Generative artificial intelligence has been trying its hand at all kinds of writing lately, from simple chats to arguing with your partner and even writing poetry. But according to queen of the pen Margaret Atwood, creative writers shouldn’t be worried about AI taking their jobs just yet.
“So far, AI is a cr*p poet,” Atwood recently told Reuters. “Really bad. Like worse than people. And it’s not a very good fiction writer either.” And she doesn’t think its prowess with prose will improve over time either, due to the very nature of what AI is. “You will never get an original creator out of AI because it’s a data scraper.” She doesn’t have the same outlook for younger creatives though, particularly those in visual mediums. “If I were 30, I’d be worried. Especially if I were 30 … and in the visual arts. If I were a graphic designer, I would be worried.”
Atwood’s comments follow a petition with more than 31,000 signatures calling for companies not to use creative works to train AI models without the author’s permission.
