Margaret Atwood’s Critique of AI: “Garbage In, Garbage Out!”
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, the legendary and prominent Canadian author Margaret Atwood took aim at artificial intelligence with her signature sharp wit and satirical tone during a Q&A session at the inaugural Babel Literary and Cultural Festival in Porto, Portugal. “The fundamental thing about AI,” she remarked, “is garbage in, garbage out.”
The creator of the timeless novel The Handmaid’s Tale had traveled to Portugal’s second-largest city primarily to discuss her new memoir, The Book of Lifes (published late last year by Penguin). However, as is often the case with her sessions, the conversation veered into a variety of topics, ultimately leading to the hot-button issue of AI.
When AI Lied to Margaret Atwood
Atwood shared with the audience that she has only used an AI model once in her life—specifically Anthropic’s Claude. Her motive was not to seek assistance with creative writing, but rather pure curiosity to uncover the ending of a British detective series called Father Brown.
With a laugh, Atwood recounted:
“Claude gave me the wrong answer—or rather, it lied! Of course, it didn’t know it was lying because it isn’t a human being; it’s a large language model. This AI had scanned and sampled a massive volume of online TV reviews, but since critics never spoil the ending in their online write-ups, the model was led astray by the data it had digested.”
She further noted that this technology, alongside the methods by which large language models are developed through scraping and stealing previously published works, is entirely unreliable for humans to depend on. “Humans are not robots, but they are opportunists. If there is an easy way to cheat that is hard to catch, people will definitely do it. But the truth about AI remains: garbage in, garbage out. Even those using it in business have to constantly fact-check the output because the technology is riddled with errors.”
Book Bans and Critiques of Authoritarianism in America
In another segment of the discussion, when asked about the censorship of her work, Atwood simply described it as “a very old story in world history.” Throughout her decades-long career, Atwood’s works have frequently sparked controversy due to their bold depictions of power, gender, and politics. Last year, PEN America placed The Handmaid’s Tale at the top of its list of banned books in United States schools.
Atwood joked: “Funnily enough, being banned is an excellent marketing gimmick for sales! When they say, ‘Don’t read this book because it’s too radical,’ people rush out to buy it, wondering, ‘Well, where are the deviant parts?'”
Noting that living in Canada and its commitment to freedom of expression has personally shielded her from direct censorship, she described the current political landscape in the United States as alarming:
“What is happening now in the United States is an attempt to stifle political dissent, and as we know, that process is the prelude to a dictatorship. Fortunately, the American public hasn’t bought into it. We don’t have state media there yet, even though pro-Trump billionaires are buying up legacy television networks and newspapers. Conversely, a counter-movement has emerged, establishing new independent media outlets with massive online distribution, and that is the trend to watch.”
The literary session concluded with a classic question: which of her books is her personal favorite? With her characteristic humor, Atwood replied: “I never make that choice, because the rest of my books will find out and take revenge on me later!”
