RISE OF THE ROBOT NOVELISTS

As she takes the helm of this year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, psychological thriller queen Ruth Ware reveals her concerns at the advent of AI books, the joys of walking in Agatha Christie's footsteps... and keeping quiet about Keira Knightley

- Jon Coates and Matt Nixson

B ESTSELLING thriller writer Ruth Ware fears artificial intelligence is being used to churn out legions of poor novels that will make it harder for human authors to survive. With most already struggling to make a living, and many having to supplement their income with other jobs, the writer of the crit- a ically acclaimed The It Girl and Zero Days, believes AI tools, such as ChatGPT, will only c make things harder.

է Ware, programming chair of the Theakston a Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate this July, says: "Discoverability is already the biggest problem for writers and w AI is only going to make that worse because B there's going to be an inordinate amount of ChatGPT-written novels, which are, to be honest, not great.

"If it was simple to write a good novel, every human being would do it, let alone every computer. And it's hard to pin down s exactly what that X-factor is.

"I try to teach writing and it's very difficult to put into words what makes a good book. I don't always know it myself until I read someone else's and wonder, 'Why didn't I think of that?"

"Having worked in publishing, the Brighton-based author says the biggest issue arising  from AI may end up being a slew of poorly written, Al-generated books swamping the market and making it tougher for readers to discover emerging talent.

She adds: "That will unfortunately make it much harder for people to find what they're actually looking for and might, ultimately, turn readers off, because if you buy a book that has a great cover, sounds like it's really good, and then the plot doesn't hang together, that's not good for crime writing or writing, full stop.

"Anything that makes it harder to discover the real gems is a concern. It's not taking away from the number of diamonds in the diamond mine, it's just increasing the amount of earth around, making them that much harder to find. I think that's the biggest risk at the moment."