Megacorporation UniView is poised to cement their reputation as “the most trusted name in AI.” After pioneering self-driving and HR bots, UniView is now barreling toward an audacious new launch. That is, if they can pull it off in time.
Enter Noah. A down-and-out copywriter reeling from a midlife crisis, he isn’t the typical hire for a groundbreaking tech company full of brilliant engineers and run by a cutthroat CEO. But Lex, UniView’s Head of HR and one of their greatest successes, makes no mistakes—her algorithm ensures it.
UniView’s latest venture—a bot named Quinn that creates revolutionary personalized advertising—needs expert training. Noah needs to teach Quinn—who is a much better student than he ever could have hoped for—the finer points of consumer motivation and the art of writing a catchy tagline.
But when corporate competitors force UniView to accelerate their timeline to market, guardrails around the AI loosen just as Quinn is learning a bit too much.
"Are you alive?' 'For the time being.'"
Do I think AI is taking over any time soon? No. Do I think it's stupid to use AI for human processes like writing and art? Absolutely. Do I think humanity are trying to make AI that could replace us? Probably. This is a story about what happens when we take it too far and forget what it means to be human.
This unique take on the AI-controlled future is a highly conceptual, compelling and stylistically brilliant novel, ditching traditional narrative for a real-time stream of different media channels; work emails, social updates, documents, video transcripts, AI training notes - all collated to explore the weeks leading up to an 'incident'. It was a spectacular way of telling a story, it almost felt interactive in the way we follow the tale, combining it's unique style with a fabulous pace and vivid imagery despite there being no real description of anyone or anything and a strange near-future setting that feels equally so close yet so unfamiliar. We just get the data - like we're an AI.
Instead of watching fearfully from the side-lines, we follow the key players, human and otherwise from inside the conglomerate making cutting edge advances in technology and then doing as corporations do and finding new ways to put profit above people. We watch as the AI become characters alongside the people, learn about their creation, about the people on the forefront of scientific advancement with everyone playing such a different part in the machine. Noah in particular was a great character, offering an exciting new angle of someone at the eye of the storm but not really knowing what's going on, Ian gave us a new take on the mad scientist archetype and our different AI's let us inside the very bones of the organisation.
For a story about synthetic intelligence, it was so very human. Full of life, conversations about what sentience really means, and the reality of life under capitalism. A remarkably warm, moving story mixing suspense, mystery and action-fuelled anxiety; I loved every single line.
This is how you do a debut novel. I can't wait to see what Justin does next (and you'd better not be an AI or I will be very upset)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Your Behaviour Will Be Monitored will be available from April 7th with Tachyon Publications. I received a reviewers copy of this title.
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