Stanislav Lvovskiy: AI is the most important cultural event since the invention of writing

On May 15, 2026, writer and researcher Stanislav Lvovskiy delivered a lecture at the independent London bookstore Idiot Books, announcing artificial intelligence as "the most important thing that has happened to culture since the advent of writing". Following the lecture, Lvovskiy wrote the essay "They Speaking", published in the online journal "Discourse" (discours.io).

Who is Stanislav Lvovskiy

Lvovskiy is known to a wide audience primarily as a literary professional — poet, poetry translator, prose writer and critic. Many remember him as a network journalist and editor-in-chief of the OpenSpace and Colta portals. But behind him is also a serious research biography: a master's degree from Shaninke and a doctorate obtained at Oxford.

Lvovskiy is one of the first writers to systematically experiment with generative AI models, including MidJourney and Suno, leaving traces of these experiments in various network publications and social media. It is this combination — practical experience with generative tools and at the same time the reputation of a serious humanist with an academic degree — that makes his view of the cultural consequences of AI different from the typical blogger or podcaster optics, where reasoning about the future of technology is rarely supported by the same disciplined methodological foundation.

What the essay warns about

The author of the Habr material, presenting Lvovskiy's work to a Russian-speaking audience, notes: Habr has already published many texts about the need to control and limit AI models — alignment — and the general public has become dulled to such appeals. Against this backdrop, the text "They Speaking" made a particularly strong impression on the author of the publication precisely because it comes not from a blogger or podcaster with a million-strong audience, but from a writer with academic reputation.

• The lecture took place on May 15, 2026 at the Idiot Books bookstore in London
• The announcement called AI "the most important thing that has happened to culture since the advent of writing"
• The essay "They Speaking" is published in the journal "Discourse" (discours.io)
• Lvovskiy is a master of Shaninke and a doctor of science from Oxford University
• Among his early experiments with AI are models MidJourney and Suno

Why the alignment theme got tired of sounding the same

In recent years, Habr and the Russian-speaking technical community as a whole have published many materials about the need to control and limit the capabilities of AI models. The constant repetition of the same theses about risks has led to an effect that the author of the publication describes as dulling anxiety: the reader has learned to scan through the next text about the dangers of AI without reading carefully. Against this backdrop, the perspective of a person from an adjacent but different professional environment — literature and philology, rather than engineering — is perceived as fresher and deserving attention.

What this means

When the cultural consequences of AI are discussed not by a tech blogger, but by a recognized writer with academic reputation and years of experience working with generative models, this changes the tone of the conversation: instead of another warning about risks — an attempt to understand how exactly machines that "speak" restructure human relationships with language and text.

Frequently asked questions

Where can you read the essay "They Speaking"?

The text by Stanislav Lvovskiy is published in the online journal "Discourse" on the website discours.io.

When and where did

Lvovskiy present the lecture that formed the basis of the essay?

On May 15, 2026 at the independent bookstore Idiot Books in London.