Sam Altman invited novelist Dave Eggers to address about 200 OpenAI staff members last year, expecting a talk on creativity and productivity. Instead, the author used the platform to launch a stark critique of the company’s flagship chatbot, ChatGPT.
Eggers, whose résumé includes founding the literary outlet McSweeney’s and establishing schools for writers, warned that the tool has made educators’ jobs "catastrophic." He said the technology has "infinitely" increased the difficulty of teaching, regardless of OpenAI’s intentions.
"If students are using it to compose, which is the biggest tragedy of all, they’ll never learn to write," Eggers told the audience, according to the Financial Times. "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."
The author also dismissed AI‑generated prose as "pastiche nonsense," echoing themes from his best‑selling novel The Circle, a well‑known critique of the tech industry. Eggers’ remarks reflect a broader debate among educators who fear that reliance on large language models could erode fundamental writing skills.
OpenAI has not publicly responded to Eggers’ statements. The company continues to promote ChatGPT as a tool for productivity and learning, while also rolling out new features aimed at educators. The tension between innovation and pedagogical impact remains unresolved, leaving teachers and students to navigate an uncertain future.
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