Jeanette Winterson on AI, Big Tech, and Why Our Future Is Still Up to Us

Jeanette Winterson, the acclaimed author of '12 Bytes' and 'Frankisstein', argues that humanity is at a pivotal turning point shaped by artificial intelligence. In her work, she explores how AI could transform life, love, and even death, drawing on her long engagement with speculative futures dating back to her 2007 novel 'The Stone Gods', which imagined a post-climate-catastrophe world of robots and ageless humans. Winterson, a self-described storyteller, stresses that even under the shadow of big tech, the path forward is not predetermined. Her writing connects the dreams of flight, instant communication, and immortality to the choices we make today. She urges readers to see AI as a narrative we are still writing, not an inevitable dystopia. The takeaway: our collective imagination and decisions now will determine whether artificial intelligence becomes a tool for liberation or control.