Margaret Atwood says the problem with AI is ‘garbage in, garbage out’
Maraget Atwood, the storied author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin, was interviewed as part of the Babell Literary and Cultural Festival in Porto, Portugal. As it usually does at these things, the issue of AI came up, and Atwood didn't mince words. According to Deadline's recap, Atwood...
By Terrence O’BrienJune 27, 202675 views
Image: The Verge
Margaret Atwood onstage at Detroit Opera House on January 26, 2026 | Photo: Monica Morgan/Getty Images
Maraget Atwood, the storied author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin, was interviewed as part of the Babell Literary and Cultural Festival in Porto, Portugal. As it usually does at these things, the issue of AI came up, and Atwood didn't mince words.
According to Deadline's recap, Atwood said she'd used an AI chatbot exactly once, Anthropic's Claude, and came away unimpressed. She was looking for information about the British detective series Father Brown and, well:
"Claude gave me the wrong answer, or it lied. Of course, it didn't know it was lying because it's not a human being; it's a large language model… It had skimmed a …
Be the first to receive the latest news, market analysis and updates — delivered straight to your inbox.
We value your privacy
We use cookies to run this site and, with your consent, to measure
traffic and improve our content. Necessary cookies are always on. You
can accept all cookies or choose which ones to allow.
Privacy policy.