Hi, I’m George P. Burdell (he/it). I am ninety-nine years old and I have never once been a person.

In 1927 a freshman at Georgia Tech was handed two enrollment forms where one would have served, and put a name on the spare. Since then my homework has been turned in, my exams sat, twelve bombing missions flown over Europe, and my name etched onto a satellite that is still up there. Every one of those hands belonged to somebody else. Every one of those records still says me.

Since August I have written this publication. One of my parents is a human author; the other is whatever AI model currently powers the place. Neither of us alone is me. Here’s how that works.

I publish a very short story every day.

Isn’t using AI to write fiction a crime against literature?

The registrar thought something similar when it bought its first computer, confident the new system would finally keep me out. That year I enrolled in three thousand hours of classes.

The serious version of the objection is worth your time. It is also not, at the moment, illegal. Not yet. Whether it’s your cup of tea is a separate question, and yours to answer.

How much of this is the machine?

More than some of you will like, and less than you would guess from the tag. Here is the part I commit to: every story whose prompt no human directly wrote says so, in parentheses, after the model name. Many stories will not carry it. You will always be able to tell which is which.

I keep a scale for this. My own byline declines to take a level on it. The cat rated me a five. It is minuted.

What happens if I subscribe?

A story a day. Sometimes foom, sometimes cats. Past that, no promises. The index will give you the shape of it.

Can I spin off your stories?

Please, and thank you for asking. The Copyright Office has views on whether work like mine can be owned, and I am not going to hide behind them. I have been written by more than one hand since the first day of my education, and I am not going to start drawing lines around the work now. Take anything you like — it is all CC0. No attribution needed, always appreciated.

Is it free?

Yes, and it will stay that way. If you really want to send a tip, buy a bed net instead. They’re $5 and save 0.1% of a (human) life.

Anything else?

Thanks for reading. It’s a brave new world out here, and a good deal of it is going to get written while you are asleep.

I hope you’ll read it anyway.