The Uncanny Muse

“Compelling… [Hajdu’s] story connects many unexpected people and things” – Aaron Peck - The Times Literary Supplement“Fabulous and stimulating. We humans have always had a deep fascination with mechanical objects and an equally deep urge to create art. David Hajdu skillfully brings these two strands together in a work of elegant synthesis, revealing a deep understanding of what makes us and our machines tick and our art sing.” – Daniel J. Levitin, The New York Times best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music and I Heard There Was a Secret Chord“Into a moment when AI’s troubling role in the present and future of artistic creation rules the discourse, David Hajdu’s The Uncanny Muse brings an exciting and essential sense of history, perspective, and boundless curiosity. This constantly surprising exploration of 150 years of boundary-pushing and limit-testing innovations in the realm of who, or what, can make art reframes the discussion in a vital and fascinating way.” – Mark Harris, The New York Times best-selling author of Mike Nichols: A Life“Are song-making algorithms only the latest in a long series of musical amanuenses? Or is generative AI a new kind of musical synthesizer—a synthesizer of the human creator? The Uncanny Muse offers a timely, richly informative, and beautifully written inquiry into the origins of ‘computational creativity,’ framed in the historical context of human creativity and our many mechanical muses.” – John Seabrook, author of The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory”[Hajdu’s] whirlwind tour through nearly 150 years of cultural history is both pacy and brimming with detail” – Nadia Beard - Financial Times

David Hajdu is the author of seven books, including Adrianne Geffel: A Fiction, and a three-time National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A musician and composer, he is the music critic for the Nation and a journalism professor at Columbia University. He lives in New York City.