George Saunders 談 AI，上

03 Oct, 2026

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我們來看看文學小說家 George Saunders 如何看待 AI，我蠻喜歡這篇文章的，中文都是我的粗翻，今天沒有那麼多時間，我就把它拆成幾篇來分享。

原文：George Saunders、Arielle Swedback，〈Model Behavior: George Saunders〉，Substack，2026/09/30。

Over the summer, we kicked off Model Behavior, a series that asks top writers, thinkers, critics, and creators to tell us honestly how they think about and use AI. Next up we have George Saunders, a true literary titan. In addition to writing award-winning books and short stories, George teaches the craft of writing to graduate students in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University and to the many who read his advice, analysis, and reflections on storytelling in his Substack, Story Club with George Saunders.

今年夏天，我們啟動了 Model Behavior 系列，邀請頂尖的作家、思想家、評論家以及創作者，誠實分享他們到底如何看待以及使用 AI。接下來登場的是文學巨擘 George Saunders。他除了撰寫屢獲殊榮的書籍以及短篇小說外，George 還在雪城大學（Syracuse University）創意寫作碩士班（Creative Writing Program）教授寫作技巧，並在他的 Substack 電子報《Story Club with George Saunders》裡面，向許多讀者提供關於故事敘述的建議、分析以及反思。

Naturally, we were curious about George's experiences with AI as a working writer and professor. But we also wondered how AI might inform his fiction. He often explores speculative near futures: pharmaceuticals that manipulate our most intimate emotions; virtual experiences that stand in for memory; human beings turned into consumer products.

當然，我們對 George 作為一位職業的作家與教授在 AI 方面的經驗感到好奇。但我們也想知道 AI 可能會如何影響他的小說創作。他的作品經常探索近未來的推想情境：操控我們最私密情感的藥物、替代記憶的虛擬體驗，甚至被轉化為消費產品的人類。

We asked if AI inspires him creatively and whether it's changed his teaching, writing practice, or thinking on the disclosures writers owe their readers. He opened the interview with a disclosure of his own: "I'm somewhat cranky and monotonous on this topic. Just, throughout, imagine me banging my cane on the floor."

我們詢問了 AI 是否在創意上給了他靈感，以及這是否改變了他的教學、寫作習慣，或改變了他對作家應向讀者做出哪些揭露的看法。他在採訪一開始就先做了一番揭露：「我在這個話題上有點愛發牢騷，而且老調重彈。總之，在採訪過程中，想像我正拿著拐杖往地板上咚咚地敲。」

Has your relationship to AI changed since it was first released as a widely accessible consumer product?

No. Very early on, I did that thing where I asked AI to generate some text in my voice, and the result was so dispiriting—so dull and literal—that I lost interest. I don't have any AI products and don't want any. I would, in fact, pay not to have them and would pay extra to stop them from sneakily titrating themselves into existing products, like, for example, probably, the likely forthcoming AI fork that assesses your angle of food-entry and tells you how efficiently you're eating compared to others in your demographic and so on.

問：自從 AI 作為一個廣泛開放的消費產品首次推出以來，您與 AI 的關係有改變嗎？

沒有。非常早期的時候，我做過那種輸入 Prompt 讓 AI 以我的語氣生成一些文字的事情，而產出的結果既枯燥又刻板，令人非常沮喪，所以我失去了興趣。我沒有任何 AI 產品，也不想要擁有。而且，我還願意付錢來「不擁有」它們，甚至願意付額外的錢，來阻止它們偷偷一點一滴滲入現有的產品中。例如很有可能即將出現的 AI 叉子，它會評估你食物進入嘴巴的角度，並告訴你和同一族群的人相比，你的飲食效率如何等等。

How does George Saunders—the person, not the writer—use AI day to day?

He tries to avoid it, although he sometimes screws up by forgetting to add "- ai" in his searches. I don't consider myself qualified to talk about the use of AI in medicine or science or any of that. But in writing I find it completely unappealing.

問：您（George Saunders）自己作為一個普通人，而非作家的話，在日常生活中是如何使用 AI 的？

他（George Saunders）會試圖避開它，儘管有時候因為在搜尋時忘記加上「- ai」而搞砸。我不認為自己有資格談論 AI 在醫療、科學、或是類似領域的應用，但是在寫作方面上，我覺得它完全沒有吸引力。

Have you spent time trying to write or revise with AI? Is there an experiment that would be interesting enough to try?

I have not. Not for a second. To me, this whole idea of using AI to write is . . . anathema. A thing to be most radically avoided.

問：您是否曾花時間嘗試用 AI 進行寫作或修訂？有沒有什麼實驗，是您覺得有趣到值得一試的？

完全沒有，一秒都沒有。對我來說，用 AI 寫作這整個想法……簡直是該被咒詛的東西。是一件必須極力避免的事情。

Writing is the most precious way one person can communicate their essence to another person. I've spent a lifetime trying to get better at making myself present in my writing. Why would I want to sacrifice even one iota of that? Not even in an email and certainly not in a short story or novel.

寫作是一個人向另外一個人傳達本質最珍貴的方式。我花了一輩子的時間試圖讓自己在寫作中更能現身。我為什麼要犧牲其中，哪怕只有一點點？連寫電子郵件都不願意，更不用說短篇小說或長篇小說了。