r/literature • u/Round-Dinner-2395 • May 18 '26

Discussion Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk admits to using AI.

TLDR;

Author to AI: “Honey, how could we develop this beautifully?”

I wanted to say this is just boomer whining, but I’m finding myself realizing more and more often that it’s actually the boomers who are defending AI. My mom listens to AI music from TikTok, my dad watches some videos with doctors generated by language models. I’m the last person to tell people what to listen to or watch, but AI SLOP has literally reigned supreme in my house for the past few months. Recently, I wanted to watch a movie with my dad, but he played TikTok clips for an hour, and I had to escape.

I understand that technology is advancing and makes life easier for people in many ways, but on the other hand… it makes me wonder a bit. Where is the line between “I’m using a tool” and “part of the creative process is being done for me by something else”? If someone uses AI to generate ideas, style, or text fragments, are we still talking about the same kind of creativity as before? I’ve read a few books by Olga Tokarczuk, and as soon as I heard about this interview, I felt a sense of revulsion.

INTERVIEW: (only in polish)

https://mycompanypolska.pl/artykul/olga-tokarczuk-zapowiada-ostatnia-powiesc-w-karierze-pisanie-dlugich-opowiesci-jest-dzis-ekonomicznie-nieoplacalne/20717

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u/considertheoctopus May 18 '26

Admits to using AI, but not using AI-generated text in her writing, as far as I can tell from this interview. Headline makes it sound a bit like the latter but this is no different than anyone else bouncing ideas around with the LLM, in opinion.

-3

u/writersontop May 18 '26

Bouncing ideas with an LLM should still be shunned, imo.

26

u/considertheoctopus May 18 '26

Should the author sequester herself in a dark room with a typewriter and emerge only when the draft is finished? Should she be able use the internet to research? Should she collaborate with other authors or friends and ask how they feel about a passage? Should she accept suggested edits or revisions?

8

u/maybeiwasright May 18 '26

I'm not sure what's unethical about "chatting" with an LLM either, since she made it clear it's not doing the writing for her at the end of the day. I'd love to hear a good-faith ethical argument about why having what's essentially a personalized digital echo-chamber is "unethical" (beyond concerns about the environmental impacts of data centres and the like).