AO3 Fanfiction Writers Lock Down Accounts to Protect Work from AI Scraping

In response to the threat of AI scraping their work, fanfiction writers on Archive of Our Own (AO3) are locking their accounts and restricting their writing to registered users only. The move is aimed at preventing their work from being used to train AI models without their permission. This has led to a decrease in publicly viewable stories on AO3, impacting both popular and newer writers. Despite concerns over the effectiveness of this measure, the writers are taking any steps they can to safeguard their creative efforts.