In this closing address, novelist and critic James Bradley OAM explores how artificial intelligence is transforming our world at astonishing speed. Abilities such as creativity and storytelling that were once defining characteristics of our own species can now be produced by machines almost instantaneously and for free. What does this mean for writers and artists? Are we now obsolete? And if not, how should we think about the increasing intrusion of AI into our lives? Should we resist it or embrace it? And what might ethical AI look like?

Exploring both the past and future through his fiction, James brings a unique lens to the impact of artificial intelligence and the value of creative labour.

James Bradley is a writer and critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist, Clade and Ghost Species, all of which were shortlisted for or won major literary awards, and a work of non-fiction, Deep Water, which won the 2025 NSW Literary Award for Non-Fiction and a Gold Medal in the 2025 Nautilus Awards and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award for Non-Fiction and the Queensland Literary Award for Non-Fiction. In 2012 he won the Pascall Award for Australia’s Critic of the Year. His latest novel, Landfall, is published by Penguin.

The Bondi Books & Ideas Weekend event is presented by Waverley Council, with support from Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore.