Hello everyone,

Having wrapped up the first book in the series with last week’s chapter, today I'm going to address the future of the story in a Q&A format, in addition to detailing changes to the release schedule.

But first, a special announcement: thanks to an anonymous reader who is very generously willing to pay the AI Dungeon 2 monthly subscription fee, the continuation of Amie, Android will be written with the more powerful version of GPT-3, AID2’s “Dragon” AI! While chapters 4-1 and 4-2 had been already written with Griffin prior to my receiving this offer, subsequent chapters will feature much more robust world-building, improved prose, and other stylistic improvements. Additionally, from a writer’s perspective Dragon is well worth the price of admission, as it reduces the amount of random elements and retries needed to obtain a satisfactory generation of text, allowing me to produce a higher quality product in a shorter span of time.

I’ll now provide some insight on my current plans for the project; if you have a query that isn’t covered in the section below, feel free to pose it in the comment section.

What’s next for Amie, Android?

While it’s my intention to revise and flesh out the introductory arc at some point, I imagine most of you would rather see the story’s continuation first. Accordingly, writing new material will be the priority for the foreseeable future. I’m currently midway through writing the fourth arc, and expect to finish it and the next two arcs within the next three to four months.

Will you be putting the story on hiatus until then?

That is the most obvious option. If possible, however, I’d like to continue releasing chapters, even if only at a reduced pace during the writing process. My tentative plan is this: the weekly Saturday release is indefinitely suspended, but chapters can still be unlocked by reaching the stretch goals, which will now exist in modified form. The previous, easily attainable stretch goals made sense in the story’s early phases, when I could crank out a 1,000 word chapter in less than an hour; now, however, I find myself writing much more detailed 2 or even 3,000+ word chapters which require several hours, if not days. The new stretch goals will therefore be more challenging to unlock to compensate for this change. In the event that my backlog is fully exhausted, I will make this known in an author’s note and put the story completely on hiatus until it is replenished again.

Are bonus chapters still planned?

Yes. However, after writing the emotionally charged conclusion to Part 3, I realized that the shift in tone would be quite jarring if we were to jump straight to another light-hearted interlude. Bonus chapters featuring the AI’s responses to your comments and feedback will be released, but at a later date, most likely after the conclusion of Part IV.

Is there a way for me to support the story?

There are many. The first, simply enough, is by reading! It’s very motivating to know that people are keeping up with the story. Similarly, recommending the story to friends and family is a great way to help, especially since I do very little self-promotion. It goes without saying that comments, follows, and reviews are always appreciated. As for financial support, I previously thought I would only add the option of donating if we attained a sizable follower count (at least fifty or so), but the recent development with Dragon is making me reconsider. Right now only one reader is shouldering the burden (so to speak) of paying for the monthly subscription, so if people are willing to chip in and make it a collective effort, I can certainly accommodate that desire.

Have you considered opening a Patreon?

Yes, before ultimately deciding against it. The first reason is that my backlog is very thin at the moment, and supporters would be insufficiently rewarded. The second and greater reason is that I freely mix in philosophical and religious considerations in the story, and the last thing I want is for people to offer their financial support, only to then take umbrage at one of the aforementioned elements and regret their decision. If I were aiming for mass appeal with this fiction I would almost certainly open a Patreon, but Amie, Android isn’t that kind of story.

And now, for the poll! Recently, I came across Artbreeder, a website offering AI-generated art. You can guess my thought process: what could be more appropriate for an AI-assisted story than an AI-generated cover? Before making a rash decision, however, I want to gauge what the reaction to such a change might be. Here the links to the covers you can vote on:

#1: https://imgbox.com/nzOdZVi3

#2: https://imgbox.com/vHyfVaIF