You've probably heard that AI chatbots can completely fabricate quotes. It happened yesterday in a DU thread.

[AZJonnie]

7. I mean it literally sourced from this very thread

Claude's citation for the below text IS the thread that you and I are talking in right now

Verbatim paste:

Why there are “Elias” vs “Marla” versions
When short fiction circulates online, people:
Change character names (Elias → Marla, etc.) to personalize or “improve” it for their own post.
​Edit details like dates or the specific time‑travel instructions to fit a different prompt, meme, or context (e.g., Reddit writing prompts, AI demos).
​Let AIs regenerate the same idea, which preserves some lines but changes surface details like names and wording.
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Because there’s no canonical publication to anchor it, each repost or AI regeneration becomes “a version,” and they drift apart over time.

Is there an “original” version?
With no traceable first publication (e.g., an early dated story on a known author’s site, magazine, or book), there is no reliably verifiable “original” here. What you’re seeing is a meme‑like text: one early version got popular, and later copies, edits, and AI paraphrases created the Elias, Marla, and altered‑directions variants, none of which can be definitively proven to be the first.​

In short: both versions are internet variants of the same micro‑fiction idea, not differing print editions of a book passage, and the differences come from casual edits and AI/reader rewrites rather than from an author‑sanctioned original.

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