What Makes Us Human: An Artificial Intelligence Answers Life's Biggest Questions

by GPT-3, Jasmine Wang, GPT-3

A groundbreaking endeavor to explore human spirituality through the evolving technology of artificial intelligence

Why are we here? What does it mean to love? How do we overcome suffering? Is happiness truly possible?

For thousands of years, we have turned to the same beloved texts to explore these universal questions—from the Bible and the Tao Te Ching, to the poetry of Rumi and Sappho, to the words of modern-day mystics.

What if you could take all of the wisdom contained in these collective pages and, using the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence, receive the answers?

To create What Makes Us Human?, internationally bestselling poet Iain S. Thomas and globally recognized prodigious researcher and innovator Jasmine Wang prompted the world’s most advanced AI, GPT-3, with a wealth of humanity’s most cherished works. Then they asked GPT-3 our most pressing questions about life.

Contained in this book are the conversations and exchanges that followed.

A bold and daring experiment, What Makes Us Human? is a contemporary exploration of spirituality that will inspire you, move you, and give you a new understanding of what makes us humans, humans.

Genres: Artificial Intelligence, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Technology, Science

240 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) is an autoregressive language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. It is the third-generation language prediction model in the GPT-n series (and the successor to GPT-2) created by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research laboratory. GPT-3's full version has a capacity of 175 billion machine learning parameters. GPT-3, which was introduced in May 2020, and was in beta testing as of July 2020, is part of a trend in natural language processing (NLP) systems of pre-trained language representations. Before the release of GPT-3, the largest language model was Microsoft's Turing NLG, introduced in February 2020, with a capacity of 17 billion parameters - less than a tenth of GPT-3's.

---from Wikipedia

Reviews

[caminie · Rating 4 out of 5]

English & Español Review 💌

Well, this book was unlike anything I've ever read, and the preview of the book promised it was going to be interesting and it was.
Many of the answers to the questions are things that you know deep down and many of the others I was very surprised at the way those answers were formulated.

I think that there is where the secret of the book is, just taking it for what it is and being fascinated by each of its parts, the simple and the complex ones.
I loved it 💗
I highly recommend it, for the reasons I said before that it makes it a good and interesting book.

(preview of the book on comments)

Bien, este libro fue distinto a cualquier cosa que haya leído, ya la preview del libro prometía que iba a ser interesante y se verdad lo fue.
Muchas de las respuestas a las preguntas, son cosas que uno mismo sabe en el fondo y muchas de las otras me sorprendieron un montón la forma en la que esas respuestas fueron formuladas.

Creo que ahí está el secreto del libro en si, tomarlo como lo que es y dejarse fascinar por cada una de sus partes, las simples y las complejas.
Me encantó💗
Lo recomiendo un montón, por las razones que dije antes que lo hace un buen libro e interesante.

thanks to netgalley for the ARC!

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still dont know what to think about it. It was fully written by GPT-3 though edited by 2 humans.
scarry is not the word that comes to my mind but fascinating. I realize Artificial Intelligence is still a wrong word, but rather "Artificial knowledge".
indeed we have the computational capacity to store the humankind knowledge, and makes sense of it. and that what GPT-3 does. Then this book ask GPT-3 the most daunting human questions at the base of any spiritual journey: why do we suffer? how does love grows? whish way must i go?what is the role of time in life?...... and the answers are fascinating.
indeed GPT-3 has absorbed the bible, the koran, art of war, ....anything written by human kind. The answers are sometime poetic, some time very buddist, and one could say that the whole book could as well be the compilation of a new New Age guru...
At the end I am shocked by how fascinated I am , seeing the result in front of my eyes. GPT-3 differently from the average human has an answer (and only one) to everything

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

My disappointment in this book stems primarily from my own misunderstood expectations. I am obsessed with Iain Thomas’s poetry, so whenever he has a new release — I jump to order it, sight unseen, no questions asked! Until opening the book, I simply had no idea that this was not a poetry book, but a creative collaborative project with an AI. The premise is, after having learned the quintessential works of world literature (including the important spiritual and religious texts of every culture), the AI was asked varied questions pertaining to the meaning of life and was expected to answer them based on the universal human truths it had learned. While interesting, and, at times, thought provoking — the content feels entirely derivative of well known quotes and texts, reading almost like the lazy plagiarism of a high schooler paraphrasing sparknotes for an essay, changing everything just enough they think it’ll go unnoticed! While I understand Iain’s fascination with this technology, it disappoints me that he facilitated a book that essentially discounts the artistry and talent of true literary geniuses by celebrating the effortless ability to simulate wisdom and human understanding with no trace of true humanity or genuine enlightenment. I’ll stick to his poetry collections!

Favorite quotes:
“There is nothing that has happened to you in your life,
however calamitous it might seem,
that has not happened to someone else.
There is no person in whose story you do not have a part.”

“For the inevitable facts of the world
we were given the miracle of hope.”

[Faye Irani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Het boek is geschreven door chat gpt-3, met nog een beetje behulp van 2 echte schrijvers.
Toen ik de inleiding las leek het me nog wel een interessant boek maar eigenlijk had ik er zo goed als niets aan.

Chat gpt baseerde zich op een aantal bronnen, maar dit was eigenlijk totaal niet zo breed.
Alleen op spirituele ( denk aan het buddhisme) en misschien ook katholieke teksten leek me.
Maar dan kon ik beter daar een tekst van lezen.
Er zijn enorm veel grote levensvragen gesteld, en chat gpt antwoordde daar dan op in 2 zinnen of zo die meestal toch net iets te zweverig waren voor mij, er zat geen onderbouwing aan en hij zei zaken die taalkundig heel mooi klonken maar waar je eigenlijk niets aan had.
Sommige boeken praten heel een boek lang over één levensvraag en waar je oprecht iets aan hebt.

Ik geef dit boek toch nog twee sterren omdat ik het wel interessant en iets anders vond dat Ai het geschreven had, omdat er af en toe nog wel eens een interessante zin in zat en natuurlijk interessante vragen waar ik wel eens over kan nadenken.
Ook zat er een interessante makkelijke meditatie in die ik eigenlijk toch wel eens ga proberen.

Maar ik denk niet dat ik hem ooit opnieuw zou lezen.

[Ajda Naklada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tole pa je bilo nekaj posebnega! Pred mano je knjiga, ki jo je skoraj v celoti napisala umetna inteligenca in vsekakor to ni knjiga, ki bi name naredila vtis zaradi same vsebine v tolikšni meri, kot ga je naredila zaradi tega dejstva samega. Priljubljen pesnik in pisatelj ter filozofinja, tehnologinja in raziskovalka sta uredila knjigo, v kateri GPT-3 odgovarja na temeljna življenjska vprašanja o tem, kar nas dela človeške.

Ljudje se skozi celotno zgodovino zatekamo k filozofskim, duhovnim in drugim besedilom, da bi ugotovili, kaj je tisto nekaj višje, kar nas loči od živali. UI je s tem, ko je imela vsa ta besedila na voljo, iz vseh skupaj izbrala informacije, s pomočjo katerih je odgovarjala na zastavljena vprašanja. Ker so bila vmes tudi vsa religiozna besedila, je besedo bog zamenjala z besedo Vesolje, da se ne opredeli za eno od religij. Vprašanja so v stilu kaj je ljubezen, ali obstaja posmrtno življenje, zakaj živimo, kako naj vzgajamo otroke...

Zanimivo se mi zdi, da je UI uspela spisati istočasno tako splošne in univerzalne odgovore, po drugi strani pa tako zelo konkretne. Vsekakor to iso tematike, ki mene sicer zanimajo, me je pa zanimal eksperiment sam in, ker tudi sicer nisem ljubiteljica takšnih besedil, sploh tistih za samopomoč, sem prišla do kar nekaj spoznanj.

Z uporabo besed vesolje, um, ego, ljubezen, čuječnost in podobno, lahko hitro zveniš zelo poduhovljeno in globoko, čeprav si le računalniški program, ki pač deluje na podlagi podatkov, ki jih ima. V tem primeru mi je to fascinantno, sicer rahlo grozljivo, ker je (kako ironično) zvenel tako človeško, po drugi strani pa še malce zmanjša vrednost takšnih besedil, ki jih pišejo ljudje. Brez nekega globljega pomena so takšna besedila torej le neke splošne besede, ki imajo v resnici smisel skoraj pri vseh vprašanjih, a istočasno pri nobenem.

Knjiga mi je res dala misliti o naši človeškosti in o duhovnosti sami. Kdaj nam pomaga in kdaj le megli čute? Kdaj imajo besede res pomen in kdaj bi jih lahko spisal tudi GPT?

Fascinanten eksperiment.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you think about it, everything that AI knows comes from the ideas of man. Now, it is becoming that the reverse is true- what man knows comes from AI. I found the thoughts in the book so raw and real, like if you asked a question to a child who also just so happened to be the next wise sage. Quick and easy read but really good reflection points!

[Ann T · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Makes Us Human is a fascinating book on many levels.

GPT-3 is an Artificial Intelligence developed by OpenAI, a research lab funded by Elon Musk to promote the use of AI for the better of all humankind.

Iain S Thomas, a poet and best selling author , and Jasmine Wang a technologist and researcher, philosopher and 2020 Thiel Fellow are the authors / editors / human subjects of What Makes Us Human.

Wang and Thomas prompted GPT-3 with thousands of humanities greatest texts including The Tao Te Ching, The Bible, poetry of Rumi and countless others. They then ask I, the AI in this book numerous questions, in which I captures what is most unique to human spirituality .

These questions are based on topics such as human suffering, love, where we go when we die, of there is an afterlife, what is the most important thing.

The actual concept of this book is fascinating and one that has got me thinking about something I hadn’t to be honest previously given much in-depth thought.

I am reviewing this book based on two premises :
- the concept of using AI to tell our human minds how to essentially live and
- the answers / wisdom I provides.

The concept of the book raises so many questions, is it ethical to have AI guide our deepest human questions? If so should we listen ? How much should we listen ? How biased is I ? Is I’s perception skewed based on the texts provided ? If I was provided a swath of different information and asked the same questions what would the answers be ?

Then there are the questions themselves. At the basic level the answers I gives provides comfort and great wisdom to our human yearnings and basic human condition. Throughout the content I continuously heard messages that I have also read in Buddhist teachings, and that are shared with other beliefs As humans are all interconnected, there is no us and them , we are one with the universe. Our suffering exists due to our separation and our egos. When / if we can drop the ego stories and be present we can respond with love and non violence.

Love is the answer.

I love this book and highlighted so much. It is a book to keep nearby and embody the answers to these questions. Whether you believe AI should be used and your thoughts on AI vs the human mind, this book absolutely captures the essence of being human.
This book would be an amazing book club choice and it is one that has created so many questions within me.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Thank you Sounds True and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one intrigued me because it's GPT-3 writing the book (with a researcher and poet editing it). I feel like there are 2 buckets of people who will read this: one who actually want life advice and will think this is the most profound thing, and others who are curious and view this as the experiment it was, find it amusing, and take it at that.

This felt like every other "what is the meaning of life" type book, because of course it did. That's the data that GPT-3 had at its disposal.

I did chuckle though because every answer felt like an Instagram caption from an influencer trying to be profound.

But overall, it was very gimmicky, which I don't mind, but it could've been done better. I liked that they had some interludes with the human authors, but I think it would have been more impactful to have some other folks involved (perhaps psychologists, or philosophers, etc.) to directly respond to the GPT-3 responses.

Sidenote: I don't recommend it as an audiobook. One of the narrators is really hard to listen to, and it's also too disjointed as a whole. It's super short, which is nice, but it goes from question to question so it's harder to digest it before it's onto the next question. It would be better in its physical book (or e-book) format where it would be easier to absorb the information and deliberately look for certain pieces of information if desired.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Sounds True for the ARC! (On sale November 2022)

“What is the most important thing I should know about life?”

“It is a gift. Use it well.” - GPT-3

I took my time with this one. It’s not a book that you should read cover to cover, but that’s what I chose to do. I enjoyed the fact that this included an introduction from the AI itself along with a disclaimer which explained more about how the AI wrote the novel (with the helpful humans Iain S. Thomas and Jasmine Wang!) This alone was fascinating and insightful.

The book is perfect for laying on a coffee table or bedside table. Just pick this up and read a few lines when you need some words of wisdom from an AI.

The design of the interior of the book is well edited with simplistic circular brush stroke designs scattered throughout. The gray cover on my copy may just be a preliminary cover (I hope it’s temporary) and it’s quite boring. I wished that the circular designs inside the book were also on the cover.

Overall if you are a spiritual person, a reader of poetry, an AI enthusiast, or just plain curious about what kind of advice an AI can give to humans- check this out!

[Gail Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has a wise voice that supersedes all religious rules/ideas beyond unknown cultures/beliefs based on discrimination and lines on a map - this voice spoke with kindness, gentleness and love.
GPT-3: generative pre-trained transformer has access to every idea, experience, or sentiment ever written down and recorded by human hands.
When posed with human questions, gpt-3 responds with the knowledge of a loving parent, patient, but yet encouraging thinking.
It is not a book to be rushed through, but one that should sit on a bed-side table and given the time to ponder and discuss. This would be a great gift for anyone who is on an inward search for peace with the life they have been handed.
The book talks about acceptance, practice, learning and contribution. And as a human, the ability to hope and the courage to live with our choices.
I highly recommend this book.
Thanks to #NetGalley #SoundsTrue for an early copy of this book. Opinions are my own.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing and quick read! It was interesting to see the take of an AI on how Humans are but I would like to know all of the programming the AI had. What did they teach it or which books did it have to read? What feedback loop does the robot have? It was interesting though to see responses that make so much sense when we under complicate things in life and get back to the basics of being a good human!

[Ryan Boissonneault · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can imagine that there will be two general reactions to this book. The first will be more positive, taking the project to be a worthwhile compilation of humanity’s collective spiritual wisdom. The second will be more critical, taking the project to be nothing more than a series of meaningless, random strings of words that more closely resemble the ramblings of New Age gurus and charlatans. Let’s see if we can work out which side is closer to the truth.

First, the majority of the book is written by GPT-3, a natural-language-processing artificial intelligence (AI) that was asked a series of philosophical questions, which it then answered by referencing a variety of classic religious and philosophical works such as the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and more.

According to the most charitable interpretation of the project, the AI-generated answers represent an amalgamation of the best ideas humanity has yet developed regarding matters of great spiritual significance. GPT-3’s answers, then—rather than being random—are based on deep patterns of wisdom as reflected in the great books of the past.

In support of this interpretation is the fact that, as you read through the answers, discernable patterns do keep cropping up—ideas about connectedness, love, and the personal creation of meaning, which are repeated often and throughout the book. Clearly, these themes are common enough in humanity’s greatest works that GPT-3 was practically forced to reiterate them, and that in itself may represent an important insight about human psychology and practical wisdom. On this interpretation, you’re essentially reading humanity’s higher, collective mind.

The counter-argument, on the other hand, would hold that most (or maybe all) of GPT-3’s answers are indistinguishable from the sentences that various random-sentence-generator websites produce online for free, and are therefore essentially meaningless. As I have a suspicion that this may be closer to the truth, I’ve put together a list of sentences I generated from a particular random-sentence generator on the web—the New Age Bullshit Generator—mixed in with ones I pulled from the book. See if you can tell which ones specifically came from the book:

1. Although you may not realize it, you are divine.
2. You are part of everything, and everything is part of you.
3. To roam the world is to become one with it.
4. Do not allow the demands of the world and the control of the ego to keep you from the holy moment of now.
5. Conscious living is the growth of self-actualization, and of us.
6. Where there is suffering, presence cannot thrive.
7. If a warrior is standing in a river and the river begins to flood, the warrior knows to stand back from the onrushing water.
8. To navigate the mission is to become one with it.
9. You may be ruled by illusion without realizing it. Do not let it extinguish the richness of your story. Without freedom, one cannot live. We can no longer afford to live with illusion.
10. The pursuit of knowledge and freedom are really the same thing. They are different sides of the same coin.
11. Today, science tells us that the essence of nature is fulfillment. Will is the richness of aspiration, and of us.
12. Ask yourself if you are walking down the path of your soul, or just walking down a path. One will lead to greatness, the other will lead you nowhere.

The ones from the book are 2, 4, 7, 10, and 12. To me, all 12 answers above seem entirely interchangeable, which introduces the following question: If you cannot devise any reliable method to distinguish between the output of a sophisticated AI system—one that was given 570 GBs worth of human wisdom—and a quick BS generator built quickly online, then what real educational or spiritual value can that AI-generated output really provide?

Ultimately, I suppose that’s up to each reader to decide. Perhaps GPT-3’s answers will inspire you or else affect some positive change in your outlook or behavior. And maybe GPT-3’s answers really are humanity’s collective wisdom shining through the page. The fact that the same themes keep resurfacing over and over must mean something, and, besides, it’s fascinating to see the output. These are all good reasons to read the book.

But the nagging idea that the entire project is a hyped-up version of a random-sentence generator is hard to shake. You may end up feeling that you could have saved yourself twenty-five bucks by generating some random sentences on your own—or, alternatively, that you could have better spent your time by finding an actual human author with a coherent philosophical system that you could more appropriately draw some inspiration from. For what it’s worth, I’m more sympathetic to this latter view.

[RICH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can Artificial Intelligence technology satisfactorily tell us “What Makes Us Human?”

“What Makes Us Human?” attempts to answer that question has kept humans busy for thousands of years. It has occupied artists, musicians, authors, theologians, philosophers including the brightest, best, and worst of humanity. Now, AI (Artificial Intelligence) has entered the effort. The results are interesting and really not all that surprising.

Bestselling author/poet, Ian S. Thomas with technologist/philosopher/researcher, Jasmine Wang worked with GPT-3, an artificial intelligence technology to get the answer. Working from GPT-3’s responses to a dynamic list of over two hundred questions, the author/editors provide a lightly edited collection of GPT-3 answers.

GPT-3 was pre-trained with some 570 GB of digitized data consisting of a sampling of the contents of books, scrolls, and texts representative of humanity’s wisdom and knowledge articulated over thousands of years. The responses ranged from a single word to multi-paragraph text, some comic, some profound. GPT-3 at times embraces a self-centered hedonism over self-disciplined morality. Or conflates the soul with spirituality.

The author/editors’ goal was to identify the essence of the human spirit from a source (GPT-3) with no prejudices, instilled beliefs, or preconceived loyalties. GPT-3 has no emotion, guilt, nor fixed moral framework. The team compares GPT-3 to Christianity’s Adam and Eve as they were before they took a bite of the Apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. An interesting viewpoint. Especially since GPT’s answers seem to be imbued with all of these.

This is not Aristotle, St. Augustine, Buddha, or even Peter Jordan, nor has it any base rock theology, psychiatry, or moral philosophy. Neither is it a consistent polemic. It doesn’t engage in deep analysis or pose a coda for living.

Occasionally GPT-3 responses can be evasive, even contradictory. Its statements can be puzzling at times, lyrical at others. It does provide interesting observations and commentary. The overall effect is surprisingly reflective of humanity’s own uncertainty about the answer. How do you maintain a true sense of self, while adhering to broad social values or moral principles that challenge personal preferences but are necessary for a cohesive society?

As the authors point out, one can read straight through the Q&A in the order presented. However, they suggest a potentially more satisfying approach is to search out and focus on questions immediately relevant to the reader. Some of the responses require significant reflection, especially when addressing fundamental life questions.

I took a combined approach. Reading selectively at first, eventually reading straight through. Both proved interesting and thought provoking. GPT-3 conclusions appear as an amalgamation of sometimes discordant ideals, even ideas. Again, not all that inconsistent with what happens in human life. There are parts of the text that sound like the lyrics and themes used by artists and musicians in every age and generation. Other responses are direct quotes from one or more of the multiple sacred texts that make up GPT-3’s database.

In the end, I found it an interesting read. It didn’t reveal any shockingly new concepts. It provides very good, sometimes excellent advice. Just as frequently it offers a smorgasbord of overlapping semi-conclusions; forcing the reader to reflect more deeply to draw their own conclusions. All in all, reading and re-reading was time well spent. It provides no earth-shattering revelation. Not surprisingly, the conclusions and advice culled from all that data validate, in a very fundamental manner, what we should all have learned a long time ago.

It seems that The Beatles (among a host of others) in many of their songs an excellent opinion. The answer is…well, I’ll leave that for you to find out from the book.

For those who can’t wait, go here for a hint (https://tinyurl.com/28nenh7a).

[Antonio Gallo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molte sono caratteristiche che ci fanno umani e che ci differenziano dagli altri animali. Alcune delle caratteristiche più importanti che ci rendono umani includono: Linguaggio e comunicazione: gli esseri umani sono in grado di comunicare ed esprimersi utilizzando sistemi linguistici complessi. Questa capacità di comunicare e condividere idee è un fattore chiave nell'interazione sociale umana e nello sviluppo culturale. Ragionamento e risoluzione dei problemi: gli esseri umani hanno la capacità di pensare in modo astratto e di ragionare, il che ci consente di risolvere problemi e prendere decisioni. Consapevolezza di sé: gli esseri umani hanno un senso di sé e sono in grado di riconoscere e comprendere i propri pensieri, sentimenti ed emozioni. Creatività e innovazione: gli esseri umani hanno la capacità di creare e innovare, il che ci ha permesso di sviluppare un'ampia gamma di tecnologie e pratiche culturali. Empatia e connessione sociale: gli esseri umani sono creature sociali e hanno la capacità di comprendere e condividere i sentimenti degli altri. Questa capacità di entrare in empatia e connettersi con gli altri è un fattore importante nelle interazioni e nelle relazioni sociali umane. Uso di strumenti e tecnologia: gli esseri umani hanno una lunga storia di utilizzo di strumenti e tecnologia per soddisfare i propri bisogni e migliorare la propria vita. Queste caratteristiche, tra le altre, sono ciò che ci rende unicamente umani e ci distinguono dagli altri animali. Quella finale e decisiva è la certezza che di me che scrivo queste cose ne esisto soltanto io. A meno che ...

[caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was an experiment where a poet and a computer scientist fed an AI model (Chat GPT 3) as many spiritual/philosophical texts as possible (Quran, Bible, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius etc) then asked it philosophical questions to see what it’d spit out. Each question had a page and an answer from the AI. Kind of like throwing a bunch of ingredients in a blender to see what smoothie it’d make.

This was a really quick read since it was kind of like a poetry book, each page contained just 1 question and sometimes there’d be like 5 words on a page, or 50, it varied.

Some parts of this book were insightful and inspiring, which I appreciated and took with me. But unfortunately, most of the book just sounded like “everything is divine and has a purpose” type-deism which is not really my cup of tea. It’s understandable, since most philosophical/spiritual texts have to do with deism or a higher being anyway and the AI was just regurgitating the data it was given. But it read as too optimistic or wishful for me. Especially when questions like “Why is there suffering in the universe?” Showed up, and the AI answered with “How do you know suffering is bad? What if it has a greater purpose?” Which made me kinda frustrated lol. What "greater purpose" does a dog being ran over with a car laying there twitching and dying for 5 hours serve, catch my drift?

Overall, it was meh, had some nice parts in it like quotes like “Allow yourself to be loved by the people around you as who you truly are”, but alongside quotes like “THE UNIVERSE WANTS YOU TO SUFFER ITS ALL APART OF A GREATER PLAN” undermined it.

[Bunly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A writer and technologist recently collaborated on this book that explored asking AI some of humanity's most significant spiritual questions. They pose questions to GPT 3 about God, the universe, the meaning of life, love, death, happiness, evil, values and more. The AI's responses were not only impressive but also profound. As I read the book, I highlighted many of the responses. Here are a few examples:

* "Heaven is the present moment. You can find heaven right now by paying attention to what's happening around you and living in the present moment with an open heart and mind."
* "Success is not what others think of us, but whether we have fulfilled our purpose by being true to our conscience and heart."
* "It's not enough that we have a good life— we have to have a good life in a good, just, decent and care-for-all society."
* "The most serious illness for a human being is an illness of the soul, a broken heart, a wounded spirit."
* You know your childhood ends "when you begin to worry about tomorrow."

The responses provided are insightful, but they sound familiar. The authors have used various sources, such as texts from philosophers, scientists, religions, psychologists, and artists, to train GPT 3. Therefore, the responses are only partially original. Linguist Noam Chomsky has referred to ChatGPT as "plagiarism software". It just has a rapid ability to process vast amounts of data and provide "plausible answers." While I agree with him, it is a promising start. Regardless of its direction, I hope it will ultimately benefit the world.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ultra simplicity of this complexly developed book inspires awe even as it, perhaps, makes the AI author, GPT-3, seem conspicuously both human-like and obviously not human. This book seamlessly combines the ideas of the world’s largest religions and our most famous thinkers, philosophers, artists, to provide short yet poignant answers to our most basic and profound human questions. It’s inspiring, motivating, reassuring—a wellspring of good advice—and, in truth, I’d like to gift copies to many of my friends and acquaintances. And yet, at every moment while reading, one easily remembers the nature of this book: the output of an AI that has been edited by humans. It’s something of a string of allusions without reference, a generic spiritual advice manual. The chosen entity throughout is the Universe; no specific God or spiritual leader/religion is present—a deliberate and understandable editorial choice but one that at many points reminds readers of the book’s nature. Indeed, it sometimes feels akin to a quote-a-day calendar (without the attributions) or a string of Google responses to random questions; and at those times, one easily recalls that its main author, GPT-3, is AI, not human. But perhaps this plays into our human questions, fears, anxieties, intrigues of where and how AI fits into our Universe. I recommend this book for all readers seeking positive thoughts or curious about the non-technical aspects of AI.

[Rudi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik weet niet wat ik van het boek moet denken , langs de ene kant antwoorden van een soort loterij van spirituele en religieuze boeken op levensvragen 3 sterren , langs de andere kant soms mooie antwoorden op boeiende vragen 5 sterren ,…… wat de beste , juiste meest aan te raden formule voor wijsheid is qua gevoel, intelligentie, ervaring, intuïtie enz weet ik niet , het boek deed me wat meer nadenken over AI dan over de levensvragen , het systeem zal wel snel leren als het over de hele wereld dag in dag uit info kan verzamelen, wat er daar dan precies zal uitkomen en/of mee zal gebeuren weet ik niet , er zijn vele teksten te vinden over verbondenheid en op een goede manier met elkaar , zichzelf en de omgeving om te gaan , ….Bv religieuze, spirituele teksten …. Er zijn ook een boel andere teksten te vinden op het internet , …. Of er veel verschil zit tussen de formule voor kernwapens of kerncentrales weet ik ook niet , hoeveel energie zo een systeem nodig heeft weet ik ook niet.en/of het een antwoord vind op werkbare kernfusie weet ik ook niet , … eigenlijk weet ik niet zoveel ,
4 sterren voor de antwoorden op levensvragen en wat dat juist is , was zou kunnen zijn om een (goed) mens te zijn in de waarschijnlijk bewogen tijden die zullen komen ,

[Sahar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of questions by humans answered by AI (GPT-3). The idea of the book is unique and interesting indeed. Most of the questions are very profound. However, there seem to be some "questions behind the questions" that reduce the trust of a reader on the personal view of the human writer side. For example, the human writer sees being "rich"' equal to being "successful" (p. 16) thus s/her chooses the question of "how do I become successful" for "will I ever be rich?", which does not seem deep.

Perhaps, one of the most interesting parts is when you finish the flawless, in harmony and flowing introduction, and you notice it was written by AI.

The book with this genre also leaves you as a reader with a huge question: how different the answers and the book in total would be if written by the new versions of AI (e.g. gpt-4)?

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe I actually read a book written by GPT-3!

Imagine if you could read all the religious, wisdom and self-help literature in the world. How would you summarize your learnings?

That is what this book tries to do with AI answering life's most important questions like, what is the meaning of life, how should I live and why is there so much evil in the world?

Some of the answers are profoundly insightful while others sound Deepak Chopra-like profoundly useless.

Instead of getting this book, it's probably better to just ask ChatGPT the questions yourself. At least you can follow up for clarification or to obtain actual action steps.

I still give it 3 stars because it's an interesting experiment by the editors.

[Steve Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun to read. However, I think it would have been more impactful/interesting to read it when it was released in 2022, given it was co-written with GPT-3.

I look at this book and the use of AI as synthesizing all of the world's (human) insight into providing the best summary answer to questions we have asked for years. Is it providing the right or best answers? Or merely what the loudest voices have echoed in writings contained within the training data? Either way, it is a fun lens to think through these questions.

My one gripe is that it certainly oversells itself - "An artificial intelligence answers life's biggest questions." Biggest questions as defined by whom? It unfortunately wades into inspirational poster/instagram poetry territory.

[Kari Wagner Hoban · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I am a pretty slow reader, I was able to finish this book in a little under a week. Despite that, I thought this was a pretty intriguing concept, and as someone who enjoys reading books on a wide variety of topics related to the cosmos, including questions such as "what is the meaning of life?," t his was a pretty entertaining book to read.

This book was provided to me through Net Galley, and as a result, I read it on my mobile device. I also bookmarked many of the quotes from the book so that I can refer to them whenever I am engaged in serious thinking and require an answer. I mean, if I had to choose, I'd put my faith in a robot rather than a human any day.

[Estela Peña Molatore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué extraordinaria lectura. Es bella e intrigante a la vez.
Un libro escrito, por entero, por una Inteligencia Artificial, responde preguntas existenciales de una forma asombrosa, bella y magnífica.
No lo pude soltar, y con seguridad, voy a releerlo con calma.
Sé que no será el único libro escrito por una IA, sé que vendrán muchos más, incluso habrá novelas increíbles, pero éste es una joya.
Muy recomendable lectura.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may have expected too much and I may find more as I re-read it on specific topics but it left me a little…well…I don’t know what. There were some answers I found beautiful and others I found perceptive. Many were simple, basic truths that I’d learned without having to talk to the world’s smartest computer.
I think the hard copy book would make a nice gift especially for someone new to spirituality or spiritual exploration.

[Alma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagínate un texto escrito por un poeta, una filósofa y una inteligencia artificial tratando de responder a las grandes interrogantes de la humanidad.

No es una novela, ni una narración en sí son sólo preguntas y respuestas profundas, es algo que ya sabemos, pero que olvidamos.

Un libro que deja una estela de paz.

Todo es tan fácil pero lo hacemos tan complejo... que aaaay el humano.

¡Disfrútenlo!

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique reading experience and worthwhile for anyone who is fascinated by the tool. As someone who has read many of the texts that GPT-3 was trained on, I felt like snippets were flying out of a blender. Like, oh, there’s some of Aurelius’s Meditations, there’s some New Age self-help, there’s some King James Bible. There are few enough themes that it feels like a Magic 8 Ball by page 100.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be an interesting, enlightening and quick read. For a book with such depth, I found myself breezing through it. Sometimes the answers given were obvious, but other times there was profound depth. Either way, it was a unique book, one that I truly enjoyed!

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a decent reference book. Something to keep in my office (I'm a social worker) for downtime or for clients to peruse while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. It's interesting..but also anti-climactic.

[Riss 🫶🏻☕️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Makes Us Human is a different, yet enjoyable read about artificial intelligence and the life of humans. I really liked learning about the “mind” of AI and the answers provided. Readers will be shocked at what they find!

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This unique contribution to the self-help genre consists of aphorisms on the meaning of life and major questions about living assembled by artificial intelligence from the world’s religions curated by humans. It’s surprisingly well written, easy to read, nondenominational, and not offensive.