Vocal is Ruining its Website with Overly Aggressive AI Screening Procedures

This is more or less an open letter to the folks who run and operate Vocal. For the last five years I have been an active member on the site. I had heard about it through some people and found it interesting. The website was an opportunity to have some creative freedom; an outlet about pretty much whatever came to mind that I wanted to write about. So, I made an account in August of 2021, and began my journey of just writing. Creative writing. Something I have not done in years. And it has been a blast the entire way through.

However, very recently, I have found extreme difficulty in getting my stories approved, which I have not had a single issue in the two years I have been on the site. For the past two, almost three weeks now, every single story I have tried to upload has not been approved by the backend of the site. And every single message as to why it wasn’t approved has been the same. It reads:

“Your story was rejected because it was flagged for potential spam or non-disclosed AI-generated content. Please review the Community Guidelines and make necessary adjustments for future submissions. Repeated violations will result in account suspension. If you believe your story was flagged in error.”

Now, with the explosive rise in AI generated content across the internet, be it images, stories, code, you name it. I understand why websites and companies would want to put safeguards in place to prevent this technology from getting all over and ruining the site. You don’t want things not created by actual people plaguing your website. Because then it becomes a game of who is actually writing their content. And worse, people potentially profiting from AI instead of stories made and crafted by people with a passion for writing. However, to go from two years of not having a single issue uploading any story that meets the criteria's set by Vocal, to going three weeks in a row of nothing but rejections when nothing in terms of writing style, themes, topics, has changed on my end, is disheartening. Reaching out to Vocal support, I’ve been met with people who understand my frustrations and have told me their screen procedures are relatively new and are being worked on to prevent less false flagging. One thing I have tried multiple times to get an answer for is if they can give me very specific examples of my work where the system thinks it’s AI, but to no avail. Anything they have told me is more of less vague. But in situations like this, where a system is over correcting, it feels like it’s reaching too far. When you flag innocent people in the process of trying to get rid of the bad apples, it becomes blatantly apparent that something is severely wrong.

Now, Vocal is a business. Businesses need to make money to stay operational. I understand that. They can basically do whatever they need to keep the website up and people writing stories. So, being aggressive towards AI content and having a stance on it is welcome, and I appreciate that they are doing anything to prevent the website being saturated with fake stories. I also understand this is kind of situation is very tough to navigate and is basically a lose-lose situation. Do we let AI run rampant across the website, or do we take action but risk having innocent people get caught in the crossfire? I understand the predicament it puts them in. But what confidence does that instill in people who use the platform and can’t even trust the website to make sure their work gets posted because a backend system might think it’s something it’s not?

This is more of just me trying to plead my case towards the people who work at Vocal. I feel as though I am out of options. I have tried to reach out and explain my concerns with the systems, and how every single story I try to post is being rejected, but it’s more or less fallen on deaf ears. It’s a shame I even have to do this because I really enjoy the website. Which is why I feel compelled to make a stink about this in the first place. They even have their own post about AI content on Vocal and their beliefs/stance on the matter. And while they are receptive to the idea, they want all AI content to be properly labeled as such, with what tools you were using. Which is great, but again, the system is overstepping its boundaries. There isn’t even an option to report a story should it use AI content and doesn’t follow the guidelines. I can’t be the only one going through something tumultuous like dealing with fake AI claims. Honestly, I hope I am because I don’t want anyone else dealing with these problems. But, if you are also having problems with uploading stories due to false AI content claims, I would implore you to leave a comment or explain your situation down below. I have sent five or six appeals through their support system, and each time, after speaking to someone who works there, they manually get my story through the system. Which is wonderful and I am thankful they would even take the time to do that. But this is not how I should have to, going forward, operate to get stories uploaded every time I try, and they don’t get approved. I feel awful having to constantly bother people who work there to just get a story uploaded.

So, if anyone who works at Vocal sees this, I humbly and respectfully ask that there be more transparency with how the website moderates potential AI content and what we can do, as people who use the website, to prevent constantly having out stories not approved for this reason. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if this also gets not approved for the same reason (it didn't, and it took multiple approval processes and asking support to manually upload it to do so). But I’m hoping it does. Because while the premise is very simple, this website is awesome, and I don’t want to stop using it. But if their systems are going to be this overreaching and egregious, then I will stop; at least until things get loosened up, at least a little bit. I don’t expect many or anyone to care, and that’s fine. This feels very much like a small problem across the entire website. But as someone who is being affected by it, I want to at least say my peace. So, if Vocal is going to allow AI on the platform, then its screen procedures shouldn’t be this bad at detecting what AI is actually and what isn’t. And the rules should be more enforced about making sure people reading an AI generated story know it is right from the beginning, and not down at the bottom of a 1200-word story that wasn’t made by an actual person. Right now, Vocal’s AI screening procedures are ruining the website, and I hope it changes in the near future.