NEW YORK - Fred Zimmerman has spent the bulk of his career at the intersection of publishing and emerging technology - including stints at LexisNexis and Cengage, as well as consulting work for the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the US intelligence community, not to mention his algorithmic publishing startup PageKicker (2012-2017).

In January 2021 he published what may have been the first book written with OpenAI, and then a further 24 AI-enhanced public domain books in an ‘AI Lab for Book-Lovers’ series via his company Nimble Books. He maintains an annotated bibliography of scientific and technical research on book publishing at Bibliography (nimblebooks.com). Behind the scenes, he experiments with book-focused autonomous agents using llama-agi and AutoGPT. He now reveals his thoughts on recent developments in chatbot-generated content and relates how he personally uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology in this no-holds-barred exclusive interview with The Yuan.

The Yuan: How do you use AI with for publishing? What ethical concerns do you have about other people who might be using AI to publish books to write and publish books?

Fred: I have a stage-tiered list of things to say about that. First, anyone whose ethical concerns are only about what other people is doing it wrong.

The Yuan: Thank you for catching that! That's right.

Fred: Most people spend too