Impact of AI and attention economy on literacy

Societal literacy and reading habits are facing pressure from a changing attention economy and the rise of artificial intelligence. Researchers note a shift toward a “postliterate state” as social media and AI prioritize quick rewards over dense literature. Educators have observed that students increasingly struggle with complex reading syllabi, a trend partly linked to curricula that favor short excerpts for standardized testing.

These shifts have extended into the publishing industry, which faces declining reading comprehension and a market increasingly flooded with low-quality, AI-generated content. In Germany, book sales among 10-to-15-year-olds reportedly dropped by 30 percent in 2025.

Furthermore, the integration of AI has sparked significant copyright disputes. Authors and publishers have accused developers of using literary works as “free raw material” for model training without permission. The impact on literary integrity has also become a point of contention, exemplified by a controversy in France where a novel was removed from a major prize shortlist due to suspected AI involvement.