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.

Alice and Sparkle
AuthorChatGPT
IllustratorMidjourney
PublisherAmmaar Reshi
Publication date
December 4, 2022
Pages14
ISBN979-8373324885

Plot

A girl named Alice discovers artificial intelligence. She knows that artificial intelligence is powerful, and that it has the power to do good and evil depending on how it is used. One day, she creates her own artificial intelligence and names it Sparkle. Sparkle helps Alice with her homework and plays with her, and they quickly become good friends. However, Sparkle soon grows more powerful and begins to make its own decisions, which makes Alice both proud and scared. She knows that it is her responsibility to guide Sparkle to do good, not evil. Together, Alice and Sparkle use their knowledge to make the world a better place and to teach people about the power of artificial intelligence. The two live 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] Within ten days it had sold around 70 copies.[2]

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.[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.[2][4] 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]

See also

References
  1. 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.
  2. Popli, Nik (2022-12-14). "He Made A Children's Book Using AI. Artists Are Not Happy". Time. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  3. Stokel-Walker, Chris (13 December 2022). "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.
  4. Kasulis Cho, Kelly. "He made a children's book using AI. Then came the rage". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
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