‘Once you have a machine think and write for you, you’re cooked as a species’

Author Dave Eggers warns that relying on AI to think and write will destroy human creativity. In a new interview, the American novelist discusses his latest book, set in the art world, and why he still draws by hand. Eggers, who dropped out of art school but has drawn for decades, now organizes life-drawing sessions at his San Francisco publishing house, McSweeney’s. He believes the practice builds empathy. “In three hours of drawing a human, you learn so much about them,” he says. “There is so much affection from carefully trying to get them right.” The author also writes on a boat in San Francisco Bay. His new novel explores the tension between human creativity and machine intelligence. Eggers has debated OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on the topic. He argues that once a machine can think and write, “you’re cooked as a species.”