Dave Eggers told OpenAI staff: ChatGPT was 'silencing an entire generation'

Thursday, July 23, 2026

Last year, Sam Altman invited author Dave Eggers to give a talk to around 200 OpenAI staffers.

Posted by GalaxiePete at 08:32 AM | 14 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

Dave Eggers? They invited the same Dave Eggers who wrote a prophetic novel about the evils of surveillance tech and wearables and the social media panopticon like a full half-decade before anybody else was worried about them? That's on them

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-- G. Willow Wilson (@gwillow.me) 10:47 PM Â· Jul 21, 2026

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"If students are using it to compose, which is the biggest tragedy of all, they'll 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."

Well said.

#1 | Posted by qcp at 2026-07-20 02:51 PM | Reply | Funny: 1 | Newsworthy 5

Students are definitely using it to compose. Unless they have a top tier Senior Honors Thesis nobody is reading what they write except the TAs.

#2 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-23 09:52 AM | Reply | Funny: 2

My mom went to a one room school K-12. She could beat most of today's college students for the ability to do math, compose, grammar, etc.

I'm glad I learned "old school" with textbooks and encyclopedias.

#3 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2026-07-23 06:42 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

Hilarious. Seriously, have you even been to college?

#4 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-07-24 11:33 AM | Reply

When you went, did the Internet exist yet? No. Get current.

#5 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-24 11:53 AM | Reply

When you went, did the Internet exist yet? No. Get current.

#6 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-24 11:53 AM | Reply

Sitzwar, Can you tell a Mallard from a Muscovy Duck Yet?

Do you need AI to show you pictures?

#7 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-07-24 12:07 PM | Reply

The idea that you are an "Authority" on Anything is Laughable.

Get an Education.

#8 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-07-24 12:08 PM | Reply

Students are definitely using it to compose.
#2 | Posted by sitzkrieg

To wit:

A college professor in Mississippi recently went viral for the technique he used to catch students who used AI in their midterm. According to him, 32 out of 35 students across two classes did not pass a portion of their coursework after failing to notice a hidden instruction embedded in the assignment.
thenerdstash.com

#9 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-07-24 12:49 PM | Reply

I always thought this was also a good tell.

OpenAI Usage Plummets in the Summer, When Students Aren't Cheating on Homework
futurism.com

#10 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-07-24 12:51 PM | Reply

---- off dumbass. I know more college professors than you do.

#11 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-07-24 04:24 PM | Reply

In fact, I'm RELATED to more college professors than you know.

#12 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-07-24 04:43 PM | Reply

Hahah you are pre-Internet. Pre-Cramster.

Old man, things changed, with no regard for you being related to other people's accomplishments.

#13 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-24 05:49 PM | Reply

Deluded to think any prof is reading what one of their 500 us history after 1877 students are writing. It's 2026, they have TA's, unless they're at a podunk school.

#14 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-24 05:51 PM | Reply