There's no way AI could invent Jackson Lamb

As he takes the helm of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2025, Slow Horses superstar Mick Herron reflects on the challenge artificial intelligence poses to the arts...

- By Matt Nixson and Jon Coates

SLOW Horses creator Mick Herron believes his books have been stolen by tech giants to be used as learning tools for the next generation of artificial intelligence. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” he sighs. “About two years ago, my younger brother showed me some app he had and he asked it to write a recipe for chocolate brownies in the style of Jackson Lamb.

“What it came up with was s***, but it was clearly s*** based on having knowledge of Jackson Lamb and how he operates.”

Which is the crux of the matter, according to the bestselling author, who is taking the helm of this year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, supported by the Daily and Sunday Express. “It can only manipulate stuff that’s already there. I believe that 110%, and I think it’s true of any major character,” he continues.

“AI could write Fast & Furious 11 without a problem, I would have thought, but it can’t do a book that would truly engage the heart and the intellect.”

Not that Herron, 61, who was born in Newcastle but lives and works in Oxford, underestimates the threat AI presents to the creative arts.

Major US authors, including the likes of Michael Connelly, John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, have already launched legal action against tech firm OpenAI in America to protect their copyright.

Would Herron who eschews social media (“never having been on it saved me having to leave it once it became apparent it was all being run by mega-lomaniac sociopaths”) and carries an old-fashioned “brick” phone support such a move in the UK?

“I’m not a proactive public person,” he admits with a smile. “So I'm not going to be the one to stand up and raise the banner or anything, but I'd probably be standing by the side clapping as it marches past.

“Depending on what happens in the States, of course, I think it’s probably likely to happen here some time.”