Dave Eggers tells OpenAI staff ChatGPT is 'silencing an entire generation'

Last year, Sam Altman invited author Dave Eggers to give a talk to around 200 OpenAI staff members. Eggers, who has written countless novels and screenplays, launched the literary magazine McSweeney's, and founded multiple schools and nonprofits supporting writers and the arts, was given a platform inside the company's offices. Rather than offering the industry tips one might expect from someone with his track record of success across multiple fields, Eggers used the opportunity to deliver a sharp critique of ChatGPT's impact on education.

According to the Financial Times, Eggers told the staff: "The effect of ChatGPT on educators' lives is catastrophic. Whether you intended to do it or not, you've made every teacher's life infinitely more difficult than it was two years ago." He then escalated to the human cost, focusing on writing education in particular. "If students are using it to compose, which is the biggest tragedy of all, they'll never learn to write. And their voice is stolen from them. They'll never have the ability to say their truth and tell their own story. And that's silencing an entire generation or two."

Eggers' willingness to deploy such forceful language inside OpenAI is consistent with his long-standing skepticism of the tech industry. His best-selling novel The Circle offers a scathing fictional critique of Big Tech, and he has previously called AI-generated writing "pastiche nonsense." The invitation from Altman suggests the OpenAI CEO either anticipated this criticism or deemed it important for staff to hear directly from a prominent critic of both AI and the technology industry more broadly.

Dave Eggers' remarks represent a notable moment of direct confrontation between a respected literary figure and an AI company leadership, delivered from inside OpenAI's own offices. The invitation itself—reportedly from Sam Altman—suggests the CEO may have anticipated or welcomed the critical perspective, or at least believed it valuable for staff to hear. Eggers' credibility in this space is substantial: beyond his novelistic output, he has invested in institutions designed to preserve and support writers' voices and the craft of writing itself through his nonprofit work.

The specific concern Eggers articulates—that students using ChatGPT to compose will lose the opportunity to develop their own writing voice—reflects a broader anxiety among educators about AI's role in skill development. His framing positions the issue not as a matter of plagiarism or academic integrity alone, but as a loss of individual voice and self-expression, which connects to his lifelong work in supporting creative writing. The characterization of this outcome as "silencing an entire generation" is notably intense language delivered to the people building the system, suggesting Eggers saw the moment as an opportunity to lodge a substantive challenge rather than offer praise for innovation.

No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!