What to know

• Blake Mackenzie, 12, won the 2026 Australian Poetry Slam youth prize with Dear ChatGPT, a poem critiquing AI's addictive design, social isolation effects, and massive water consumption for datacentres.
• He wrote the poem the day before the final and beat 15 finalists with lines about how ChatGPT is 'designed to addict us' while leaving users feeling 'friendless.'
• Blake cited Sydney Water's projection that 250 megalitres per day will be needed for Sydney datacentres by 2035—more than Canberra's total drinking water—as a reason AI use is 'totally unnecessary.'
• He did not use AI to write the poem and avoids chatbots generally, while seeing spoken word poetry as a vehicle for raising issues affecting his generation.

“I wouldn't be here without her telling me to enter this, assuring me that I was a good poet. She's been a really big part of this.”

Blake Mackenzie, Year-six poet · The Guardian ↗ · Oct 25

Blake Mackenzie Year-six student, poetMrs Welsh Blake's teacherBivor Adult category winner