Could books written by humans become a luxury item?

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In FocusCould books written by humans become a luxury item?

More than half of the UK’s published novelists agree that it’s likely artificial intelligence will displace their work entirely, prompting fears of a two-tier market in the literary world where only the rich can afford author-penned books. What on earth does that mean? asks Annabel Nugent

Friday 21 November 2025 06:00 GMTComments

open image in galleryiRead: are AI-generated books welcome in our literary world? (Getty Images/iStockphoto) IndependentCulture

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On the morning the truth began to unstitch itself, Leonard felt a faint, traitorous thrill, as if the world had agreed to tilt a fraction in his favour.

If you’re thinking, well that sounds a lot like the opening sentence of a new Ian McEwan novel, you would be half-right. Rather it is a sentence written in the style of Ian McEwan, as generated by a free-to-use artificial intelligence platform. Admittedly, the prose is a little too florid for an author who wields his pen more like a scalpel. And yet on the surface and to your average reader, it’s a passable approximation of his work.

You can understand why, according to a new study by Cambridge University, more than half of published novelists in the UK agree that it’s likely AI will displace their work entirely. This isn’t anything new: for months if not years, novelists have expressed their growing unease about the speed and scale of AI’s trespass into the literary world. Plug in a prompt for any author with a back catalogue and you’ll get a sort-of satisfactory imitation of their writing: Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Sarah Maas, Haruki Murakami, etc, etc. Not only does this happen in a matter of seconds, but it’s completely free. A whole book, 10 books, 100 books, 1,000 books for a grand total of £0.

Obviously, there are myriad problems with this – not least the financial repercussions on authors and the theft of their intellectual property – but one particularly troubling question was raised by Dr Clementine Collett, the lead researcher and author of the Cambridge report and a novelist herself: Could the prevalence of AI-generated novels create a two-tier system in the literary world? “That is a real concern from literary creatives,” she said on Thursday’s episode of Radio 4’s Today programme. “Where human-written work will be a more expensive luxury item, and AI-generated content will be cheap or free.”

Admittedly, the idea that everyone but the rich will be doomed to a black hole library full of fake books, bereft of human thought, feeling and heart feels a little far-fetched. But so too have many things that have come to fruition in recent months: the prevalence of AI relationships, the AI-facilitated mediums for grief counselling. Concepts that once seemed so Black Mirror are on the fast track to becoming run of the mill.

Consider the fact that already a lot of people are more than happy to read AI-generated material, particularly when it comes to non-fiction. It makes sense in a way; non-fiction by definition is matter-of-fact, and what’s more matter-of-fact than a cold-hearted summation by a robot (notwithstanding the factual errors its answers can be littered with)? But such a distinction forgets that the best non-fiction writers collate those facts as movingly, excitingly and carefully as any of their fiction counterparts.

There are worries too that genre fiction – particularly of the romance and crime variety – are most at risk because of their structure, which is typically more formulaic and so easier for AI to replicate. An assumption, says Dr Collett, that neglects to acknowledge the genre writers who are amazing at bringing in elements of surprise and novelty. But the truth is that the demand for these types of novels is huge – too huge, arguably, for even the most prolific authors to meet at the pace readers want it. More, more, more and faster, faster, faster, seems to be the mandate for consumption today. If an author can’t deliver, AI is there with 400 pages at the ready. There is no doubt in my mind that had AI been around years ago, I would have asked it for another entry in the Twilight series after tearfully concluding the final chapter in the franchise, so desperate was I for another taste of teen vampire romance.

It’s frightening, really, how quickly we have grown to (albeit reluctantly) accept AI in art, a place previously thought to be a stronghold against its encroachment on other areas of life. Yes, there was rightful outrage in 2023 when it was revealed that Marvel had used AI for the opening credits of its Disney+ series Secret Invasion – but only two years later, that furore is quietening. When Netflix confirmed it had used generative AI footage in one of its TV shows for the first time, using it to depict the collapse of a building in sci-fi series The Eternaut, there were grumblings but far fewer headlines. (Admittedly, there was widespread anger over this year’s unveiling of AI actor Tilly Norwood, but that feels like another level of extreme.)

open image in galleryThe response to AI actor Tilly Norwood was rightfully furious, but elsewhere we’re welcoming AI into creative life (Particle 6/Xicoia)

A two-tier market in the literary world is a terrifying concept. Arguably, a divide already exists: reading is a privilege afforded by those with time, and books can be little luxuries, with one in five children in England not owning a book of their own, according to a 2022 survey. And so to widen that divide even more is a dangerous thing.

Not everyone is worried. “I don’t think human books will go anywhere,” says Tobi Coventry, a book-to-film scout whose debut novel, He’s the Devil, is one of next year’s most buzzy releases and who thinks too much focus on AI is a self-perpetuating cycle. “And in many ways, I try not to think about it too much, because I think if I did get into that whole idea, then I think it can stop people from writing. If we’re already being told, well, half the books are going to be AI, then people won’t necessarily write. And I think the only way to combat that is to keep writing.”

At the end of the day, as much as an AI-generated sentence might look and sound like an Ian McEwan sentence, it will never be one. A life of reading AI books due to the cost of a human alternative is something that must be prevented at all costs. “It would have big societal implications,” warns Dr Collett, imploring the government to put guardrails around AI in order to protect the industry.

Coventry is optimistic. “I do think people will always want those human voices and to know that a person has sat down and thought about and it’s come from the brain and their heart and is going into you as the reader,” he says. “I don’t think that will ever go away.”