Is artificial intelligence a gift from Prometheus to aid humankind in its creation of the arts, a Pandora’s box of fears and insecurities, or a poisoned gift meant to embroil us in debates?

Since the fall of 2022, with the rise of ChatGPT, the publishing industry seems to be leaning more toward the second and third options, as has happened before with other technological advances. It is wary, evasive, or resistant to this paradigm shift and cultural, social, and technological revolution. It tends to demonize AI by highlighting its negative aspects, questioning whether it is the end of the book and the author; it sees it more as a threat than an opportunity.

Although its misgivings and alarms are not unfounded, these are not only artistic and business matters, but also ethical, deontological, and philosophical ones. It is a time of uncertainty that goes to the heart of everything, prompting a reconsideration of the very meaning of art, its function, authorship, and the role of human beings in creation. You can read the first installment of this special HERE, and the second at THIS LINK.

Analyzing the advantages

Among the main conclusions of various meetings in 2025, it is highlighted that the book ecosystem, while continuing to analyze and monitor artificial intelligence, must be more in tune with these times, more open and receptive to innovations, better understand the changing habits and preferences of readers, and take the initiative rather than simply lagging behind the social, cultural, and technological transformations of this dual, analog and digital world that includes AI.

Experts point out that the different actors in the book ecosystem must study and explore AI to partner with it in order to reap the greatest benefits in all areas, from creation to the dissemination of reading, with the discovery of and reconnection to the contemporary world, with its readers, and with the new digital native generations.

The philosopher Wolfram Eilenberger has no doubts: “Compared to what we face now with artificial intelligence, the leap we have made so far with digitization has been small. The written word disappears with AI, and a new culture may emerge. I can’t say what that culture will be like. I believe that with AI we are closing the era of the written word and entering the era of orality. Because everything written will lose value and lose its identity”.

Since 2008-2010, when the perfect storm hit (economic crisis, the emergence of new technologies, and the beginning of changes in readers’ habits), a century-old business was effectively retired, a fact the publishing sector has yet to fully accept, because the world of books began to undergo a transformation in all its spheres, driven by technology and its users. Previously, publishers provided the guidelines for readers; now, readers, in conjunction with reality and technology, with their changing habits, impose their rules, and the industry follows suit.

The book is a living organism in constant transformation. This 21st century faces its fifth transformation after five and a half centuries of dominance by the book, born from Gutenberg’s printing press, which reigned virtually unchanged. This shift is demonstrated by the history of the book, which runs parallel to that of humankind:

It was born 35 or 40 centuries ago with the clay tablet,

continued with the papyrus scroll,

transformed into the codex,

became printed and mass-produced,

until reaching the digital world where today it diversifies with new media and dimensions to transmit stories, information, and knowledge, while coexisting with the traditional book.

Cultural revolution

Thus, this change of era that Wolfram Eilenberger points out is an idea turned into a question that appears in the thinking of some people, especially creators and professionals in the world of books. The organizers of the Back To The Book Festival in Madrid (Altamarea publishing house) explained that “it’s frightening that people are losing their way, generally speaking. It has always been clear that reading is an activity that goes against the interests of the turbo-capitalist system that surrounds us. This is nothing new, of course; reading has gone against the interests of those in power in every historical context. And I say there is a general concern rather than one about anything specific because artificial intelligence is simply the new reality, just as ebooks were in their day, threatening to wipe out paper, and we are still waiting for that revolution despite the fact that what is being revolutionized are the prices of paper itself, which remains necessary because, surprise, we still aren’t selling ebooks. I’m worried that people will become indifferent to reading and stop doing it, just as I’ve always been worried, and yet reality has continued to show that this archaic and perfect method of decoding still makes sense, despite everything. Artificial intelligence will have to be tamed without fear, perhaps a little, perhaps. I respect it, but like so many other things. I respect it, but I respect it like I respect so many other things”.

Hélène Cixous, French writer and intellectual, and winner of the 2025 Formentor Prize for Literature, does believe in this epochal shift or the evolution of the written word:

“The topic of AI is something that both frightens and fascinates. We cannot escape AI because it is already here. The same thing happened with computers; the reaction was identical. We are in a moment of total and absolute mutation. I know the topic well because it is present in the world I inhabit, the university. The important thing is knowing how to prepare ourselves, because AI is everywhere, especially in learning environments. The question is whether AI will replace everything. As an observer, I recognize that AI has a certain power of fascination. It is something that will impose itself in different ways, but we don’t know. In contrast, literature and art have always been there. Literature, for example, is something that will never disappear. I am sure of this because human beings cannot live without language, without the work of language, without words. Not even AI can escape literature. The question is The scope of AI, and to understand it, we delve into what makes us human. There is something irreplaceable: the capacity to dream. Human beings dream and will never stop dreaming. It may diminish at some point, but it can return stronger than ever”.

After Gutenberg: A Return to Orality

Gianluca Foglia, CEO of the Feltrinelli Publishing Group (Italy), declared at the Formentor 2025 Conversations: “Never before in the history of humankind has so much been read, but it is true that I cannot guarantee that reading books will disappear”.

Studies indicate that young people read more, but in a different way. Generations Z and Alpha seem to guarantee the continuity of the printed book, at least for now, because they turn to it not only for the pleasure of reading on paper, but also as an oasis in a world invaded by screens, and reading individually or in groups is a way to socialize.

The German philosopher noted that we are emerging from the Gutenberg era and that something about this return to orality concerns him:

“Young people will not be able to write a text as such, but they won’t need to write it. And something strange will happen because they will also not be able to read complex texts, because the ability to write complex texts is the ability to read and understand complex texts.

What does that mean for Adorno? It’s already difficult for 95% of people to understand what Adorno writes because the language is so dense. And it takes ten years. And it’s the same with other disciplines.

What we’re going to see is that education will become more like a monastery: very few people will be able to grapple with the written word and its complexity, but they will lose relevance. The vast majority of society won’t be able to understand it. It will be the dark side of the moon. Right now, we’re walking on ice”.

AI: An Ally of Political Correctness?

Another area where artificial intelligence could operate is as an ally of the politically correct trend and woke culture, which seeks sanitized texts and, sometimes, a retroactive revision of the past. According to Colombian writer Carolina Sanín, “the discourse that seeks to reflect the fantasy of perfect equality among human beings—and, supposedly, lead toward its realization—is necessarily a uniform discourse, always the same, even though it apparently says different things on different occasions. And it is, therefore, characteristic of the machine, not of the human being”.

The author of books like The Sun (Random House) observes with suspicion how “the development of artificial intelligence programs for writing texts perfectly serves the belief that the idea of ​​fundamental difference between individuals must be rejected—in this case, the idea that some write better than others, and that some writing is richer, more interesting, more insightful, or more inspiring than others. Very soon it will be considered incorrect—evil, unsympathetic, conservative—to criticize the writing of artificial intelligence, since it will be understood as an instrument of democratization and justice. I believe that the first duty of a writer in this era is to write in a way that cannot be systematized by a machine—and, to do so, she must know and affirm that, in her writing, she is not like anyone else”.

Questions surrounding this idea were raised in a 2022 article by Jacobo Bergareche: “Will artificial intelligence, with its chatbots, be able to write novels and supplant writers? I understand that for readers with the sensitivity shown in these critiques, there is very little time left before they can finally have access to literature that is both sanitized and suitable for their enjoyment”.

The author of the novel Los días perfectos (Libros del Asteroide) explained that “Chatbots are calibrated by legions of engineers who ensure that they never display bias or perpetuate prejudices about standards of physical beauty, racial or gender stereotypes, that they do not respond to risqué sexual questions, and in general, that they avoid any trouble with this type of reader who is prone to being offended. For this very reason, writers can breathe easy for a few more years, knowing that artificial intelligence is programmed to be incapable of creating realistic characters with profound conflicts with whom we can identify, and that, therefore, for the time being, they will not be able to produce literature”.

Everything converges on one point: emotions and feelings, and what these unleash between brain and heart. Richard Firth-Godbehere, from The Center for the History of Emotions in the UK and author of the essay Homo Emoticus: The History of Humanity Told Through Emotions (Salamandra), explains:

“There’s one aspect to consider: human beings are very complex, and technology must be simple because it needs a lot of space to house everything. What ends up happening is that human behavior, with all its complexity, must be read and interpreted by that technology and adapted to it—deciphering codes. It’s not easy at all. We are predictable among ourselves because we have a more complex computer, which is the human brain. China needed an entire building equivalent to four floors for a single computer. That predictability is given by the brain, which is a human computer, and there is no other like it”.

What does AI say?

But what does artificial intelligence think of all this debate? This was the response:

“Artificial intelligence, in general, is not capable of having the same sensitivity or creativity as a human being. While artificial intelligence can analyze large amounts of data and generate patterns and predictions, it does not have the same capacity to process and understand information at an emotional and subjective level as human beings do.

However, there are advances in the field of artificial intelligence that seek to replicate the creative and generative behavior of writers through algorithms. Although these computer-generated texts may have a certain structural coherence, they rarely present the richness and emotional depth that characterizes literary works written by humans.

In short, AI can be useful for analyzing and processing large amounts of data and finding patterns, but it still cannot fully replicate the creative and emotional capacity of writers”.

It is the transformative power of artificial intelligence across the board that lies in better understanding its functioning, capabilities, and potential for the benefit of books in whatever format or medium, because behind it all is the promotion of reading.

• With translation assistance from Robert Lienhard.

Complete series of Artificial intelligence in the world of books and literature:

• Artificial Intelligence in the World of Books and Literature (1): Authorship and the New Role of Humans in Creation. You can watch it HERE.
• Artificial Intelligence in the World of Books and Literature (2): Writing and creativity in the posthumanist era. You can read the article HERE.
• Artificial intelligence in the world of books and literature (3): Cultural revolution and paradigm shift. You can read the article HERE.

***

Subscribe to WMagazín’s free newsletter at this link.

We invite you to become a patron of WMagazín and support quality, independent cultural journalism. It’s easy; you can find the instructions at this link.

If you’d like to learn more about WMagazín and its special sections, CLICK HERE.

• @WinstonManrique
• @W_Magazín
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Tiktok