AI threatens to be society's swan song

SHUTTING the stable door after the nag has bolted is an expression with surprising relevance. I'm referring to artificial intelligence, or AI, and the panic in which musicians, songwriters and authors such as Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Captain Corelli's Mandolin writer Louis de Bernières are immersed.

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They are protesting against government plans to let Al firms use copyright-protected work free of charge. As an author, I am on their side. And this newspaper joined others yesterday in calling for the Government to ensure tech firms pay for the work that fuels AI. The damage is already obvious.

We have been living with and using AI technology for years. We just didn't know it.

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, can fetch up an entire book that reads as though it were written by a human. It can create new art from a sequence of prompts, and deliver original songs from basic trigger words or concepts.