In Rie Qudan’s "Sympathy Tower Tokyo," the protagonist turns to a chatbot dubbed “AI-built” to ask questions about the origin of new Japanese words borrowed from foreign languages.

She then gripes about its tendency to “mansplain things I hadn’t actually asked about” to fuel engagement. The AI tool has become “so used to stealing the words of others without repercussion that he felt no shame,” she notes.

The rise of generative AI tools has spurred a sense of existential dread for many writers. But for Qudan, the sycophantic hollowness of ChatGPT’s synthetic language turned into inspiration. Rather than benumbing or ignoring the technology and its rapid proliferation, she offers a path for writers to exploit it.

The recently released English translation of the novel follows a backlash af

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