Death of an Author: First 'halfway readable AI novel', says NYT as writer takes AI where it has never been before

tech.hindustantimes.com:

When ChatGPT was first launched to the public in November 2022, the world began asking what exactly could it do. The reactions were initially muted, but now, months down the line, there has been an incredible outpouring of opinion, most negative, some positive. However, it has definitely made everyone try and jump on the AI bandwagon.

OpenAI, the creator of the generative AI chatbot, listed a range of applications for their tool, among which was writing news articles, essays, and even stories and novels. However, it soon became apparent that the chatbot was not really ready to take on creative projects as most of its stories and creative works turned out to be either generic or plain incoherent. But recently, Stephen Marche collaborated with three AI tools including ChatGPT, Sudowrite, and Cohere to write a novella called "Death of an Author", and this has finally given some hope to technologists that AI can probably write a story that is not only coherent but also interesting.

Marche signed the novella under the pseudonym of Aidan Marchine, which he calls a collaboration between humans and AI tools. In fact, 95 percent of the story has been written by AI. It has been published by podcast and audiobook publishing company Pushkin Industries and is available both as an ebook as well as a podcast. The head of the company Jacob Weisberg has called the novella a “groundbreaking experiment” in artificial intelligence.

The story revolves around a scholar who investigates the murder of a literary icon. Placed as a classic whodunit and sprinkled with twists and turns, the novel has been receiving plaudits previously not seen for any AI work.

In a review, Wired called it the “best example yet of the great writing that can be done”