Pushkin Industries and Stephen Marche Team Up for Groundbreaking AI-Crafted Meta-Mystery

As sophisticated machines like OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 continue to spark media attention and public debate, one thing is definitive; we can’t put the AI genie back in the bottle. Now, the creative community finds itself at a new frontier—the groundbreaking synthesis between man and machine.

Journalist Stephen Marche, who has been immersed in the world of artificial intelligence since 2017, is a staunch believer in the benefits of AI as a tool for creative expression. Could he merge his deep knowledge of literature and the writing process with his access to three cutting-edge AI-writing platforms, some of which are not publicly available, to create a truly rich and rewarding listening experience? DEATH OF AN AUTHOR (on sale May 9, 2023, Pushkin Industries) is the result of his taking up the challenge, a gripping mystery that is 95% written by AI, aka “Aidan Marchine,” and 5% by Marche, who skillfully crafted the story outline and machine prompts. DEATH OF AN AUTHOR is a work of fiction that uncovers the dazzling possibilities of natural language processing in all of its eerie mystique.

DEATH OF AN AUTHOR, Marchine’s debut novella, follows Gus Dupin, literary critic and scholar, who has just been invited to the funeral of celebrated author—and now murder victim—Peggy Firmin. Determined to find out who killed her and why, it is not long before Dupin finds himself at the center of an experiment at Marlow AI, a large language model company. As he attempts to unravel the mystery of Firmin’s death, he comes closer and closer to becoming the next victim. DEATH OF AN AUTHOR raises one of today’s most pressing questions: what is the true relationship between human and machine? 

“The world has become deeply afraid of artificial intelligence,” Marche says. “I hope that Death of an Author can show that AI also has the potential to be a powerful tool for the creation of unprecedented and beautiful art. Death of an Author is an act of hope, an act of hope in the promise of human-technology interaction.”

In the afterword, Marche illuminates his AI-driven creative process and makes the strong case that the synthesis of art and technology should be embraced. As the debate around AI’s potential harm to creators swirls, Pushkin is boldly and playfully embracing new technology. 

Masterfully read by industry veteran Edoardo Ballerini, the award-winning audiobook narrator of titles including Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle and Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway, DEATH OF AN AUTHOR is the next genre-defying audiobook from Pushkin, whose other notable audiobooks include Miracle and Wonder by Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam and Inside Voice by Lake Bell.