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A majority of the United Kingdom’s published novelists fear their profession could be fundamentally undermined by artificial intelligence, according to a new report commissioned by the University of Cambridge.
The study found that 51% of surveyed authors believe AI systems are likely to completely replace their work in the future, reflecting widespread anxiety across the country’s literary sector.
The research, conducted for Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, surveyed 258 published novelists and 74 industry professionals, including agents, commissioning editors and publishers. The findings reveal that concerns about generative AI extend well beyond creative integrity, touching on issues of copyright, income security and the long-term viability of the writing profession.
According to the report, 59% of novelists believe their work has already been used to train AI large language models without their consent or compensation. A further 39% say their income has been negatively affected by the growing use of AI, largely through the loss of supplementary roles that traditionally help support a writing career. Looking ahead, 85% expect the technology to diminish their future earnings.
Genre fiction authors were viewed as particularly vulnerable to AI-driven displacement. Respondents identified romance writers as the most threatened, with 66% describing them as “extremely at risk,” followed by thriller authors (61%) and crime writers (60%).
Despite these concerns, attitudes toward AI were not universally negative. The report notes that 80% of participants acknowledged that AI offers significant societal benefits, and one-third of novelists already use AI tools in their writing processes, primarily for administrative tasks such as fact-checking or background research rather than for generating creative content.
However, the report emphasises that many authors remain deeply uneasy about the rapid expansion of generative AI within the creative industries. Several respondents warned that AI models trained on vast datasets of published fiction risk devaluing human writing and may reduce demand for complex, long-form narratives.
Dr. Clementine Collett, who led the study, noted that novelists feel the cultural importance of their work is at stake. “Novels contribute more than we can imagine to our society, culture, and to the lives of individuals,” she said, stressing that books often form the basis of films, television series and video games.
The publishing sector contributes an estimated £11 billion($14.41 billion) to the U.K. economy annually and is the world’s largest exporter of books.
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