Abraham Kuyper Lecture 2026
Thomas Heerma van Voss
Writer in Residence VU Amsterdam academic year 2025-2026
Resisting Artificial Intelligence Through a Story of One’s Own
Can artificial intelligence replace the work of writers and artists? And if so, why would anyone still write a book themselves? In delivering the Abraham Kuyper Lecture 2026, Free Writer Thomas Heerma van Voss emphasised the unique and the personal, the value of “rough-edged art and human input”.
Leo Tolstoy reportedly spent around four years writing Anna Karenina. A century and a half later, we live in an era in which AI can produce such a lengthy novel in just a few minutes. Increasingly, it is becoming difficult to tell that no human effort was involved.
“The inevitable question is what this means for literature,” Heerma van Voss reflected. “And by extension: why should you, why should I, continue writing at all? Why would anyone still read a book written by an author?”
Heerma van Voss wrote his first pieces in his twenties. He was fortunate enough to have had to struggle in order to write a good text, at a time when AI as we know it today did not yet exist. Through trial and error, he learned the craft.
Students wrote about what feels real, without using AI
During the past academic year, he served as Free Writer and guest lecturer for the Creative Writing course, during which he and his students visited writers such as Maartje Wortel, Adriaan van Dis and other fellow authors in their homes. Through the essay competition Who Writes Your Words, he challenged students to write about what feels “real”, without using AI.
With the Abraham Kuyper Lecture, he concluded his appointment. The lecture became a plea for the unique and the personal, for rough-edged art, human input, searching thoughts and imperfect stories. “Even Anna Karenina was preceded by more modest and less sparkling prose. Tolstoy needed that in order to write this novel.”
After Heerma van Voss had mainly posed questions, two VU academics responded from the perspective of their own disciplines. Felienne Hermans, Professor of Computer Science Education and computer science teacher at the Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer, reflected on the unique aspects of our identity. “Everyone has their own story to tell,” said Hermans, who herself does not use a smartphone. “And that is the resistance we need against AI.”
“Give me a bad essay, because then I can help you improve.”
There is also a role for the university, where students arrive often not yet knowing who they are. How can they discover what makes them unique? “That is what we should be discussing. And it is difficult, because we often try to force students into the same mould.”
Hermans proposed assessing students on the basis of the effort they put in and the learning process they undergo, rather than solely on the final result. “I would rather receive a poor essay, because then I can help you improve.”
Art historian Klazina Botke discussed the human desire for authenticity in literature and art, and the importance of the context in which a work was created. “We would rather look at a portrait painted by Rembrandt than at a copy by an unknown student from his workshop, even if the latter painting may be just as beautiful. We see, hear, or read a work of art differently when we know who created it and how it came into being.”
The preference for authenticity also became evident in the two winners of the essay competition, law student Jezennia Boateng and Ninthe de Meulder, who studies Literature and Society. After AI had rewritten their personal stories, they did not consider the result to be an improvement.
A small piece of AI-generated music was actually quite listenable
Artificial intelligence has not yet proved particularly successful in music writing either, according to Daan Doeleman, chair of the VU Chamber Choir. “We tried it, but it was very bad. So we abandoned the idea.” Yet the short fragment of AI-generated music that the VU Chamber Choir subsequently performed was actually quite listenable.
However, it did not compare to the complex and intriguing composition To the Field of Stars by British composer Gabriel Jackson. More than thirty singers and musicians, under the direction of permanent conductor Krista Audere, delivered a unique performance about the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, based on contemporary and twelfth-century texts and music. It formed a musical response to the questions Heerma van Voss had posed at the beginning of the evening.
And what does the computer say when a visitor later asks ChatGPT those same questions at home? The following text instantly appears on the screen: “You write because the process of thinking and the authentic human voice cannot be replaced at the press of a button.” The chatbot continues: “Although AI tools generate texts within seconds, computer-generated writing lacks the unique soul, depth, and personal reflection that emerge when you formulate ideas yourself.” So does AI, after all, have the final word?
With the annual Abraham Kuyper Lecture, VU honours its founder, who himself was also a remarkably prolific writer and publicist. The appointment of the Free Writer and the essay competition are made possible in part by VUvereniging VUvereniging.
Thomas Heerma van Voss (b. 1990) was this year's Writer in Residence at VU Amsterdam. He studied Dutch at the University of Amsterdam. In 2009 he made his debut with the novel De allestafel (The Everything Table). In addition to novels and essays, Heerma van Voss writes interviews, stories and articles for de Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad, Vrij Nederland, De Correspondent and De Groene Amsterdammer.
magazine for social sciences and humanities alumni june 2026