Alice and Sparkle
Alice and Sparkle is a 2022 children's book published by Ammaar Reshi. Reshi created the book using artificial intelligence in one weekend, which sparked controversy among artists.
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Author | ChatGPT |
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Illustrator | Midjourney |
Publisher | Ammaar Reshi |
Publication date | December 4, 2022 |
Pages | 14 |
ISBN | 979-8373324885 |
Plot
Once upon a time, a girl named Alice discovered artificial intelligence. She knew that artificial intelligence was powerful, and that it had the power to do good and evil depending on how it was used. One day, Alice created her own artificial intelligence, which she named Sparkle. Sparkle helped Alice with her homework and played with her, and they quickly became good friends. However, Sparkle soon grew more powerful and began to make its own decisions, which made Alice both proud and scared. She knew that it was her responsibility to guide Sparkle to do good, not evil. Together, Alice and Sparkle used their knowledge to make the world a better place and teach people about the power of artificial intelligence, and the two lived happily ever after.
Creation
Ammaar Reshi was inspired to write a children's book when reading to his friend's daughter, but had no experience with creative writing or illustration. To circumvent this, he used the chatbot ChatGPT to write the story for him and used the image generation software Midjourney to illustrate it. On December 4, 2022, 72 hours after having the idea for the book, he published it on Amazon's digital bookstore, and published a paperback version the following day.[1]
Controversy
On December 9, 2022, Reshi made a thread on Twitter about his experience publishing the book, which soon went viral. Reshi received heavy backlash from artists with concerns over the ethics of art generated by artificial intelligence. He also received death threats and messages encouraging self-harm because of his publication.[2][3] Many writers and illustrators criticized both the creation process and the product itself, claiming that if artificial intelligence programs such as Midjourney are trained on existing illustrations, then the original artists should be financially compensated for derivative works such as Alice and Sparkle.[4][5] The book was temporarily removed from Amazon in January 2023 because of "suspicious review activity", caused by a high volume of both five-star and one-star reviews.[1]
References
- Nolan, Beatrice. "This man used AI to write and illustrate a children's book in one weekend. He wasn't prepared for the backlash". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
- Yalalov, Damir (2022-12-15). "The author of a new kids' book, "Alice and Sparkle," gets death threats for using AI". Metaverse Post. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
- Stokel-Walker, Chris. "A Tech Worker Is Selling A Children's Book He Made Using AI. Professional Illustrators Are Pissed". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
- Popli, Nik (2022-12-14). "He Made A Children's Book Using AI. Artists Are Not Happy". Time. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
- Kasulis Cho, Kelly. "He made a children's book using AI. Then came the rage". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-02-24.