The literary battle against AI is on: 'Real words from real people are so much better'

Book lovers weren't best pleased when The Observer presented them with a new debut novel created by ChatGPT at the Hay Festival this weekend, writes Vanessa Thorpe

- Vanessa Thorpe

The lights are low and the embers in the grate are glowing; it must be time for a good story. What about this one from Clementine Barchester-King, one of the hottest new authors?

Her debut novel, The Weft of Nettles, is set in a decaying Suffolk rectory where twin sisters, Honoria and Dido, have seen out seven decades of hard winters. Then, when a young ethno-botanist turns up unexpectedly with a mysterious VHS tape and a burning desire to catalogue invasive species, their family secrets unravel, one overgrown hedgerow at a time.

Tempted to read on? Or is the premise possibly a bit convoluted?

In fact, this book exists only in the mind of the AI program ChatGPT, which produced the fictional set-up when asked to suggest exactly the kind of novel most likely to win plaudits with British fans of literary fiction. It has not, in fact, been written and some might hope it never is.

Would it really matter, though, if an entire literary hit was generated by artificial intelligence via a program that quietly feasts on the words of unsuspecting authors? The question of the true worth of original work is now the most serious to confront the world of publishing.

In Britain peers who have been fighting for copyright protections are taking up arms again this week. Efforts to amend legislation to ensure it prevents tech firms from covertly mining books to feed AI have already been voted down twice by MPs. But the Data (Use and Access) Bill will go back to the House of Lords tomorrow.

"The key thing to get across is that AI companies cannot have it both ways," said Baroness Beeban Kidron, the film director who is behind the protective amendment to the bill. "These tech companies cannot on the one hand say they own nothing, that they are not liable or responsible for anything, and yet that they also should control everything. Transparency, as well as responsibility for what you publish, is crucial."