Andy Stanton, author of the hilarious Mr Gum children’s series, will be at Towersey Festival on Sunday 25th August for an event based on his latest adult non-fiction book, Benny the Blue Whale: A Descent into Story, Language and the Madness of ChatGPT.

Find out more about the event, entitled ‘Benny The Blue Whale: how Chat GPT Broke my Brain – Book Talk’, here.

Join bestselling children’s author Andy Stanton, creator of Mr Gum, as he returns from his longest and strangest voyage yet. With his penchant for absurdist plots, larger-than-life characters and outrageous wordplay, Andy’s writing is anything but formulaic. So, when a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, he is as sceptical as he is curious, engineering a prompt that will push the algorithm to its creative limits: tell me a story about a blue whale with a tiny penis.

What follows is a chaotic, surprising and illuminating battle between Andy and the AI that – just maybe – might help us all understand the future a little bit better. Part shaggy whale story, part lit crit, part creative writing guide, part nervous breakdown, this is tech reportage at the cutting edge of madness.

Benny the Blue Whale: A Descent Into Story, Language and the Madness of ChatGPT is out now. Grab your copy here or, better, via your local bookshop or Bookshop.org.

You can also listen to the audiobook, narrated by the hilarious duo Andy Stanton (Andy Stanton) and Nish Kumar (ChatGPT). Buy yours here now.

Follow him @AndyStanton15.