Many fear that AI will replace writers, but neuroscientist David Eagleman suggested that it never will.
Creativity isn’t produced in a vacuum—it’s the product of prior experience. For instance, the phone call icon on your phone is an old corded landline within a square, not a smart phone we typically see today. During the 2025 Humanities Center Annual Symposium, renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman used this example to emphasize human creativity, arguing that no matter how much technology advances, it can never replicate or replace the human touch consumers so desperately crave—emotion, community, and relatability.
Timelessness of Human Expression
Many writers are concerned over the potential loss of their jobs to AI, but Eagleman assured that this cannot happen for a number of reasons. First, he said that AI cannot produce a longer complex text like a novel; it doesn’t have the capacity to compute all those arcs, plot twists, clues, and cliffhangers because it can only generate what it’s prompted.
However, that particular function might not be enough to keep readers invested. Eagleman hypothesized, “Even if you’re a very creative prompter, you are limited to versions of what your internal model has experienced before,” he said, “and much of what we love in literature is the surprise that comes from a particular point of view that you’ve never considered.”
Another reason AI won’t replace writers, Eagleman posits, is that the surprise that comes from diverse perspectives builds community. “As a culture, we’re always going to desire and need a shared vocabulary, and the only way to grow that is to watch the same movies and read the same stories,” he said. If all stories were AI generated according to individualized prompts, Eagleman suggests that readers would lose the culture of relatability and commonality that comes from sharing literature and media.
Lastly, Eagleman believes this community extends even farther by taking an interest in the creators themselves. How many of us have read a book, listened to a song, or watched a movie and immediately looked up the author, artist, or actor? Eagleman said, “They may be more successful, more impoverished, or from a different country, but we know that fundamentally, they are fellow travelers with us on the human journey and beyond writing.”
AI as a Tool
So, what is the future for AI? Eagleman suggested that it might follow the same pattern as the invention of the camera—AI might fill a niche within the writing world instead of replacing it outright. For example, even with the camera, Eagleman said, traditional art has remained popular because “people didn’t only want a maximally realistic print of a scene; they also wanted swirls with amazing color and things that didn’t exist in the outside world.”
Engleman hopes that AI will become a resource niche for writing. “As we continue to adapt, in parallel with this new technology, the future definition of AI might shift from artificial intelligence to augmented intelligence,” Eagleman said. “So, in the best-case scenario, it’s not going to be a war, but a collaboration, an ongoing guided tour into areas that were previously just beyond our view."
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