GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A West Michigan man is at the top of two best sellers lists on Amazon after publishing a book, but he didn't do it all on his own.
Chris Singel used artificial intelligence to write the e-book about artificial intelligence in less than 15 minutes.
It started as a quick idea in the shower Tuesday morning, and Think Like An AI was written in just about 12 minutes.
"I don't know if I've done all of it, but I worked with an AI to write a book about AI," he says.
AI is something Singel works with regularly in his digital marketing work, and when he logged into Google's Bard AI that morning, he started to have a conversation with it.
"And then I thought, 'Oh, what can AI tell me about itself? How can I read a book about thinking like an AI? And can I get AI to write itself?'" he says. "So after that, I asked for the table of contents, and then section by section I added the whole thing."
The book covers this history and future of AI, as well as how it can be used in business.
"I wouldn't say the book passes as a human author. There are some sections that feel very formulaic or mechanical, but it's a pretty comprehensive book," Singel says. "I was impressed with the depth and it did have some ideas that I don't know I would have thought of to include."
Just a few days after publishing it online, this book is the first on the 45 Minute Computer and Technology Short Reads and second on the AI and Semantics best sellers lists.
"Seeing my name up there, it was 'Oh, it's just a new release, no big deal,'" Singel says. "But when I click into the category, where I think I'm now number one, there are actual authors who spent years writing books to do this thing. And it makes me think of how is this going to change content creation in the future?"
With this and other advances in the technology, he says this begs another question.
"It certainly feels like we've crossed a threshold in 'How intelligent is artificial intelligence?'" Singel says.
He's encouraging others to work with it too.
"If you have an idea for something, it's no longer a question of 'Can AI help me with this?' It's 'How can I get AI to help me with this?'" Singel says. "So build the thing, test it, analyze the data, improve upon it and then see what comes out."
The book is free on Amazon for the next five days, and he says he's looking into keeping it that way after that. Singel hopes people will check out the book and leave a funny review.
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