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Sydney Opera House in Australia. / Yonhap News Agency

A sixth-grade elementary school student in Australia has struck a chord with audiences after winning a national poetry competition with an original poem highlighting both the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence (AI).

According to The Guardian on Oct. 26, Blake Mackenzie, 12, from Newcastle, Australia, won the top prize in the youth category at the national final of the 2026 Australian Poetry Slam, held at the Sydney Opera House the previous night.

The national final featured contestants who had advanced through preliminary rounds held in 60 towns and cities across Australia. Blake reportedly captivated the judges and audience with a spoken-word poem lasting approximately one minute and 30 seconds.

The poem he performed in the final was titled "Dear ChatGPT." It sharply criticized the decline in critical thinking and the waste of time resulting from excessive reliance on AI.

Blake criticized the way students rely on chatbots to summarize textbooks rather than reading them themselves, pointing out that they would be better off reading a chapter of a book directly than spending time generating and reading a summary.

His criticism extended beyond education to the isolation experienced by people in modern society. In his poem, he highlighted the emptiness of algorithms with lines describing how AI is designed to make users addicted without contradicting them, yet leaves them feeling lonely despite the promise of endless friendship.

Blake also drew attention to the environmental costs of operating AI, citing specific figures. According to Sydney Water, the city's water and wastewater utility, data centers in the Sydney area could consume up to 250 million liters of water per day by 2035 for cooling and other purposes. That exceeds the amount of drinking water consumed by all residents of Canberra, Australia's capital, over the same period.

"The more we use AI, the more electricity it needs, and the more water is wasted," Blake said. He emphasized that the water was a valuable resource that could ultimately go to people who lack access to drinking water, describing such technological waste as completely unnecessary.

Blake said he did not use AI to write the poem and generally avoids using chatbots. One judge praised his work, saying, "I didn't vote for you just because you're a kid. I did it because your poem was amazing."

In the first round of the competition, now in its 22nd year, Blake advanced to the final by performing his original poem "I Love My Country," which directly addressed social inequality, racism and the dispossession of Indigenous peoples' land in Australia.

As the youth category winner, Blake will share a prize package worth A$20,000 (approximately 18.6 million won) with Bivor, a poet from Alice Springs who won the adult category with his original poem "Politics Is Doing You."

The two poets will spend the next year representing the competition at literary and poetry festivals. Blake plans to participate in events in Australia, while Bivor will be active in Indonesia and Singapore.

                                                                                                            Lee Dae-won