Margaret Atwood Calls AI 'Garbage In, Garbage Out' at Babell Festival

During a Q&A session at the first Babell Literary and Cultural Festival in Porto, Portugal, Margaret Atwood expressed her concerns about the reliability of AI. The Canadian novelist shared her experience using Anthropic's Claude to uncover a spoiler for the British show Father Brown, only to receive an incorrect response. She remarked that AI operates on the principle of 'garbage in, garbage out' and pointed out the unreliability of large language models that scrape existing literature. Atwood also touched on censorship, referring to it as 'a very old story,' and mentioned that her book The Handmaid's Tale was one of PEN America's most frequently banned titles in U.S. schools last year. While she humorously noted that such bans can increase sales, she cautioned against U.S. attempts to suppress political dissent, warning it could lead to dictatorship. She observed that billionaire supporters of Trump are acquiring traditional media, but a rise in new online platforms is also taking place. The festival will continue until June 29.