The doors shut. The lights dropped, save for a single spotlight on a podium at the side of the stage. A slender tuxedo-clad figure emerged out of the audience into that spare brightness. It was not immediately clear whether the first words spoken were from William H. Macy as a local arts enthusiast or as the lauded actor, or, perhaps, were meant to impersonate Ayad Akhtar himself or Jacob McNeal, the fictional literary talent at the heart of Akhtar’s latest play, “McNeal.”  

That ambiguity is exactly what Akhtar wants his audience to confront. The subtext of uncertain reality is a main characteristic of McNeal, and a topic that has loomed large in Akhtar’s mind in recent years. While actor Macy performed just one nuanced speech from the second scene of the play, Robert Downey Jr. earned widespread praise for his debut in the role at the Lincoln Center Theater last year. 

Last Wednesday, Jan. 29, Macy’s monologue opened the first in a trio of Aspen Words’ Winter Words events. Executive Director Adrienne Brodeur took the stage and introduced Ayad Akhtar himself and interviewer Maurice (Mo) LaMee, a cherished figure in Colorado theater. Akhtar’s writing bridges the acting and literary worlds. His novels, “American Dervish” and “Homeland Elegies,” have been popularly received and his various plays have earned him a trophy case of awards. 

Akhtar and LaMee dove quickly into a key conflict throughout “McNeal”: artificial intelligence (AI).

“I wanted to engage the audience in the interface between virtual presence and real presence,” Akhtar explained, since such exchanges have become a facet of everyday life, yet are under addressed in the arts world. LaMee encouraged him to elaborate on his choice to write about AI as a collaborator in the piece.

“[Chat]GPT went live in November 2022,” Akhtar responded, “so I’ve been thinking about these issues for quite some time.” He shared thoughts about a reference to Shakespeare in scene two of “McNeal.” The iconic British playwright, Akhtar reminded the audience, was a prolific plagiarizer, yet masterful in presenting well-known works and archetypes in a fresh, insightful way. Akhtar reads Shakespeare’s writings daily and believes that the chances of AI generating verse on the same level of the bard remain infinitesimally low. 

Still, “I got interested in the notion of AI as an original author,” Akhtar shared. He created a world in which McNeal navigates his human failings and the steady encroachment of technology into a space he had once considered secure. Akhtar views AI as inevitable and inescapable, with some positive applications and some dangerous influences on how we think, interact and create. “There’s a level of intelligence coming into being now that surpasses our own capacity, our ability to process,” he said. 

Akhtar sees technology eroding human thought and education. “Students are using [Chat]GPT to write papers, and teachers are using [Chat]GPT to grade,” he continued — rather like a snake eating its own tail. In such situations, students learn how to prompt but not process for themselves, and teachers let evaluation skills rust to save time. “That seems like an apt metaphor for where we are right now,” Akhtar said, in terms of intellectual decay.

LaMee asked whether Akhtar thinks students at least benefit from the information to which they’re exposed. 

“You can’t get to wisdom from information. You can get to wisdom from knowledge,” Akhtar answered, noting that information is transactional while the process of acquiring knowledge rewards learners. He doesn’t see a path to eliminating AI from education, just possibilities of adjusting how it is used. “There’s going to have to be an adaptation now in pedagogy,” he said, “and there will be.“

The real danger Akhtar sees from AI use is broader societal consumption. “We’re now 15 years into a grand social experiment in automated cognition,” he asserted. “It’s having significant effects on us.” And he sees recent geopolitical trends as a direct result of automated cognition and overreliance on technology. “What are we going to do about that piece of it? That’s a bigger question than whether AI is plagiarizing.”

Akhtar and LaMee closed their conversation with reflections on the influence of the written word and of teachers. “I owe everything to the deep love I found in that high school English class for literature,” Akhtar shared. He shared that he wrote two novels before “American Dervish” was accepted for publication. He has audiences’ attention now and Akhtar’s sensibility for resonant themes on the stage and the page portends continuing recognition. 

Winter Words continued Wednesday, Feb. 5, with a sold-out appearance by author Kevin Fedarko at The Arts Campus at Willits. Fedarko’s nonfiction bestseller about the Grand Canyon, “A Walk in the Park,” features Roaring Fork Valley photographer, and his close friend, Pete McBride. The final Winter Words evening is Feb. 12 at Paepcke Auditorium, when novelist Lauren Groff will discuss “The Vaster Wilds,” a story of survival in the wilderness.


Learn more at www.aspenwords.org/winter-words