Facing up to AI

In the first part of my 2025 Janet Frame Memorial Lecture on the “state of the nation” for New Zealand literature, I faced up to the issue of AI. It’s a subject I'd previously been ignoring: AI seemed too depressing, so I'd avoided news items about it.

- Charlotte Grimshaw

“Authenticity” (the entrée to the lecture’s main course, “Lost Family Illusions”, which the October 25 Listener excerpted) attempted to set out where we are as writers with AI. This isn't easy, because the technology is evolving so fast. There isn't sufficient regulation in place to protect us from the reach of tech companies that appear indifferent to individual rights and social concerns.

As one British publisher told me, “For artists, AI is a horror show.” The technology poses a significant threat to copyright, and not nearly enough is being done to keep up with it.

AI breaches the rights of writers by scraping creative work, learning from it and reproducing it. Without any licence or permission, the technology has already been deployed to mine vast amounts of copyrighted work. This is used to produce material that can compete with human-authored books.