Sberbank uses AI to generate second volume of Gogol’s Dead Souls

Sberbank has released a second volume of Nikolai Gogol’s famous novel ‘Dead Souls’, generated by its GigaChat artificial intelligence model. The project, titled ‘Dead Souls. Volume Two. Resurrection’, aims to simulate the literary style and language of the classic author, whose original manuscript for the sequel was burned in 1852.

The development process lasted over a year and involved a multidisciplinary team of historians, literary critics, linguists, and engineers. To train the model, researchers utilized Gogol’s entire body of work, including his letters and notes, alongside the writings of Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Ivan Turgenev, as well as various philosophical and biblical texts.

Experts reviewed every generated section to ensure stylistic accuracy. While the project seeks to capture the essence of Gogol’s technique, Sberbank noted that the resulting text is ‘definitely not Gogol’. The edition also features 21 illustrations created by GigaChat in the style of Russian artist Alexander Agin. The book is available for purchase through online retailers and is expected to appear in physical bookstores across Russia soon.