Author: Andy Stanton Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1836430485 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 335
Book Description
AI is changing the world at frightening speed. A bestselling author decides to find out more… ‘Something profound and utterly brilliant is going on… hilarious.’ THE TIMES Is ChatGPT the end of creative industries as we know them? An ethical quagmire from which there is no return? A threat to all our jobs, as we keep hearing on the news? Bestselling children’s author Andy Stanton has made a career out of writing differently – from the unconventional ‘hero’ of his bestselling Mr Gum series to his penchant for absurdist plots, his children’s books are anything but formulaic. When a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, the new large language chatbot, Andy is as sceptical as he is curious. Can this jumble of algorithms really mimic the spontaneity of human thought? Could it one day replace human authors like him for good? And are we soon to be ruled over by despotic robot overlords? He decides there’s only one thing for it – he must test this bot’s capabilities. Eventually, he settles on a prompt that will push the algorithm to its creative limits: ‘tell me a story about a blue whale with a tiny penis.’ Chaos ensues. What follows is a surprising and illuminating battle between Andy and ChatGPT that maybe, just maybe, might help us all understand AI a little bit better. Join Andy and his beleaguered AI lackey on a rollicking metafictional journey through the art of storytelling. Presenting his prompts and the AI-generated narrative alongside extensive commentary, Stanton provides a startling paean to the art of a good story and boundless human creativity. Hopeful and hilarious, Benny the Blue Whale provides a joyfully anarchic meditation on AI, literature and why we write. *** A WATERSTONES AND NEW SCIENTIST BEST BOOK OF 2023 ‘There’s no book like it. Scholarly, childish, fascinating and hilarious – one of our funniest writers dissects what it takes to build a story and what that tells us about being human. It’ll really make you think, if you can stop laughing.’ Chris Addison, co-creator of BREEDERS ‘Entertaining and alarmingly relevant, provocative and philosophically satisfying, it’s ultimately a profoundly human text.’ OBSERVER ‘A magnificent experiment by a perfect fool – deep and shallow and stupid and clever – the perfect use of AI (Andy Intelligence).’ Robin Ince, author of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING INTERESTED ‘Benny the Blue Whale is many things. It’s a fascinating discourse on the nature of language and storytelling. It’s a philosophical treatise on the possibilities of artificial intelligence. It’s a receptacle for obscenely hilarious jokes... A brilliant and beautiful cyborg: part human brain, part computational muscle. It’s a post-post-modern work of genius.’ Anthony McGowan, Carnegie Medal-winning author of LARK
Author: Andy Stanton Publisher: ISBN: 9781405293709 Category : Children's stories Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Mr Gum is back in this second hilarious book and he's as nasty as ever In fact, he's absolutely grimsters. But this book's not just about him. Meet a gingerbread man named Alan Taylor who has electric muscles Plus, all our favorite characters are also back: the little girl called Polly, the evil butcher called Billy William The Third, and the very wise man, Friday O'Leary. And, who could forget loveable Jake the dog, or the angry fairy who lives in Mr Gum's bathtub and whacks him on the head with a frying-pan?
Author: Mark Henderson Publisher: Random House ISBN: 1446438848 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 340
Book Description
Whether we want to improve education or cut crime, to enhance public health or to generate clean energy, we need the experimental methods of science - the best tool humanity has yet developed for working out what works. Yet from the way we're governed to the news we're fed by the media we're let down by a lack of understanding and respect for its insights and evidence. In The Geek Manifesto Mark Henderson explains why and how we need to entrench scientific thinking more deeply into every aspect of our society. A new movement is gathering. Let's turn it into a force our leaders cannot ignore. This edition includes an appendix: 'A Geek Manifesto for America' by David Dobbs.
Author: Cory Wheeler Mimms Publisher: Black Rose Writing ISBN: 1684333156 Category : Young Adult Fiction Languages : en Pages : 153
Book Description
After tragedy disrupts her life, Willa escapes her grief by venturing into fantasy. But she soon wakes Baku, a creature whose sole purpose is to devour the threads that tie dreams to reality. With the beast in pursuit and her new friends, Benny and Hadley, helping her, Willa is thrust into adventure. To overcome Baku, she has to find the only person who ever faced the monster and survived, a reclusive old woman who lives high in the mountains. This coming-of-age story contains moments of comedy, but it ultimately deals with overcoming fear and loss. Willa is about a young girl returning to the United States after having lived her whole life on military bases overseas. It is a discovery of a home she has never seen, and the realization that she can build the world she wants to live in.
Author: Jean Craighead George Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 110161269X Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 146
Book Description
From the most celebrated children’s nature writer of our time comes a posthumous new novel in the tradition of her Newbery award-winning Julie of the Wolves In 1848, a young boy witnesses a rare sight—the birth of a bowhead, or ice whale, he calls Siku. Years later, he unwittingly brings about the death of an entire pod of whales, and only Siku survives. For this act, the boy receives a curse of banishment. Through the generations, this curse is handed down: Siku returns year after year, in reality and dreams, to haunt the boy’s descendants. Told in alternating voices, both human and whale, Jean Craighead George’s last novel shows the interconnectedness of humankind and the animals they depend on. “It’s a bold, wistful, and heartfelt coda to a distinguished career.”—School Library Journal
Author: Bruce Hale Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers ISBN: 1368001157 Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 188
Book Description
Something is very wrong at Monterrosa Elementary -- again. Weird noises and funky smells are coming through the classroom vents. Could the school be haunted? When one of their classmates falls into a coma, best friends Carlos and Benny know it's time to call in the best monster hunters they know: each other. This may well be their wackiest extermination challenge yet! In his third Monstertown Mystery, Bruce Hale delivers another silly, strange, and spooky tale for readers who like their chills with a side of chuckles.
Author: Esmé Raji Codell Publisher: Algonquin Books ISBN: 9781565123083 Category : Family & Relationships Languages : en Pages : 548
Book Description
Offers advice and guidelines on how to expand a child's world through books and reading, introducing three thousand teacher-recommended book titles, craft ideas, projects, recipes, and reading club tips.
Author: Andy Stanton
Author: Andy Stanton
Author: David A. Adler
Author: Mark Henderson
Author: Cory Wheeler Mimms
Author: Janice Lao-Noche
Author: Jean Craighead George
Author: Bruce Hale
Author: Esmé Raji Codell
Author: Canada. Department of Fisheries and Oceans