Writer Abel Quentin pleads to “defend man” against generative AI

“Faced with generative AI, we must not be ashamed of being a human”proclaims the writer Abel Quentin, who urges resistance in the face of “the self-destructive headlong rush” of this technology welcomed with “too much resignation”. “It’s an angry book.”warns Abel Quentin, the author of Sanctuarieswhich appears Tuesday, May 5, by Editions de l’Observatoire.

“I’m not an expert, I’m a writer. So what? This is even the point of the book, an urgency that I try to convey to the reader: not to be intimidated by the technicality of the subject, because the implications are political, social and concern everyone”he explains to AFP.

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The author of Huta novel on the climate emergency released in 2024, is the latest among intellectuals to be alarmed by the surge in generative AI, capable of creating text, images or videos from large quantities of data, and which the general public has seized with the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022.

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More than 20,000 artists, writers, journalists, directors and publishers have already signed a collective forum asking MPs to adopt a proposed law on the use of works by AI. “Are we living in the last hour of homo sapiens? »also asks Bruno Patino in The time of human obsolescence published by Grasset, a success in bookstores since its release at the end of March. “What does it mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines”Who “very structurally modify our collective and individual lives? »also asks the director of Arte, author of three other works on the current digital revolution.

Before him, the philosopher Éric Sadin had written, with The desert of ourselves (The Escape), released at the end of 2025, a radical critique of “the limitless ambition of the tech empire” to impose AI.

AI, a ” poison lent »

“We are at a decisive moment where we have no other choice but to consider all solutions to defend Mankind”believes Abel Quentin. “Generative AI does not pose a danger of physical destruction of our society but it is a slow poison, a “silent killer”, and this is perhaps why it elicits a form of resignation or addiction”according to him

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He calls for “learn the lesson” social networks which, after exploding in the 2010s, are only beginning to be regulated. “Are we also going to waste 15 years to consider controlling access to generative AI, and not just uses? Will we get there after sacrificing a generation? »he asks. Bruno Patino also sees it replayed “the recent play from the years following the introduction of the smartphone, permanent connection and social networks: a delighted habituation accompanied by increasing discomfort, before a rude awakening seizes us, when it is too late”.

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To cope with this, Abel Quentin adopted “the posture of boycotting generative AI”. Car “it is not possible to separate its use and the individual gains it provides from the consequences on collective destiny”he explains. Not believing “to a great jacquerie against the dictatorship of the algorithm”the writer proposes to « sanctuariser » worlds without generative AI, such as works (books, films, etc.) with logos “100% human”.

“We should not be ashamed of being human”he proclaimed, calling to fight “the pseudo-optimism of technologists which sometimes masks a contempt for man: too slow, not efficient enough, whose “performance” we constantly compare to that of the machine”.