Benny the Blue Whale

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.

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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

Review:

'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

'In detailing his hysterical efforts to get ChatGPT to write a masterpiece, Stanton offers real insight into how it works or, well, doesn't.' -New Scientist

'It's sometimes hard not to feel sorry for the priggish chatbot as Stanton deploys all his impish (some might say puerile) irreverence to goad the programme... Ultimately, however it is there, in Stanton's footnotes that the real genius of the book is found. For all the hilarity and absurdity, it asks profound questions about the relationship between humans and machines... you'll be hooked on the conundrum that is AI. There really is no turning back.' -Perspective

'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, and the abstruse and arcane learning that fills Stanton's brain... 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

'A funny and surprising creative battle between man and machine.' -The Bookseller

'The real draw, though, is Stanton's breakdown of ChatGPT's craft... The irreverent tone buoys a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of how AI might aid artists, and the ways in which it comes up short against its human competitors. This fascinates.' -Publishers Weekly