Are novelists who worry about the rise of AI really ‘classist and ableist’? | Arwa Mahdawi

Please spare a thought for artificial intelligence (AI). It may not have feelings yet but, if it did, it would feel devastated by all the nasty things people are saying about it. All it’s trying to do is take our jobs and potentially destroy the world and people can’t stop being mean.

Exhibit one: a recent controversy with the organisation that runs National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a yearly challenge to produce a manuscript in a month. In a recent statement, NaNoWriMo wrote that it doesn’t explicitly support or condemn any approach to writing, “including the use of AI”. Further: “The categorical condemnation of artificial intelligence has classist and ableist undertones … questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.”

Er … what? Is AI working-class now? Or did someone in the managerial class fire up ChatGPT and prompt it to weaponise social justice language in defence of a technology that has been accused of stealing from artists and writers (by training itself using their work without compensating them) and is now making the rich richer? This weird statement sparked a lot of anger and four members of NaNoWriMo’s writers board stepped down in protest. When she quit, bestselling author Maureen Johnson urged other writers to “beware – your work on their platform is almost certainly going to be used to train AI”.

NaNoWriMo has attempted some damage control and issued a statement last week saying that its original wording was unclear (not ideal when you’re a writing organisation) and it doesn’t “believe those with concerns about AI to be classist or ableist”. But a lot of writers still seem wary of both the organisation and AI.

And that’s fair enough, isn’t it? I’m not anti-AI by any means: categorical condemnation of anything (bar things like genocide) is obviously inappropriate. Channelled properly, I believe AI can enhance human creativity and improve society for everyone. On the other hand, I think the future of AI is in the hands of a bunch of sociopathic tech bros whose main concern is profit. We’re in a Choose Your Own Adventure scenario with AI at the moment. And right now we seem to be choosing the dystopian ending.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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