'I could see people making a whole career out of this,' said Schickler, who used prompts on ChatGPT like 'write a story about a dad teaching his son about financial literacy.' While that may not sound like much, it is enough to inspire him to compose other books using the software.

'The Wise Little Squirrel: A Tale of Saving and Investing,' available in the Amazon Kindle store for $2.99 - or $9.99 for a printed version - has netted Schickler less than $100, he said. Sammy becomes the wealthiest squirrel in the forest, the envy of his friends and 'the forest started prospering,' according to the book. He crafts an acorn-shaped piggy bank, invests in an acorn trading business and hopes to one day buy an acorn grinding stone. In the edition, Sammy the Squirrel, crudely rendered also using AI, learns from his forest friends about saving money after happening upon a gold coin. Using the AI software, which can generate blocks of text from simple prompts, Schickler created a 30-page illustrated children’s e-book in a matter of hours, offering it for sale in January through Inc's (AMZN.O) self-publishing unit. 'The idea of writing a book finally seemed possible,' said Schickler, a salesman in Rochester, New York.

But after learning about the ChatGPT artificial intelligence program, Schickler figured an opportunity had landed in his lap. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Until recently, Brett Schickler never imagined he could be a published author, though he had dreamed about it.

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