AI Says My Wife Is Dead

AI says my wife is dead.

She disagrees.

It all started with a reader. He'd finished my new novel, There Is No Map for This, liked it, and wanted to share his review online. He booted up Microsoft Word to get started composing his thoughts, but the AI component of Word, Copilot, asked is he would like it to create a draft for him. He thought, sure, why not. In seconds AI scanned the internet for information about There Is No Map for This, synthesized it, organized it, and presented its findings in paragraph form.

AI wrote a review.

The reader agreed with AI's perspective for the most part. It was kinda close to what he was going to say anyway. And, truth be told, some parts were more eloquent than he would have come up with.

Cool.

The next day, on a whim, the reader tried again to see what AI would say the second time. To his surprise, AI wrote about Tom Birdseye's book There Is No Map for This: "an evocative and deeply moving memoir."

Wait, what? A memoir? The book is not a memoir, it's a —

"Birdseye, known for his engaging storytelling, turns inward to reflect on his own life after the passing of his wife."

The passing of his wife?! She's dead? Really?

A couple of quick clicks answered that question — no, she is not dead.

Increasingly skeptical of the level of "intelligence" he was being offered, the reader turned the AI component of Word off and wrote a nice review in his own words, ending with "I highly recommend this book."

All of which leaves me — Tom Birdseye, the admittedly flawed but 100% human author of There Is No Map for This (I wrote every damn word . . . multiple times) — wondering if AI should me renamed ASMI — Artificial Sometimes Misguided Intelligence.

To which my wife — who is, thankfully, very much alive — agrees.