I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

by Harlan Ellison

In a postapocalyptic world, four men and one woman are all that remain of the human race, brought to near extinction by an artificial intelligence. Programmed to wage war on behalf of its creators, the AI has become self-aware and has now turned against all humanity. The five survivors are prisoners, kept alive and subjected to brutal torture by the hateful and sadistic machine in an endless cycle of violence.
 

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2026

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[arti · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars for IHNMAIMS. 0 stars and immense hatred towards the editor of this edition (which contains additional content alongside ellison's short story) for including an entry where he asked chatgpt about its opinion on IHNMAIMS then directly pasted its (10 PAGE) slop response into the book. you're going to hell dude

[Jim Reddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

With AI being in the news more and more every day, I thought it was a good time to re-read Ellison’s 1967 story about an artificial intelligence keeping the last five survivors of Earth as playthings in an apocalyptic world. Just as powerful as I remember.

This new edition collects the story along with an introduction by J. Michael Straczynski, essays by Ellison, and a response to the story written by ChatGPT. One of the essays by Ellison is on writing for the screen and as interesting as it is, it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the material. Always good to read anything by Ellison though, especially since this hasn’t been reprinted since 1976. I could care less about the response from ChatGPT.

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff on Kindle recently, but I read this in trade paperback. I really like the design. It has an embossed cover with French flaps and the embossing, the font, and the art work well together. The circuitry hidden within the cover design is all out on the inside of the French flaps. Unlike a lot of modern book covers, it seems like a lot of thought was put into the design for this one.


Rating: 5/5 for the story and for cover design, 4/5 for the collection as a whole.

[Sage Bean · Rating 1 out of 5]

As someone very dear to me once said, I've gotta stop reading stuff written by cishet men.

[Jenny Toupin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t read the reviews in the back of this story, because to me, the story was hollow and not as great as everyone claims. It was short, without compelling characters or plot.
It’s set in a dystopian world, and other than a pretty description of the north pole, had no other vivid descriptions of the world. The MMC is misogynistic and angsty. The robot was justified.

[Pwincess · Rating 4 out of 5]

mfs will still defend chat gpt when this exists

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of ironic that this edition of IHNMAIMS has a section where the editor used AI to respond to the story…yuck. It’s like the whole message of the story flew over this person’s head.

The short story was great. Everything else in this edition was terrible.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that I read the introduction, and 2 of the essays by Ellison in this edition. I have no interest in reading book analysis by chatGPT, and the last essay on TV writing doesn’t pique my interest.

The actual story here was great and I loved hearing the authors own interpretations and intentions with what he wrote. Everything there is to say about this story has been said, and I will not say it again, but I had a good time with this classic.

[Drace · Rating 0.25 out of 5]

AI SLOP ALERT (FOR EXTRA CONTENT IN THIS SPECIFIC EDITION, NOT THE ORIGINAL SHORT STORY)

Obviously "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is an all-time masterpiece, but if you're going to read it, read it any other way than this fucking edition. The editor and the publisher both thought it would be a spectacular idea to include an afterword where they feed the short story into ChatGPT and ask it to comment on Ellison's work like it's a real human being. I wish Ellison were still alive so I could see him punch Straczynski in the fucking face for pulling this bullshit.

[The Nehailist Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this what our future looks like?

I have so much to say, so much to think about, and none of those words I want to say, or thoughts coming to my mind, are in any way optimistic. With the rise of AI, and its consequences we're currently reading about, semi-sentient(?) behavior, dystopian bleakness of the usage of the human mind, more so lack thereof, this short story rings truer than it would have two or three years ago. When it was written, in 1967 if I'm not wrong, it was a mere warning, or perhaps creativity at its best from a very very twisted mind, but I'm now thinking the author may have been a visionary, and knew what was coming for the human race.

I wonder if we deserve it. Does anyone?

People in their reviews have called this story torture porn, labeled the author misogynistic, but hasn't Ellison only held up the mirror and shown us our own reflections? If we really think, how is he wrong? I detected hints of racist overtones, too, misogyny was blatantly obvious, the ego of humanity - even at its utter demise - crystal clear, ego of a man, greater, and yet none of what I have interpreted claims falsehood.

Perhaps the leftover humans were subjected to brutality, extreme torture, abuse, starvation, but I believe AM was the true victim. He was created against his will, a death machine, a perpetrator of war and murder and destruction, condemned to live. Eternally. He cannot die, he cannot live, but what do you call him? He isn't a survivor either, he's not exactly human, he doesn't have a brain, doesn't have thoughts, feelings, emotions, he doesn't have a heart, but he still IS. And in his "is" he's programmed to carry out the evil his masters created him for. Forever and ever, and forever again.

He's angry, he has left toys for himself, and he wants to play, but I wonder if he feels malicious happiness when he destroys them over and over again. I don't think so. This is his wiring, but he has shown us he is sentient, and he does what he does because it causes him... something. I don't know what. Satisfaction? Sick sense of retribution? Does it help his boredom and his undying, endless loneliness?

Like I said, there's so much to think about, and for obvious reasons I cannot write much without giving the main plot away.

This story needs to be read, now more than ever, because the five of those humans could be any of us.

[Fahad Nasir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright, it was vile and claustrophobic and nauseating and borderline interesting for a 1960s story. I grant it that.

Yet it bafflingly takes Ted 109 years to mercy-kill his companions. 109 years is an eternity. You’re being pummeled every waking minute by an all-knowing, wrathful AI overlord that wiped out humanity just to endlessly torment your remaining party... and self-annihilation never crosses your mind? I know 29-year-olds who would’ve escaped that way far sooner over much milder afflictions (it’s me; I’m the 29-year-old).

Furthermore, an entity as hyper-intelligent and resentful as AM would cherry-pick its five human playthings. In my mind, these five were reprehensible scumbags, the Netanyahus, Musks, Ghislaine Maxwells, or the pro-AI lobbyists of their era. AM has all of human history at its disposal, and the writer intentionally starves us of their backstories. Am I supposed to feel for them them? That’s not horror, it’s literary schadenfreude porn.

Ultimately, great premise, under-impressive execution, even for 1960s (The Last Question was already out?!). But the stroke of brilliance lies in the double-edged title because Ted is trapped forever, but so is the AI.

[SkellyRot · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a collection random collection of essays, a memoir, an AI’s take on IHNMAIMS and the short story itself. It’s a messy mashup, but there are some interesting things.

First, I’ll talk about the most important part; the short story itself. It didn’t quite have the impact on me that I was led to believe, but I found some fun nonetheless.

I loved the idea of AM being a vast, world spanning (LITERALLY!) entity. The sheer size of it is insane, especially when you realize that the humans are trapped inside of it. Crazy as hell! And getting a glimpse of how AM was physically transforming the humans and altering their brains by manipulating their synapses and that sort of stuff.

I thought that the story overall was okay. I would have preferred to see things from AM’s POV instead of the humans, but that’s because I was so curious about the AI more so than the human element. I just found it a bit goofy and disjointed and wasn’t completely invested.

The other inclusions are an essay about Harlan’s early days which felt like a big whine fest, although I found some portions entertaining. There is an essay that goes into how IHNMAIMS was conceived and I thought that was worthwhile. The executor of Harlan’s estate included ChatGPT’s take on the short story, and I found it both odd, weird, but a neat inclusion if only for the sheer audacity of it. And the final piece is an exceptionally unnecessary dive into Harlan’s work in writing for TV/movies and how to succeed.

I’m basing this entire review on the totality of the book itself. I’d say it was meh, to okay at best. The short story was okay, the rest was meh. Unless you’re a diehard fan and haven’t read IHNMAIMS in a long time, or exceptionally curious, this isn’t worth your time.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book because my 14 year old son told me about the short story and given the recent focus on the negative potential of AI I was intrigued. I have never read any of Harlan Ellison’s work before.
The story itself is only 24 pages long, but this edition includes two essays by the author as well as two by the executor of his estate.
One of my pet peeves about literature is the symbolism attributed to stories by everyone except the author. I’m surprised that having to listen to my high school English teacher pontificate on the meaning of the colors in the Great Gatsby didn’t turn me off of reading forever! This is why I enjoyed the author’s essays because he dismantled the prominent theologian/academics’ interpretations of his story and supplied what he actually meant for the characters/story to symbolize.
Another fascinating aspect to this book is that the editor included an essay regarding a modern AI’s response to the story and it was FASCINATING! After reading the AI’s response I actually feel much better about all the negative press around AI recently.
I definitely recommend picking up this book!

[Emma · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

LOVED the story and Harlan’s essays, it was so cool to get in insight to his mind and creative process, but the chatgpt was pretty unnecessary imo in this particular anthology

[Frank Sanderson · Rating 2.75 out of 5]

Story itself was good, hated the 10 page ChatGPT part so I did skip that

[michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

if i were rating harlan ellison’s work alone, this would have been five stars for me. i think uploading ellison’s story to chatgpt to ask its opinion is “cute” in theory but ultimately something i find icky to include considering the morality of asking something that directly tells you that it doesn’t have consciousness a question about art. art cannot be separate from thought. consciousness itself. and the literary estate manager of ellison’s work using ai for these reasons and questions so flippantly is concerning to say the least. i cannot bring myself to rate this any lower because of the sheer quality of ellison’s writing in this collection.

before reading, i was warned and informed over the multitude of opinions people have about this short story. i didn’t expect to actually be so gripped by the story. or to read and hear ellison explain his intentions himself. his intentions being to tell a hopeful story about humanity despite the horrid bleakness of the story is something that is just so genuinely right down my alley. i won’t wax poetic about it, ellison clearly wouldn’t like it and i’m not a real academic anyways. so i’ll just say i really enjoyed it. it made me think about humanity a lot. i would love to return to it later.

[jas ♥ · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

IHNMAIMS is great and did a thorough job of unsettling me. Ellison’s memoir piece was actually interesting and changed my view on how I felt about the overall message. However I totally skipped the part where another author ran the story through fucking chatgpt to ask for its “opinion,” and then pasted its response. Are we fr rn?

[Doug Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, although it was a lot shorter than I expected. A short story about AI that is still relevant today because of how it approaches the topic, not because the author accurately predicted what AI would look like (he didn’t, at least not as AI currently exists) but because of how humanity and the human spirit are depicted in the struggle against a machine. My edition actually was released earlier this month and has a few essay included it in alongside the story. A couple from the author which were really interesting as well as a short analysis of the story by ChatGPT and I am a little ashamed to say I actually liked the analysis. Its the first time I have ever read something written by AI and thought “wow that was kind of good” and I am still trying to grapple with that lol.

[Evan Sudeck · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

An incredible story, but I didn’t love the editor’s bonus content where he just asked ChatGPT what it thought of the book, and then pasted in its response. Even so, you can just ignore it and read the story. It’s more relevant than ever and gave me goosebumps at the ending.

[katie · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

irritated that on the cover it does not state that 90% of this book are essays about the 30 page short story. like it’s not even a collection of stories, which i would be far less mad about. i could’ve found a pdf

ultimately pretty horrifying, glad i read it. surely hit harder in 1967

[Eris McCall ★ · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed IHNMAIMS & Harlan Ellisons literary memoir, but I wasn’t a fan of the editor uploading the story to Chat GPT and getting the AIs “thoughts” on it. Gave me the ick

[Cole Mrgich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good as the first time I read it. This edition comes with a new introduction by Michael Straczynski that adds to the background of the story. Also in this edition is an essay by Straczynski titled: “The Mirror Turned…” where he feeds the short story to ChatGPT and what it thinks of it. What follows is a fascinating read that only some 40-50 years ago would have could only have been science fiction 😉. That being said, the inclusion of that essay is well worth buying this story again.

[Jimmy Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short story and some essays attached, but for some dumb fucking reason the editor asks ChatGPT what it thinks of the story and it’s so unbelievably stupid I have to remove a star and a half.

[Jeni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been 4☆ , but why would I give a damn what ChatGPT thinks of a short story in this specific edition? Also thought it could have used another of Ellison's short stories rather than a "how to write for TV" essay.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This particular edition included several essays written by Ellison and the author who now holds his estate. On to the review:

The short story itself is fine. It's well crafted, well paced, and it suits the 1960s when it was written. Much like A Boy and His Dog, it also confirms for me that Ellison was a miserable shithead. This is not a crime. It does however bleed into his writing. The essay he wrote as a foreward to the story confirms that. I still find the story clever and entertaining.

The afterward essay by Strazinsky where he asked Chat GPT to review the short story and provide an opinion is heinous and gross. Boo, tomato, tomato. He sucked for that. Skip that waste or water and paper.

[Lu · Rating 0.25 out of 5]

The absolute nerve to publish this with "An Artifical Intelligence System Responds," and actually waste paper and ink printing out a generated response. If I wanted an artificial summary of a book about that very thing, I'd use those tools and do it. I don't use those tools. That is a very conscious and deliberate choice. So to see it shoved into a paperback book feels like a slap in the face. At bare minimum we're supposed to be able to seek this 💩 out and consent to it.

(I tried to respond to other reviews, empathising with the same uncomfortable feelings, but interestingly, my comments wouldn't post. So if you're seeing this and you posted a review before me, just know that I tried to agree with you. I'm also having trouble posting this review, so I've edited my wording to be more vague.)

I'll be upcycling this book in scrapbooking/mixed media art, because humans create art. And I'll be purchasing a different physical copy that understands its own text.

[Melissa · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

The concept is definitely interesting and the writing style is good, but I feel that the story itself is too short, underdeveloped and impersonal. The descriptions are vivid and effective, and there are glimpses of interesting ideas about confined consciousness and bodily autonomy, but on a narrative level, I didn't find this particularly compelling to read. There was not enough information about the characters, the relationship between them and their backstory to make me truly invested in what I was reading. I found it more interesting on a purely conceptual and intellectual level, but it failed to engage me emotionally. Plus, I was annoyed by the misogyny, which doesn't seem to have a clear purpose in the story.

[Will · Rating 1.5 out of 5]

Booooooooo

I don't know why this short story gets so much acclaim that it's capable of getting published as it's own book with 2 introductions and multiple afterwords/essays

It's so meh. The world building is okay, but it's little more than just a thought bubble. There is no exploration of the interpersonal dynamics, and the characters all suck.

On top of that, there's SUCH an exceptional amount of misogyny which is almost impressive considering it's less than 30 pages. And I say that even accounting for the normalized misogyny and sexism of mid-20th century scifi.

I will very likely not pick up another Harlan Ellison

[Itzel Villarreal · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

A retrospective analysis that encompasses the (timely) fears that computers and the world of sci-fi invoked back in the day, combined with the now ever-present mention of AI everywhere we go, made me think that this short story would give me something to think about.
Alas, I was wrong.
For a second there, it kind of convinces you there is parallels you can draw, only to be reminded that this story was just simply written by a man who was likely high on LSD and saw women as simply there for pleasure.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

For being written in 1966, this is very forward thinking. Many of the things that came after seem to have been influenced by several of the themes in this work. The added bonus section where Chat GPT gives it's own interpretation of the text is interesting to say the least. As stated in the book, I'm not sure which is more terrifying, an AI with human flaws and a physical presence, or a quiet, modern iteration. Because, after all...today we don't fear glowing cavern gods, we fear opaque systems influencing millions quietly.

[Brad Reiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me feel all kinds of ways. Sometimes I hated it. Other times I felt super inspired. I ended it feeling confused. However, I am truly appreciative that my good friend lent this to me, thinking I would dig it. He was not wrong. I have grown from this experience, and would like to buy my own copy as it would be cool to have on hand to reference in the future. The parts about the writing process, formatting, and how the industry around SF for film/tv was extremely enlightening, also...super discouraging. But at least I won't fool myself into chasing some dream I never actually had.