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In a recent interview, Andy Weir, the author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary, shared his thoughts about the progress of AI, how it might affect careers like his in the future and why it could be compared to a homicide hammer.
"I think it's only a matter of time," he told SlashFilm. "Honestly, I think I'm lucky that I ended up being a writer right when I did, because I might be among the last generation of fully human writers." Despite that, overall Weir seems to have a positive attitude towards the technology, seeing it as a tool. He points out that other advancements have already surpassed human abilities, like race cars for speed and forklifts for strength, and the smarts of AI falling into a similar category.
"It's a tool that we can use and we can unplug when we don't want to use it," he added. "In the end, if I give you a hammer, you can build a house or you can murder someone. It's not the tool that's the issue; it's the user."
Not surprisingly, AI is something Weir will explore in his next novel. In a 2024 interview with The Bridge, he teased the project. "I’m working on my next book now. AI plays a significant role in it. But I’m doing it my way, not writing a story about robots falling in love or anything. Writing a story that involves AI is kind of in my wheelhouse because I know how computers work. And I know more about machine learning than most fiction writers, I think. So yes, I’m having some fun with that," he said.
Like fiction and filmmaking, the games industry is also tackling what AI means for the future. Just this week Anthropic blocked AI game clones in a Claude Opus update, Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai declared that AI-made games could never compare to those made by humans, and Epic revealed it had vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher.
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