Padraig was by the statues near the Church. He often thought he couldn’t move as quickly as he used to, but he willed himself to walk a little further than normal tonight without stopping to sit on one of the few benches dotted along the path. He’d had two knee replacements in the better times - maybe a decade ago now? - and that was all the help he was ever going to get. Using a stick would just make him weaker in the long run; better to keep strong and keep independent for as long as possible. He’d take care of his work so that the younger ones could take care of theirs.

Part 1: The Waning Hour

What follows argues for the artistic merit of AI-collaborative fiction, a novel form of narrative composition where human creativity is enhanced, not replaced, by machine intelligence.

In an ever-evolving technological landscape, a new experiment unfolds: the fusion of human imagination and artificial intelligence in the creation of the novel. Crafting my new dystopian novel "Zero", which is soon to be serialised on Mirror, as a product of this unique partnership has been a fascinating journey, revealing the nuances, challenges, and triumphs that come from an interplay between author and machine.