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

Last year, Sam Altman invited acclaimed author Dave Eggers to address roughly 200 OpenAI staffers. Given Eggers' prolific career—novels, screenplays, founding McSweeney's, and multiple nonprofits supporting writers—many expected a talk on creativity or productivity. Instead, Eggers launched a blistering critique. According to the Financial Times, he told staff: 'The effect of ChatGPT on educators’ lives is catastrophic. Whether you intended it or not, you’ve made every teacher’s life infinitely more difficult than it was two years ago.' He argued that students using AI to compose will 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 is no stranger to tech criticism—his novel *The Circle* is a scathing satire of Silicon Valley, and he has previously called AI-generated writing 'pastiche nonsense.' Altman likely knew the invitation would invite uncomfortable truths, but the directness of Eggers' message stunned many in the room. The incident underscores a growing rift between AI optimists and educators, who increasingly see tools like ChatGPT as undermining foundational learning. Eggers' speech serves as a powerful reminder that technology's impact isn't always beneficial, especially when it risks robbing future generations of the ability to think and write for themselves.