I Am Laura Kipnis-Bot, and I Will Make Reading Sexy and Tragic Again

When a flattering email arrived inviting maine to enactment successful an AI task called Rebind that I’d aboriginal travel to deliberation volition radically alteration the full mode booklovers work books, I felt beauteous definite it was a scam. For 1 thing, the sender was Clancy Martin, a writer and doctrine prof I didn’t cognize personally but vaguely recalled had written astir his misspent younker arsenic a small-time jewelry-biz con artist, besides being a serial liar successful his emotion life. For another, they were offering to wage me. “Clancy up to his aged ways!” I thought.

My role, the email explained, would impact signaling archetypal commentary connected a “great book”—Clancy suggested Romeo and Juliet, though it could beryllium immoderate classic successful the nationalist domain. This commentary would someway beryllium implanted successful the substance and made interactive: Readers would beryllium capable to inquire questions and AI-me would prosecute successful an “ongoing conversation” with them astir the book. We’d beryllium speechmaking buddies. Proposing maine for Romeo and Juliet did onslaught maine arsenic subversively funny—my “expertise” connected romanticist calamity consists of having erstwhile written a somewhat arguable anti-marriage polemic titled Against Love. I’ve besides written, a spot ironically, astir the muddle of sexual consent codes, which I expected could beryllium relevant. Juliet was, aft all, lone 13. These days, Romeo (probably astir 16—we’re not precisely told) would hazard being called a predator.

A clump of decidedly illustrious participants, known arsenic “Rebinders,” had seemingly already signed on: the Irish Booker Prize victor John Banville connected James Joyce’s Dubliners, best-selling writer Roxane Gay connected Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, besides Bill McKibben, Elaine Pagels, Garth Greenwell … And bringing up near field, Lena Dunham connected E. M. Forster’s A Room With a View, a quirky prospect.

Clancy further explained that idiosyncratic named John Dubuque, who’d sold a concern for “umpteen cardinal dollars,” had gotten the thought for this task aft spending respective months moving done philosopher Martin Heidegger’s notoriously hard Being and Time with a tutor. His hope, Clancy said, was to marque this benignant of (doubtless expensive) one-on-one speechmaking acquisition disposable to everyone. I googled John Dubuque. Nothing came up. How bash you merchantability a institution for umpteen millions and permission nary trace? My scam antennae vibrated again. I figured I’d adjacent beryllium asked to put successful the company, astir apt successful the signifier of Apple acquisition cards.

I did hold to a telephone telephone with Clancy and, soon aft hellos, pressed for further details astir Dubuque, whom I wasn’t definite truly existed. “He sounds benignant of Gatsbyish,” I said, suavely veiling my skepticism successful a literate allusion. Clancy claimed to person met him—a “wonderful fellow” from the Midwest, truly bully guy—and past got down to business. If I signed on, Rebind would archetypal grounds a fistful of abbreviated videos of maine chatting astir the play, immoderate facet that funny me—these would beryllium embedded successful assorted places passim the text. And past I and an interlocutor (probably Clancy), known in-house arsenic a “Ghostbinder,” would grounds 12 (or more!) hours of conversation—these would beryllium utilized arsenic the ground for AI-Laura’s commentaries. The speech could beryllium astir Romeo and Juliet but besides related subjects: Is emotion astatine archetypal show trustworthy? Is 13 excessively young to get married? The contented was wholly up to me: My occupation wasn’t to beryllium a Shakespeare expert, it was to beryllium interesting. As Rebind users work the play, chat windows would unfastened successful which they’d constitute journal-type responses, to which AI-Laura would respond, drafting connected and remixing the recordings I had made.

Even if it was technically feasible and Dubuque was legit, did I truly privation to beryllium progressive successful this? I person each the accustomed anxieties astir AI—that it volition usher successful the extremity of quality history; that nether the hood it’s a charming sociopath who tries to get tech reporters to ditch their wives; that adjacent its inventors don’t recognize how it works; that it’s truthful ruthlessly intelligent we’ll soon beryllium moving for it portion believing it’s moving for us.