title: Why Do People Want Tailored AI Stories?
date: Thu Jul 09 2026

# Why Do People Want Tailored AI Stories?

Hopefully you've seen people say these
kinds of things, or this won't make
sense.  I've noticed people say online
that they love the idea that they will
have AI generate movies, stories, whole
TV series etc which are personally
tailored to what they want to watch or
read on any given evening.  I think this
is a deeply worrying prospect.

Almost certainly when people imagine
generating stories like this what they
mean is "a self-insert of me should
fulfill my true desires in front of my
eyes".  If AI ever became capable of
generating whole movies on the whim of a
user they would surely be full of men
being terrible to everyone around them,
and being the recipient of fawning
praise.  Some guys might want that to
happen in a fantasy world, or a
cyberpunk one, but ultimately it will be
"guy beats up other guy, making women
throw themselves at them" with various
kinds of window dressing.  That is,
before people have uncensored AI
generate more shocking combinations of
sex and violence in combination.

A world full of people spending every
night watching things like that is
obviously not preferable.  But what if
people by and large had AI generate
pretty normal stories?  I'd still be
against it because it is a retreat away
from other people.

Part of the joy of stories is that they
tell you what other people think the
world is like.  They give you a chance
to see things from someone else's
perspective, which you can then
assimilate or reject.  If a person tells
you they love Hermann Hesse, Jane
Austen, or Raymond Chandler you can
guess at what they think about the self,
about marriage, about desire.

If people stop taking in stories from
other people they'll be watching a
two-parted thing on their screen.  The
first part is a mirror of their own
thoughts and desires, as if they were
children unable to recognise themselves,
and the second part will be whatever
OpenAI, Meta, Google sneak into the
story.  If you believe you are watching
something that is just exactly what you
want your defences will be down, so you
will assimilate that second part without
question.  You'll be sat in the dark
slowly watching your reflection change
in front of you.