July 6th 2024.
For the past year, two philosophy professors have been reaching out to renowned authors and public figures with a rather unconventional and perhaps even heretical idea. They've been asking these intellectuals if they would be interested in transforming themselves into chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, for a generous fee of course.
John Kaag, one of the academics, is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and has made a name for himself by writing books such as "Hiking With Nietzsche" and "American Philosophy: A Love Story," which effortlessly blend philosophy and personal anecdotes. His partner in this venture, Clancy Martin, is a professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the author of 10 books, including "How Not to Kill Yourself," a raw and honest memoir about his struggles with mental health and multiple suicide attempts.
These two became friends 14 years ago when Kaag came across an essay written by Martin for Harper's Magazine and decided to reach out to him. They quickly bonded over their shared disillusionment with the narrow world of academia and their belief that philosophy has the power to help a wider audience if only it was more accessible.
As their friendship grew, Kaag, 44, and Martin, 57, also found common ground in their personal struggles. Both have been married three times and have faced their own brushes with death. But how did they end up cold-calling famous writers, you may ask? Well, that's a story for another time.
In April 2023, Kaag received an email from John Dubuque, a businessman who had become something of a patron for the two professors. Before joining his family's plumbing-supply business in St. Louis, Dubuque studied philosophy at the University of Southern California. Feeling intellectually stagnant, he started paying philosophy professors to guide him through complex texts such as "Being and Time" by Martin Heidegger. Kaag was hired for a six-week tutorial on "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James, and he proved to be the perfect fit for the job, having previously written "Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life" in 2020.
During their discussions, Dubuque, now 40, suggested that they team up and create a publishing company. He envisioned an imprint that would pair renowned experts with classic works, using technology similar to ChatGPT to replicate the experience of a student learning from a teacher. In theory, readers could have conversations with Doris Kearns Goodwin about presidential speeches or delve into Buddhist texts with Deepak Chopra.
Kaag was immediately on board and brought his friend Martin into the project. And thus, Rebind Publishing was born. It made its debut as an interactive reading experience, available on mobile, desktop, and tablet, with free access during the initial launch. Later this year, the company plans to introduce per-book pricing and a subscription model.
Kaag and Martin personally selected the authors who would provide commentary on the classic works. They spent hours upon hours interviewing these "Rebinders," as they called them, in an effort to cover every possible question a lay reader may have. The recorded interviews were then fed into AI software.
On a recent afternoon, Kaag and Martin sat down for an interview at the Boston Athenaeum, one of the oldest libraries in the country. Martin, dressed in jeans and a rumpled sweater, looked like an aging member of an indie rock band, while Kaag, in a crisp dress shirt and chinos, seemed a bit more put together. Both couldn't believe their luck at being given the opportunity to assemble a dream team of intellectuals.
"When John first approached me with this idea, I thought, 'Man, this could be really cool,'" Martin recalled. "And then we started brainstorming." He mentioned that Kaag had suggested the idea of having Laura Kipnis discuss "Romeo and Juliet."
Other writers who have joined Rebind include Roxane Gay, Marlon James, Bill McKibben, Margaret Atwood, and biblical scholar and Princeton University professor Elaine Pagels. For James Joyce's "Dubliners," Kaag and Martin even flew to Dublin to interview Irish novelist John Banville, who provided video and audio commentary.
"I first read 'Dubliners' when I was 12 or 13," Banville said in a phone interview. "I was completely captivated by it. It wasn't a typical Western or detective story. It was the real deal, about life itself."
There is a belief in literary circles that artificial intelligence is antithetical to art and the humanities. After all, some argue that this technology could potentially replace writers and teachers. But the authors who have worked with Rebind willingly allowed their voices to be cloned and their words to be manipulated by AI.
When asked if he had any reservations about this, Banville admitted, "My initial reaction was one of deep suspicion, of course. You read a book in your hand, line by line, page by page. But this is a wonderful way to get people to read classic books and not be intimidated by them."
"I was well compensated for it," he added, without disclosing the amount. "But it wasn't about the money. I was genuinely interested in this project. At my age, it's exciting to be a part of something new."
Gay, on the other hand, admitted that she wasn't particularly interested in the technology behind Rebind. "I have a weird kind of mental block when it comes to AI," she said. "The moment someone says 'AI,' I check out."
However, she did find the idea of revisiting classic texts intriguing. "And anything that gets people reading is a good thing," she added.
Kaag and Martin firmly believe in the creative potential of AI and view those who reject it as short-sighted. "It's one of the greatest artistic opportunities of our time, to collaborate with this tool," Martin said. Their goal is to give the Rebind treatment to 100 classic works, all of which are in the public domain as they were published before 1928.
Kaag and Martin even took on some canonical texts themselves - Kaag tackled Henry David Thoreau's "Walden," while Martin delved into Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." Martin first encountered the 19th-century German philosopher as a high school student in Calgary, Canada, after a tip from his English teacher. "It changed my life," he said.
Similarly, Kaag's first encounter with "Walden" was also life-changing. His older brother had left the book on top of the toilet tank, and Kaag mentioned to his Latin teacher that he was reading it. Later, she took him to Walden Pond, just outside of Concord, Massachusetts, where he swam in the lake and made a decision to become a philosophy professor, teach "Walden," and live in Concord. Today, he lives just 10 minutes away.
Their goal with Rebind is to create an experience that is accessible to everyone, just like the one they had with these classic texts. Dubuque, who has personally funded the project, sees it as a refreshing escape from the constant stream of entertainment on platforms like Netflix.
"I am drawn to the classics and older books because they offer a different kind of escape," he explained. "It's not like zoning out in front of a screen. It's a refreshing experience to step out of your time and into the world of these books. They add meaning to your life."
Kaag likens the AI-powered author commentaries to the annotations made by expert readers in the margins of a book, but with a bit of a pop culture twist. "We also thought of it as those Hogwarts newspapers that speak back to you," he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times and has been edited for clarity and readability. Stay updated with the latest business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.
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