“Philosopurrs”: Where AI, Cats, and Philosophy Collide or: How I Wrote a Bizarre Book Using AI

Written By C.B. Daniels

Helping people find useful and crazy stuff to do with AI one post at a time.

Have you ever wondered what the great philosophers of history might say if they were cats? No? Well neither did I until I started messing around with AI tools and trying to figure out something off the wall I could do that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.

Enter “Philosopurrs,” a book that reimagines history’s greatest thinkers as cats. Here it is up on Amazon:

Now, I know what you might be thinking. “Philosophy and cats? Isn’t that a bit… off the wall?” And you’re right, it is. But that’s exactly what makes it great. By reimagining famous philosophers as cats, I hoped to create a book that would make people smile, laugh, and maybe even ponder some of life’s big questions.

Socrates as a cat

But here’s the thing: “Philosopurrs” isn’t just a silly book about cats. I mean it is that but it’s also a showcase of what’s possible with artificial intelligence (AI). You see, I created this book in collaboration with AI language models (GPT-4 / Claude Opus) and image generators (Midjourney / Playground). The text was crafted through GPT-4 / Claude Opus giving advice as a cat version of the philosopher using the human philosopher’s teachings, with a heavy dose of editing and cherry picking. While the delightful images of philosopher cats were conjured up by the incredible Midjourney AI, I hope you like the book because I had to go through a lot of image generations to find one I liked enough to put in the book.

As someone who’s been fascinated by the rapid advancements in AI, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to explore its creative potential. And let me tell you, it’s been a weird and wild. From generating purrfectly pun-derful text to watching the AI bring my feline philosophers to life, the process of creating “Philosopurrs” has been a fun and challenging learning experience.

Voltaire as a cat

I hope that “Philosopurrs” inspires you to use AI tools to embrace your own creativity, to think outside the litter box, and to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. There are so many tools out there allowing you to do things you never thought you’d be able to do. So get out there and make something, even if that something is a little bit off the wall.

If you would like to support what we are doing, grab a copy or tell a friend who might like it. But mostly get out there and use AI to make something!

Bonus

Here is a video I tossed together with a song from Suno about the book. Enjoy!