AI might have just won a literary prize – is this writing’s Deep Blue moment?

Recent high-profile discussion around AI use in literature has raised uncomfortable questions.
Photo: Shoeib Abolhassani on Unsplash.

Earlier this month, a short story titled The Serpent in the Grove won the Caribbean region section of the Commonwealth Prize, run by Granta magazine. Yet critics quickly accused the story, submitted by the Trinidadian writer Jamir Nazir, of not being the work of human hands.

But AI passes that test in classrooms, courtrooms and boardrooms every day. AI-generated books are nothing new, either. James Daunt, the CEO of book seller Barnes and Noble, recently said he’d be comfortable stocking AI-written books so long as they are clearly labelled.

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Patrick Stokes is a philosopher at Deakin University, and has previously held research fellowships in the UK, Denmark and the US.