ChatGPT: Arizona author harnesses AI power to write books

Arizona author is harnessing the power of ChatGPT to write books

Robert Solano, so far, has written three books, but for two of those books, he had some high-tech help in the form of artificial intelligence, even as society continues to debate the benefits and risks of AI. FOX 10's Lindsey Ragas reports.

ChatGPT has caught fire in the tech world, with the artificial intelligence being able to compete with human-level intelligence.

However, big name technology leaders have signed an open letter that calls for a six-month pause on AI development.

The letter, which was issued by the Future of Life Institute and signed by more than 1,000 people, including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, asks AI developers to "immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4."

"AI systems may be trained with certain goals, and then those goals will be pursued at all costs," said Mark Brakel, Director of Police for the Future of Life Institute.

While some tech leaders say AI could present a risk to society, an Arizona man is taking advantage of this technology to help his career.

Robert Solano has written three children's book. Of the three, two were written using AI.

"It allowed me to take this idea I had about the story I wanted to tell, and very rapidly and cheaply put it into a book," said Solano.

Solano said one book took him two weeks to write, and the other only took him eight hours.

"I asked ChatGPT to write an outline for a book that's about robotics and technology," said Solano.

Solano also used an AI program called Midjourney for the illustrations.

"Midjourney allows you to enter a prompt for what you like an image to be," said Solano. "So, you can ask Midjourney to create an image of a girl playing in the park."

Prompts and images come up almost instantly, and after making edits, Solano had a final product within days, or even hours.

"This technology is going to allow many marginalized communities that may not have access to hire an expensive editor or expensive illustrator," said Solano.