included six short stories—three by humans and three created by ChatGPT—revealed that participants found the AI-written stories more engaging and of superior quality, especially when they mistakenly believed those stories were human-generated. Weisberg emphasized that public perceptions of AI's creative abilities are outdated, as the study suggests an implicit bias against AI content despite its clarity and directness compared to human writing.