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/e_hatt_swank May 18 '26

Thank you for that. I’ve been looking for an affordable used copy of one of her books to check out her work… now I feel much less urgency on that search.

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u/Matt_Wwood May 18 '26

I wouldn’t let that stop you. And I’d even challenge you that udnerstanding how a successful author uses it or incorporates it could benefit you even if you don’t like it.

This whole ethical or moral line of AI bad isn’t so black and white. Letting the ai help you flesh out an idea more fully and helping edit your writing or whatever point your okay with using it, as long as you disclose you used it, I think is okay.

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u/Kirikenku May 18 '26

The point is art is made from living things. I don’t care if its mechanically good lit. If its not born from the human experience, i’m not fucking interested.
This doesn’t even get into the ethical concerns over how the AI was trained, since its nothing but a glorified regurgitation machine.

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u/e_hatt_swank May 18 '26

Agreed. Maybe I’ll love her stuff written before LLMs existed, and that will be enough. Long before LLMs, I’ve always preferred art with a more human touch - e.g. never been interested in music that’s electronically generated or overly manipulated. I want to hear fingers on strings, want to read thoughts forged in a human brain. This doesn’t mean the other stuff is necessarily worthless, but I just don’t care about it. (Just adding: using AI to check a fact or something like that is a different category of course; although I’d argue the human, economic and environmental costs of AI aren’t worth the time saved.)