How did an AI write its biography?

Computers have played chess against humans and defeated the world champion (Deep Blue v/s Gary Kasparov). AIs have played difficult quiz games against humans on tv and won (Watson in Jeopardy). An AI (again Watson DebatingEngine) has indulged in spirited debates with human beings and lost—as of now at least. AIs have painted remarkable,and mostly forgettable, art, created music, even written books.

But what an AI has not perhaps done yet is to write about itself, a sort of autobiography or a biography of the AI ‘species’. As I was writing about AI for this book,I started thinking of if and how an AI could write about itself. Would it ‘think’ of itself and its ilk differently thanhow I thought of it? Would it have an opinion, or a wayof structuring the description in a more ‘logical’, ‘machine-like’ manner? Will there be emotion in the writing, willthere be soul?

To find out, I got in touch with my good friend Anand Mahurkar, the founder–CE of Findability Sciences, a Boston, Massachusetts-based AI company. I have known Anand and Findability for a few years now, and, in fact, serve as an adviser to them. They do some brilliant work in AI for enterprises and have lately attracted an investment and JV with Softbank, Japan. Anand immediately ‘got’ my crazy idea and jumped on the opportunity to quickly cobble together an AI, using Findability’s existing platforms, which could attempt to write a chapter on itself.