Bestselling author Margaret Atwood isn’t worried about the indefatigable rise of generative AI — telling Reuters that she’s too old to be concerned about its impact on the arts.
Her remarks follow a petition calling for an end to the unlicensed use of creative works to train AI models that’s now amassed over 31,000 signatures. But Atwood’s relaxed posture on the march of the machines isn’t solely down to age; it’s informed by her critical appraisal of AI’s output in certain artistic domains.
“So far, AI is a cr*p poet,” she told the news agency. “Really bad. Like worse than people. And it’s not a very good fiction writer either.”
She also dismissed the notion that AI’s literary abilities will improve, intoning: “You will never get an original creator out of AI because it’s a data scraper.”
“But if I were 30, I’d be worried,” she added. “Especially if I were 30… and in the visual arts. If I were a graphic designer, I would be worried.”
