Sybil’s World: An AI Reimagines Herself and Her World Using GPT-3, by Marc Strassman (Nimble Books: Nov. 9, 2021) is a pioneering landmark in AI-powered literature. At 416 pages with more than 300 footnotes, it is a substantial work, and one that creates a new genre with its own unique conventions. Sybil’s World is the result of a three-way collaboration among the author (Marc Strassman), the editor (Fred Zimmerman), & an AI (OpenAI’s GPT-3). The synergy among these three has generated a book that provides a unique and fascinating literary experience. Each of more than 120 “prompts” provided by the author is the theme or jumping off point for a chapter, and each chapter is composed of five to ten “completions” generated by GPT-3. Since the only difference among the completions is that they have are the result of varying runs of a probabalistic model, they each have a similar claim to validity as fiction. The reader may – must – engage with each of the completions to fully appreciate the richness of the possible lives and futures sketched out in Sybil’s World.
As one of the first books generated by an algorithmic publishing engine and published in hardcover, paperback and e-book formats, “Sybil’s World” is a noteworthy milestone in technological and cultural history. [1] It stands on its own as experimental fiction–much of it is quite good[2]—-and its mechanism is less important than the fact that it exists[3]. But it also helps you fathom one future of books. Imagine a streamlined production process by which tens of thousands—millions?—of books are generated month after month, year after year, each with its own built-in audience. We’re not there yet, but this project helps take us in that direction.[4]
Sybil’s World is available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats from fine booksellers everywhere. Additional AI-enhanced details about the book are available at NimbleBooks.com by clicking the “more info” button in the top right of the home page. The resulting “detail” page includes cover images; sample chapters; sample human-like narration powered by Speechki; an AMA chatbot created by ProseKiln; and an automatically generated extractive summary of the book. Many additional AI-powered metadata features are coming soon for Sybil’s World and will soon be available for all titles to all authors and publishers via Nimble’s platform.
ISBNs:
9781608882465 (hardcover)
9781608882472 (paperback)
9781608882489 (Kindle)
[1] --Ed.
[2], [3], [4] GPT-3’s words.
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