On the 25th anniversary of Nowhere Man's publication in Japan, I used A.I. to look into something I've been wondering about since September 2000: What did the Japanese media say about the book that put it on bestseller lists? I've never been able to find any coverage. Twenty-five years ago, search and translation tools just weren't up to the task. As for the Japanese language, I can make more sense of hieroglyphics.
Could ChatGPT find anything?
I gave my good friend Chat the title of the book,『ジョン・レノン永遠なるカリスマ』; the publisher, DHC; the date published; and the subtitle, 21世紀に語りつぎたいスーパースター伝説 (Superstar Legends to Pass Down in the 21st Century). I told it to find any media coverage it could, to go behind paywalls if necessary, and to translate the findings into English.
Chat took a look around the "open web." The only thing it found that I didn't already know was that the book had been archived in several Japanese university libraries, including Tokyo University of the Arts and Sapporo University. It told me that there were paywall issues and that I needed to search Japanese media databases, like Asahi Shimbun Digital, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun, and library databases.
I said I didn't know how to do that. Chat offered to write a "brief, polite" email for me, in Japanese, that I could send to Japanese librarians who might help me.
"Do it," I said. It did. I asked for email addresses. It gave them to me. My emails bounced back as undeliverable. I told Chat the emails didn't work. It said I needed to go to the library websites and fill out forms.
Which is where I quit, having discovered the limits of ChatGPT.
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