We asked AI when The Doors of Stone will come out, and it was no help at all

Artificial Intelligence knows a lot of things, but when it comes to predicting the release dates of highly anticipated novels, it cannot be relied upon. We learned that the hard way after asking it when we can expect to read George R.R. Martin’s The Winds of Winter.

But that won’t stop us. With hope in our hearts, we’ve now moved on to asking AI (specifically, ChatGPT) if it knows when Patrick Rothfuss will release the third novel in his Kingkiller Chronicle series, The Doors of Stone. It’s now been over 11 years since Rothfuss released The Wise Man’s Fear, the second book in the series. (This is excluding short stories and novellas such as The Slow Regard of Silent Things.) The wait has been agonizing, with no release date in sight. One spark of hope came last year when Rothfuss read out the prologue of the upcoming novel on his Twitch page and promised to deliver a chapter in the near future, but it’s still not out yet.

Can AI help? In short: no, it does not know when we can expect to see The Doors of Stone hit shelves. The longer answer? Well, when I asked the ultimate question, it bounced around the answer, not even giving a prediction. It did, however, name some plotlines we can expect to be addressed in the threequel:

"In “The Doors of Stone,” readers can expect to finally discover the resolution of many of the series’ ongoing mysteries, such as the true nature of the Chandrian, a group of powerful beings who Kvothe seeks revenge against, and the mysterious Amyr. The novel will also reveal the final fate of Kvothe himself, as well as his relationships with important characters such as Denna and Bast. Rothfuss has been working on “The Doors of Stone” for many years, and the book has been eagerly awaited by fans of the series. However, as of my knowledge cutoff date of September 2021, there had been no official release date announced for the novel."

After that, I decided to switch up my wording, explicitly asking for it to predict when we might see the novel release. Again it hedged:

"As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to predict the future with certainty, especially when it comes to the release date of a book. There has been no official announcement from the author or his publisher regarding the release date of “The Doors of Stone,” so it’s difficult to say when it will be published. The author has stated in the past that he wants to take his time to make sure the book is the best it can be, which suggests that the release date may still be some time away. Ultimately, we will have to wait for an official announcement from the author or his publisher regarding the release date."

No help at all.

AI predicts what will happen in The Doors of Stone

This endeavor wasn’t all in vain, however. Turns out ChatGPT has some ideas of how the series will finish. “Some fans speculate that the series may end with Kvothe’s redemption or his downfall, while others suggest that the final resolution may involve the defeat of the Chandrian or the uncovering of the true nature of the Amyr.”

Just as things were getting interesting, it backtracked. “Ultimately, the series’ ending is up to the author’s creative vision, and we will have to wait for ‘The Doors of Stone’ to be published to learn how the story concludes.” Guess it’s back to waiting.

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