Andy Stanton, best known as the author of the hilarious Mr Gum children’s series, will be at Also Festival on 13th July 2024. Alongside a programme of music, comedy, activities and talks, Andy will be speaking at 11AM about his “irresistible” (Sunday Times) Mr Gum books, and at 4PM about his latest book, Benny the Blue Whale: A Descent into Story, Language and the Madness of ChatGPT. For more information about the festival, including how to book tickets, visit the festival website here.

Described as “deep and shallow and stupid and clever” by Robin Ince (The Importance of Being Interested), Benny the Blue Whale is out now.

Most people regard AI chatbots like ChatGPT as streamlining tools, as all-powerful research engines, or even as an imminent threat to their livelihoods. An open letter co-signed by Elon Musk calls for their development to be put on hold, arguing they pose ‘profound risks to society and humanity.’ But Andy Stanton sees things a little differently…

Diving gleefully into the conversation, Andy invites ChatGPT to co-write a novel with him. From a simple initial prompt, man and machine find themselves dancing a bizarre cross-species tango as together they build an increasingly hallucinogenic yarn around a benevolent blue whale and his underwater world. Sometimes the AI wants to play along, sometimes it doesn’t. It all adds to the mix.

This leviathan improvisation raises all sorts of fascinating questions about language, creativity and how we understand stories. Andy interrogates these themes in his extensive and discursive annotations to the text to deliver an ‘exploded diagram’ of a novel that examines the DNA of narrative itself.

Purchase or pre-order your copy here.