The AI Deluge: When Machines Flood Every Inbox

In 2023, the science fiction magazine Clarkesworld did something unprecedented: it stopped accepting new submissions entirely. The reason? Writers were copying the magazine's detailed submission guidelines into AI tools and flooding editors with machine-generated stories.

Clarkesworld wasn't alone. Across every institution that accepts written submissions, the same pattern is emerging. Newspapers are drowning in AI-generated letters to the editor. Academic journals can't keep up with AI-written research papers. Lawmakers are inundated with AI-crafted constituent comments. Courts worldwide are processing AI-generated legal filings, often from people representing themselves.

What we're witnessing isn't just a technology adoption story—it's the collapse of a fundamental assumption that built our information systems.

The End of Writing as a Natural Filter

For decades, institutions relied on an invisible gatekeeper: the difficulty of writing well. Crafting a persuasive letter to the editor, a compelling research paper, or a coherent legal brief required time, effort, and skill. This natural friction kept volumes manageable.

Generative AI has obliterated that friction. Now, anyone can produce professional-quality text in minutes. The result? An avalanche of submissions that human reviewers simply cannot process.

Some institutions have responded like Clarkesworld—shutting down entirely. Others have launched into AI arms races, deploying artificial intelligence to combat artificial intelligence. Academic peer reviewers use AI to evaluate potentially AI-generated papers. Social media platforms deploy AI moderators to handle AI-generated content. Courts use AI to triage AI-supercharged litigation volumes.

The Hidden Upsides of the AI Arms Race

Yet this technological flood isn't entirely destructive. In many ways, AI is democratizing capabilities that were once exclusive to the wealthy and well-connected.

Consider scientific research. For non-native English speakers, hiring professional editors has long been an expensive necessity for publication. AI now provides that assistance to everyone. The technology is also becoming essential for literature reviews, data analysis, and research programming.

The same democratization is happening in job markets. Polishing resumes and crafting cover letters—services the privileged have always purchased—are now available to anyone with internet access. Citizens can express their views to representatives with the same eloquent assistance that lobbyists have long employed.

Where Democracy Meets Deception

But here's where things get complicated. The same technology that helps a citizen articulate their lived experience to a legislator also enables corporate interests to manufacture fake grassroots campaigns at scale.

The difference isn't in the technology—it's in the power dynamic. When AI helps level the playing field, it strengthens democratic participation. When it amplifies existing power imbalances, it threatens the very institutions it could improve.

Fraud has always existed, but AI makes it exponentially easier. A single bad actor can now generate thousands of fake academic papers, job applications, or public comments. The volume alone can overwhelm systems designed for human-scale input.

The Detection Dilemma

Today's AI text detectors are far from foolproof, and they're getting less reliable as AI improves. Soon, distinguishing human from machine writing may become impossible. Institutions that want to maintain "humans only" policies will likely need to limit submissions to trusted networks—creating new forms of exclusion.

This presents a fundamental choice: embrace AI assistance with proper disclosure and safeguards, or retreat into increasingly closed systems that may sacrifice accessibility for authenticity.

Navigating the New Normal

The science fiction community is still figuring this out. Clarkesworld eventually reopened submissions, claiming they've found adequate ways to separate human from AI writing. How long that will work remains unclear.

What's certain is that this technology can't be uninvented. Powerful AI tools run on laptops and are freely available. Ethical guidelines can help those acting in good faith, but they won't stop everyone.

The real question isn't whether we can stop AI-assisted writing—we can't. It's whether we can build systems that harness AI's democratizing potential while limiting its capacity for fraud and abuse.