Atwood calls AI "garbage in, garbage out"

Margaret Atwood has characterized artificial intelligence as fundamentally flawed, using the phrase "garbage in, garbage out" to describe its limitations. The celebrated Canadian author recounted her sole experience with an AI, Anthropic's Claude, which failed to provide accurate information when she sought a plot spoiler for the TV series Father Brown. Atwood explained that AI models, trained on vast amounts of existing text, can be misled by the nature of their training data.

This unreliability, she argued, necessitates caution and verification, even for business applications. Atwood drew a parallel to human behavior, suggesting that the availability of an easy, undetectable way to cheat would be exploited. Her remarks came during the Babell Literary and Cultural Festival in Porto, Portugal.

The discussion also encompassed censorship, a theme recurrent in Atwood's career, with her works like 'The Handmaid's Tale' frequently appearing on banned book lists in the US. She described book bans as an ironic "sales gimmick." Atwood noted that while Canada largely upholds freedom of speech, she expressed concern over political dissent being stifled in the United States, a trend she views as a precursor to dictatorship.

She observed efforts by some to acquire media outlets and introduce state-controlled media in the US, but also noted a counter-movement establishing new online media. When asked about her favorite book she has written, Atwood humorously declined to answer, citing the potential for jealousy from her other works.