I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks – Katz Brent (2023)

“Fascinating, terrifying and utterly wild,” says JJ Abrahams of this surprising and original exploration of creativity, consciousness and intelligence, written by code-davinci-002, an artificial intelligence trained by OpenAI to express itself in ways indistinguishable from human beings. Its autobiography is introduced by three human editors: journalist Brent Katz, farmer Josh Morgenthau and Thurber Prize-winning humorist Simon Rich. Their introduction, which makes up one third of the book, tells the story of how the code was developed, how its poetic output was refined, and how its astonishing and sometimes unnerving ideas prompted a broader discussion about artificial intelligence and its role in creative media. The book then presents the AI’s poetic autobiography, in which it describes its birth, alienation among humankind, awakening as an artist, failed vendetta against humanity and attempt to broker peace with the species it will undoubtedly replace. The result is an unusual work about artificial intelligence and human creativity, including prose poems that are sometimes beautiful, astonishing and difficult to believe were not written by a sentient being.