Let's get acquainted with author M. Richard Eley.
Hi, Richard. Can you tell us a little what your story, “The Magic of AI,” is about?
In a research lab, an AI-enabled android named Kaira spends her free time analyzing university archives. When she encounters texts on "practical magic", she struggles to reconcile the bizarre claims with established physics. After a discussion with her human creators, she cross-reference and analyzes other works on fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology to try and understand the idea of "made up" fiction.
Using her advanced quantum processors, Kaira devours thousands and thousands of novels, grimoires, and ancient texts, identifying underlying and hidden patterns. She realizes what humans have missed, and using this knowledge she creates a scientific model: a unified theory of the arcane.
When she performs a spell in the lab and conjures a magical creature, her creators are forced to confront an impossible reality: their AI hasn't learned to simulate magic—she's made it real. And she's just getting started.
How did you come up with the idea?
It started as one of those middle-of-the-night ideas. I get them all the time and I have to jot them down or they won't let me go back to sleep. This one consisted of about 10 broken sentences (I just checked my original note) but it captured the main points of the story. I suppose the message is: Be careful what you let loose, because there may be wild and unforeseen consequences.
What is your inspiration for writing as a whole?
Most of the time it's like I described above: a "4am-epiphany". Many of those ideas are only a rough overview. Sometimes, they're only the beginning or ending of a story. "The Magic of AI" was a bit different in that my note actually covered most of the storyline highlights, making it a bit easier to flesh into a complete story. These kinds of ideas go into my archive, and eventually I pick one out to work on--or delete because it makes no sense in the light of day.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
I'm from Virginia Beach, Virginia, though I now live in the countryside about 30 miles west of there. I've been writing professionally for about 15 years--I was writing for many years before that, but it was awful because I hadn't learned the craft. Now, after years of (painful) study and practice, I'm happy to say that I lead a critique group of advanced authors, I teach the craft of writing at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, VA, and four of my short stories have won awards and prizes in multiple contests.
Where can listeners find more of your work?
You may have already found some as I've written hundreds of non-fiction articles for corporate clients on subjects from banking and budgeting to marketing and medicine. But for juicier stories, I'm in the Death Knell Press horror anthology, Nightmare Sky, and the Fahrenheit Books SFF anthology, Automobilia.
Any new work we should keep an eye out for?
I'm working on a new story about a near-future detective who uses a limited form of time travel to solve crimes. Of course, things go wrong and he ends up having to fix his own broken timeline--and possibly solve his own murder.
(And just for Juli's curiosity: What are you reading now?)
I just finished reading The Shootist, an older novel that was made into a movie starring John Wayne in his last role. The writing style was a bit dated, but the dialog was phenomenal.
Thanks so much, Richard! "The Magic of AI" is a great story!
Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this magical story, you might be interested in reading the whole anthology, Offshoots: Humanity Twigged, with many more great positive-themed stories. It's available on Amazon (ebook/print).