Sci-fi author says he wrote 97 books in 9 months using AI tools, including ChatGPT and Midjourney

July 2024 ยท 2 minute read
2023-05-22T10:33:00Z

Sci-fi author Tim Boucher says he's created 97 books in nine months with the help of AI.

In an article for Newsweek, Boucher said he'd used AI image generator Midjourney to illustrate the books, and ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude for brainstorming and text generation. 

Boucher told Insider he plans to get to "at least 1,000 books, if not beyond."

He said: "My theory is that in the not too distant future, there will be tools which will enable me to piece all the disparate parts together into new and compelling combinations."

Boucher's set of novels are each between 2,000 to 5,000 words and feature 40 to 140 AI-generated images. He said the books generally take around six to eight hours to create with AI tools and then publish, but some can be done in as little as three hours.

The author is selling the books online for between $1.99 and $3.99.

He wrote in Newsweek: "AI has proven to be a remarkable catalyst for my creative work. It has enabled me to increase my output while maintaining consistent quality, and has allowed me to delve into intricate world-building with an efficiency I could never have achieved otherwise."

AI-generated novels have been flooding the market in recent months. 

In February, ChatGPT was credited as the author or coauthor on more than 200 titles in Amazon's bookstore. Some of the most popular genres were AI guides and children's books.

Ammaar Reshi, a product-design manager at a financial-tech company based in San Francisco, previously told Insider he wrote and illustrated a children's book in 72 hours using ChatGPT and Midjourney. 

Reshi's book, "Alice and Sparkle," went viral on Twitter after it was met with intense backlash from creatives. Some were upset about how AI image generators use their work, while others took issue with the quality of the writing.

Boucher did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours. 

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