Young local photographer and storyteller Cadeyrn Smith of Murray Bridge is about to publish his first children’s book — Smiley’s Steam Train Dream. A whimsical journey down the historic rail line from Monarto South to Sedan in South Australia - told through the eyes of a cheeky little character named Smiley.
Cadeyrn Smith’s beginning his adventure at Monarto South as his Smiley’s Steam Train Dream comes to life with the assistance of Chat GPT.
The book features photos of historic rail bridges, and drawings of puffing steam trains as they once supported the communities along the line.
All the drone images were taken by Cadeyrn with the help of, Glenn Power, his Genuine Support Services Australia (GSSA) Support Worker. “I’m very happy with how the bridge images can out, they really captured the sweeping empty country around the bridges,” Caderyn said.
Cadeyrn Smith of Murray Bridge with Glenn Power of Tailem Bend and his well-used Phantom 4 Plus drone at the historic five span rail bridge at Reedy Creek.
The story came to life with the assistance of Chat GPT, an AI tool Caderyn used to help shape the narrative, smooth out the words, and stitch his adventure together.
“It’s about steam and dreams,” said Caderyn, beaming. “The young Smiley imagines a world where every train and station has a secret, and every whistle tells a story.”
The project is a heartwarming example of how AI, when used responsibly and transparently, can empower emerging creatives — especially those who may face barriers to traditional publishing. Tools like Chat GPT helped Caderyn turn his ideas into a polished product, allowing more time for creativity and collaboration.
Of course, concerns about AI in publishing remain, particularly around originality and disclosure - but Caderyn and his team are upfront about how the tech was used: as a support, not a substitute.
“AI can be a brilliant tool if managed well,” said Glenn. “It helped Caderyn tell his story, in his voice.”
The book will be available at GSSA’s Ability Cafe soon and at selected community events this autumn.
*The Ability Café - a café with a cause is open Fridays from 11.30 am to 2 pm at the GSSA’s Community Hub & Activities Centre, 5 & 6 Seventh Street, Murray Bridge.
*ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in 2022. It is currently based on the GPT-4o large language model (LLM). ChatGPT can generate human-like conversational responses and enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language. It is credited with accelerating the AI boom, which has led to ongoing rapid investment in and public attention to the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Some observers have raised concern about the potential of ChatGPT and similar programs to displace human intelligence, enable plagiarism, or fuel misinformation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT)