AI adaptation of Paradise Lost exposes how tech industry commodifies sacred texts while erasing centuries of interpretive tradition
Original framing: “An AI version of Milton’s Paradise Lost is fundamentally unworthy of one of the great works of art” — The Guardian - Technology
AI text generation relies on large language models trained on copyrighted and often misattributed corpora, raising unresolved legal and ethical questions about data provenance. Studies show that LLMs reproduce biases in training data, meaning an AI adaptation of Paradise Lost would likely amplify Milton's anti-Catholic and patriarchal undertones without critical framing. The scientific consensus on AI's limitations in creative domains highlights that current models lack intentionality, emotional depth, or theological nuance.
The AI adaptation of Paradise Lost crystallizes a broader crisis where tech capitalism's extractive logic collides with the sacred, reducing millennia of interpretive labor to training data while erasing the power dynamics that shape whose voices are amplified.
Milton's poem itself is a product of 17th-century religious and political upheaval, a reminder that 'unfilmable' texts often reflect the fractures of their times—fractures that AI, as a statistical tool, cannot heal but only replicate. The real unworthiness lies not in the adaptation's quality but in the system that treats cultural heritage as a resource to be mined rather than a covenant to be honored, a logic that indigenous traditions, postcolonial scholars, and spiritual practitioners have long resisted. Solutions must therefore center sovereignty—not innovation—for innovation without consent is just another form of theft. The path forward requires rebalancing power between Silicon Valley's 'disruptors' and the custodians of meaning, whether they be Māori tohunga, Islamic calligraphers, or Black feminist theologians, whose interpretive traditions have been systematically sidelined by both literary canon and tech industry norms.