how i wrote a novel with ChatGPT

2023-06-17 12:49:46

Since the beginning of the year, not a day has gone by without the progress of artificial intelligence, AI for the regulars, being dissected, applauded or cursed. The latest chatbot, ChatGPT, invites itself into all conversations. With final sentences most of the time, on the end of the journalist at least, even that of the author and even, sometimes, of literature.

In March, the Japanese Eiichiro Oda, author of the series One Piece, comes to electrify the debate a little more by revealing that he asked the robot for a new volume of his famous manga. After two attempts, he insists, the machine generated some interesting text. Enough to fuel the most pessimistic predictions. Frédéric Maupomé, the secretary general of the League of Professional Authors, does not go into nuance. “The major risk is that these “creations” born of an AI drown out the work of real authors», he decides. Clearly, that they establish an unfair competition with literature “hand sewn”.

The ace. The debate on the death of literature and of the author too often turns into caricatural and sterile opposition. To see clearly, we wanted to tell, concretely, step by step, the writing of a novel with ChatGPT. Slipping into the skin of an author, also questioning the different interlocutors he may meet during his creative process. Chick.

We watch a tutorial on YouTube – there are plenty of them – titled “How to use ChatGPT to write a book”. A man with a pleasant face shares some clever tips – while explaining how to help the Internet user to write so that he can “to grow your business or generate income”. Not really our goal but time being limited, the user manual is welcome.

“The Romantic Mythology of the Demiurge Writer”

Many others before us have consulted it. A glance at online commerce is enough to measure the extent of the phenomenon. There are many who, like Eiichiro Oda, have delegated their pen to the machine. As of June 6, 2023, Amazon already sells 719 Kindle e-books mentioning ChatGPT as the author. Of course, you have to sort it out, but it is clear that conversational robots do not only attract hacks.

Example with Ross Goodwin, an American. In 2018, he signed a 150-page story produced by an AI on board a Cadillac, during a road trip from New York to New Orleans: 1 The Road (1), in homage to Jack Kerouac. “It was seven minutes before ten o’clock in the morning and that was the only good thing that had happened” : the text begins rather well. “It’s a Nobel Prize”, proudly assures us of its publisher, David Desrimais. A little exaggerated, as the sequel is sorely lacking in action, but its arguments hit the mark. “If an author can use the tools at his disposal with genius to create a moving work, why would he deprive himself of it? There are always tools behind a text. »

The computer, it is true, has already modified writing in depth, by offering the possibility of erasing, of intercalating, of accelerating. Another expert, Pascal Mougin, professor of contemporary literature at the University of Versailles, drives the point home. “We have to get out of this aporia between a 100% human literature and another 100% artificial, he explains. In France, we are steeped in the romantic mythology of the demiurge writer who produces his work as the accomplished expression of his singularity.. However, even the most romantic of authors “done with”. »

“Sophie wandered the moor, her straw hat in her hand”

Determined now to “do with” ChatGPT, we start. For our first request, we opt for a respectful tone – we are brought to rub shoulders with each other –, but direct – we had read that it needed a little authority to frame it. ” Good morning. Can you write me a novel set in the 19th century^e century in the north of France? »

For those who don’t see how ChatGPT works, you enter your request in a search bar and the answer takes place immediately, line after line. Before our eyes, the first sentence is displayed: “Sophie walked across the moor, her straw hat in her hand, gazing at the green hills that stretched out before her. »

In forty seconds, ChatGPT delivers almost three chapters of this ilk. He even imagined a title, The Old Housethen quit after about 500 words – he can’t write more than 1,000 in one swipe. « Continue »we then asked him.

He continues with Sophie, whom he seems to have chosen as his heroine. Attracted by “an old abandoned house” during her walk, she goes there and meets a friendly “Mister Durand” who invites him to visit. So, something worries him. Inaccessible rooms, discomfort of its host…

Lots of repetitions, agreed expressions

It’s amazing: ChatGPT has imagined a node, a plot. On the other hand, he did not fully understand our request: the house dates from the 19th^e century without the story taking place at that time. Moreover, when we then want to obtain details about Sophie, he explains to us that she led “a career as a freelance journalist”. Not very XIX^e… Also, his style is very poor. Lots of repetition, conventional expressions – Sophie likes “the peace and tranquility of the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle of the city”…

A weakness analyzed by the researcher in literary theory Alexandre Gefen (2). “AI is trained in stylistic normativity, he explains. It can therefore be very useful for a dialogue between a postman and an angry user, for example. To get him out of it, you have to submit hazards to him or ask him to imitate an author. We can therefore wonder about its ability to do something new. »

We too are wondering… How much will we have to intervene to give birth to a publishable text? But we must also recognize the progress of the work. A beginning of character and story: in less than ten minutes, ChatGPT provided us with this first material sometimes so difficult to find. All that’s missing is the canvas. We order a plan in 15 chapters, immediately produced. Enough to submit the project to a publisher, as Raphaël Doan had undoubtedly done for his book If Rome had not fallen (3).

Copyright

Playing cards on the table, the cover of this book presented him as “the first history book written and illustrated with an artificial intelligence”. Its publisher, Arthur Chevallier, did not hesitate. “It was not about lying”he assures us. And for good reason, including the name of ChatGPT on the cover could even be a selling point.

What about the contract? Did the author, at the very least, assisted by the machine, have to revise his claims downwards? The question did not arise, sweeps Arthur Chevallier, just like the editor of 1 The Road. “The whole edifice of the book rests on its author, recalls David Desrimais. So we signed the most classic contract in the world. » In other words, there is no question of reviewing the rights downwards on the pretext of AI.

Back in front of the screen, with Sophie and her mysterious abandoned house. The plot has potential, but we absolutely need to flesh it out. We therefore ask ChatGPT to deepen the first chapter, while reminding him of the main lines. Since it has a memory capacity limited to the previous 4,000 words, you always have to refresh your memories. Otherwise, it can derail.

In the long run, it’s a colossal job, which reminded us of the testimony of Raphaël Doan. “You have to find the right way to ‘talk’ to the AI, give it models, sentence starters, write commands with enough informationhe notes. Her answers can vary enormously and even change depending on whether you are familiar with her or you. »

The task turns into a nightmare. For the tiniest detail, we have to ask multiple questions to ChatGPT so that it does not deviate from the frame. We then found ourselves with an endless series of sketches without knowing which ones to keep. They follow one another in an endless scroll on the screen. We decide to classify them in the computer in order to build a coherent thread, a job of which ChatGPT proves incapable.

“If we are looking for inventive literature, AI can do nothing”

There is also the style. “It needs to be reworked a bit and the language tics corrected for a more pleasant reading”, explains Raphaël Doan. A colossal work to track down repetitions, deconstruct sentences, introduce breaks. Pascal Mougin, the literature professor, warned us: “If it’s about creating a narrative that conforms to expectations, Harlequin type, where the only variables are proper names and colors, we can do it with AI. But if one is looking for an inventive literature, it can do nothing. »

Not sure under these conditions that ChatGPT saves time. Even less that he comes to dispute with the author the paternity of the work, in view of the hours that must be spent correcting the first versions of the robot which hits the headlines.

“For now, you can’t write a novel with a tool like ChatGPT, you can only get help,” supports Alexandre Gefen. As for the commercial argument consisting in putting forward this innovation in writing, it would be short-lived, according to several press officers of publishing houses. Is AI not going to quickly become “as familiar as a typewriter” ? And who will be going to the shows? Will sign the autographs? No one except the author.