AI tools refuse to write in style of controversial French author Michel Houellebecq, publisher says

The president of renowned French publishing house Gallimard wrote an article published Thursday in La Nouvelle Revue Francaise saying he had asked Meta's AI tool, Llama, to write a scene in the style of Houellebecq.

Llama responded in French that it could not write something considered "offensive or discriminatory".

Instead, it offered in English to write a scene that was "respectful and inclusive" such as a "group of friends in the park on a sunny afternoon" who sing songs "to celebrate the beauty of diversity".

Houellebecq, arguably France's biggest literary star internationally, is known for novels with a deeply pessimistic view of the modern world, in which the sexual revolution, consumerism and globalisation have led to alienation and societal decline.