Sep 22, 2026 · 33 min · 8 segments
We know that adults are reading less than ever and scrolling more but what does this mean for writers and the wider publishing ecosystem? And how can we fix it? Publisher Joanna Prior and writer…
Joanna PriorGuest
Caroline SandersonHost
Sathnam SangheraGuest
I th- I think we've spent quite a lot of time in the last two or three years as a publishing industry, uh, worrying a lot ab- about AI and the impact it's going to have on our business, and, and rightly so.
The changes are going to be deep and far reaching, and we'll, I'm sure, talk more about that.
But it seemed to me that a lot of conversation was worrying about, you know, whether AI would start writing books and whether it would, um, you know, destroy creativity.
And that that's much more of a threat to our future than the idea that a machine might write the next Booker Prize.
S- Satnam, you're a writer by profession and, um, l- let's just sort of couch this a little bit as, I suppose, h- how it affects writers.
ALCS is a writers' organization which lobbies for issues that concern writers in, in parliament.
Uh, I'm a writer, too, as are, are all ALCS members, so we're part of this whole ecosystem which depends on people of all ages reading.
So leaving aside what you've c- what you've described as a tragedy, sort of the whole, the whole scope of it for a moment, how worried are you about this decline in terms of your own profession and that of other writers?
I mean, there's evidence that actually human IQ is falling for the last 10 years, and I think, I, I'm convinced that's because people are reading less.
I thought becoming a writer would mean I spend all my time talking about my books, and I do spend a lot of time talking about books, but I spend longer now talking to people who have pretended to- To read my books.
I get, every day I get emails from students asking questions which are in my books, but they would rather ask me than read the book.
Whenever I teach creative writing now, and I ask people who want to write books what they would compare their fantasy project to, they can't tell me.
Even the writers I know tend to send me, um, like Netflix re- recommendations rather than books now.
And I think there's a massive thing going on with human beings now, and it's not just AI.
I think more than anything e- it's the scrolling, where people are just giving up on thinking.
And this is not just a crisis for writers, and it is, but it's a crisis for mankind.
And also, I feel at literary events, I know you chair a lot of literary events, and y- and I've talked to other writers about this.
I th- I think we've spent quite a lot of time in the last two or three years as a publishing industry, uh, worrying a lot ab- about AI and the impact it's going to have on our business, and, and rightly so.
The changes are going to be deep and far reaching, and we'll, I'm sure, talk more about that.
But it seemed to me that a lot of conversation was worrying about, you know, whether AI would start writing books and whether it would, um, you know, destroy creativity.
And that that's much more of a threat to our future than the idea that a machine might write the next Booker Prize.
S- Satnam, you're a writer by profession and, um, l- let's just sort of couch this a little bit as, I suppose, h- how it affects writers.
ALCS is a writers' organization which lobbies for issues that concern writers in, in parliament.
Uh, I'm a writer, too, as are, are all ALCS members, so we're part of this whole ecosystem which depends on people of all ages reading.
So leaving aside what you've c- what you've described as a tragedy, sort of the whole, the whole scope of it for a moment, how worried are you about this decline in terms of your own profession and that of other writers?
I mean, there's evidence that actually human IQ is falling for the last 10 years, and I think, I, I'm convinced that's because people are reading less.
I thought becoming a writer would mean I spend all my time talking about my books, and I do spend a lot of time talking about books, but I spend longer now talking to people who have pretended to- To read my books.
I get, every day I get emails from students asking questions which are in my books, but they would rather ask me than read the book.
Whenever I teach creative writing now, and I ask people who want to write books what they would compare their fantasy project to, they can't tell me.
Even the writers I know tend to send me, um, like Netflix re- recommendations rather than books now.
And I think there's a massive thing going on with human beings now, and it's not just AI.
I think more than anything e- it's the scrolling, where people are just giving up on thinking.
And this is not just a crisis for writers, and it is, but it's a crisis for mankind.
And also, I feel at literary events, I know you chair a lot of literary events, and y- and I've talked to other writers about this.
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