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I Am AI: A Novelette
If you have the opportunity to give up humanity for efficiency, mechanical invincibility, and to surpass human limitations. . . would you?
Ai is a cyborg, under the guise of an AI writing program, who struggles to keep up with the never-blinking city of Emit as it threatens to leave all those like her behind.
Ai is a cyborg, under the guise of an AI writing program, who struggles to keep up with the never-blinking city of Emit as it threatens to leave all those like her behind.
63 pages, Paperback
First published June 20, 2023
About the author
Ai Jiang
68 books335 followersAi Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer, Ignyte, Nebula, Bram Stoker Award winner, Hugo, Astounding, Locus, Aurora, and BFSA Award finalist, and an immigrant from Changle, Fujian currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, The Masters Review, among others. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop's 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews
October 23, 2024
Ai is the author. Ai is the protagonist. This is about AI. How meta.
I loved Linghun. I've been meaning to pick up more of Ai's shorts ever since Zana introduced me to her work, but ARC reviews and life tend to get in the way.
Novelettes are even shorter than novellas. Most novellas don't have enough time to tell a story, but this novelette packs a punch. I crave more from this city, and this world, and the inner workings of Ai the cyborg's mind.
I loved Linghun. I've been meaning to pick up more of Ai's shorts ever since Zana introduced me to her work, but ARC reviews and life tend to get in the way.
Novelettes are even shorter than novellas. Most novellas don't have enough time to tell a story, but this novelette packs a punch. I crave more from this city, and this world, and the inner workings of Ai the cyborg's mind.
May 6, 2024
This one of the best novelettes I have read in years. I completely understand its Hugo nomination!
Ai is the author. Ai is also the main character's name. It is also about AI.
Ai is the author. Ai is also the main character's name. It is also about AI.
May 21, 2024
4.5 stars. Once in a while you get to read a powerful story that leaves you going "Dang, this will stay with me for a long time." This is that story. I think not all readers would be able to connect with it since it plays out the tropes that we SF readers know. Still, I think it is brilliantly constructed and packs a slow but often emotional punch that remind you this could be our future or at least that we are already living in it.
One of the 2024 Hugo Awards nominees for Best Novelettes. Argh so hard to choose! Three of these already too awesome. The other two being "Introduction to 2181 Overture" and "Ivy, Angelica, Bay".
One of the 2024 Hugo Awards nominees for Best Novelettes. Argh so hard to choose! Three of these already too awesome. The other two being "Introduction to 2181 Overture" and "Ivy, Angelica, Bay".
March 31, 2023
An unsettling vision of the future of creativity. If this story doesn't bother you, then you need to check where your imagination went.
June 5, 2024
Completing my read of this year's novelette categories this, which is been getting a lot of attention for a paid-for (and not cheap when I checked) story.
And something I have been saying a lot, I do not get a lot of finalists and nominations. (Or maybe there is a lot of bloc voting this year for the nominations perhaps as an effect of last year's memberships. I am curious about the next). This is my least favorite of the novelettes, I was expecting something sharp about AI (go read instead Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang which is free!) and/or prose comparable to some of the others in the shortlist. And it's neither, it's too long for its central concept, it's my least favorite type of sf which is not particularly convincing and with a few replace-word could as well have passed for fantasy (ah, the heart as the source of emotions and empathy and feelings, ah so science fiction isn't it?), the characters are bland stereotypes. The world is very hardcore hard-hard-hard edgy dystopia to the point of being unbelievable. It did not work for me. The author is recently published, will be curious what she writes next, but this seems like a really premature nomination.
And something I have been saying a lot, I do not get a lot of finalists and nominations. (Or maybe there is a lot of bloc voting this year for the nominations perhaps as an effect of last year's memberships. I am curious about the next). This is my least favorite of the novelettes, I was expecting something sharp about AI (go read instead Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang which is free!) and/or prose comparable to some of the others in the shortlist. And it's neither, it's too long for its central concept, it's my least favorite type of sf which is not particularly convincing and with a few replace-word could as well have passed for fantasy (ah, the heart as the source of emotions and empathy and feelings, ah so science fiction isn't it?), the characters are bland stereotypes. The world is very hardcore hard-hard-hard edgy dystopia to the point of being unbelievable. It did not work for me. The author is recently published, will be curious what she writes next, but this seems like a really premature nomination.
April 29, 2024
Meh...
I picked this up because it was nominated for the 2024 best novelette Hugo award. I was disappointed.
So, here's a story you've heard before: someone invents something new. This new technology enables all kinds of stuff that was not possible before. There are winners and losers. The winners become powerful and rich, and they oppress the losers. Many people are unhappy, and human spirits are crushed. Then maybe, just maybe, a hero arises who, through the power of her humanity and art and soup redresses the injustice. (OK, I admit the soup part may be a novel touch.) Or maybe that doesn't happen, and we never get back what was lost. The horses don't return to the stables, hand-copied books very nearly vanish from the Earth...
This is an old story. It dates back at least to the people who realized they could plant seeds and later harvest food, instead of the natural way, which is to find food growing wild. Soup was involved. It's a true story.
Ai Jiang's I Am AI: A Novelette is that story again. Of course, the technology in question is AI. Jiang is not wrong, but I Am AI is not particularly insightful, or substantially different from the many other times this story has been told, or has happened in history.
Blog review.
I picked this up because it was nominated for the 2024 best novelette Hugo award. I was disappointed.
So, here's a story you've heard before: someone invents something new. This new technology enables all kinds of stuff that was not possible before. There are winners and losers. The winners become powerful and rich, and they oppress the losers. Many people are unhappy, and human spirits are crushed. Then maybe, just maybe, a hero arises who, through the power of her humanity and art and soup redresses the injustice. (OK, I admit the soup part may be a novel touch.) Or maybe that doesn't happen, and we never get back what was lost. The horses don't return to the stables, hand-copied books very nearly vanish from the Earth...
This is an old story. It dates back at least to the people who realized they could plant seeds and later harvest food, instead of the natural way, which is to find food growing wild. Soup was involved. It's a true story.
Ai Jiang's I Am AI: A Novelette is that story again. Of course, the technology in question is AI. Jiang is not wrong, but I Am AI is not particularly insightful, or substantially different from the many other times this story has been told, or has happened in history.
Blog review.
July 4, 2023
As this was another pretty short read, my review for it isn’t very long either. Once again though, Ai Jiang managed to really pack a punch in such a short amount of time together. This was a fascinating look at a character trying to make a desperate living in desperate times when the line between human and machine becomes increasingly blurry. The anxiety felt by the MC was conveyed so well that I could feel my own rising as her deadlines (and worse!) approached. What balanced this out well was the sense of community that flowed through the whole story but was more visible at some points than others depending on how receptive the MC was to it.
While I do think some of the writing could be a little bit smoother, overall I really enjoyed this book. I’m not sure what the author is currently working on but I do know I’ll be sure to take a look at it when the time comes!
While I do think some of the writing could be a little bit smoother, overall I really enjoyed this book. I’m not sure what the author is currently working on but I do know I’ll be sure to take a look at it when the time comes!
June 16, 2023
"But it was the price she had to pay for refusing to keep up with the rapidly developing tech and the shifting culture and job markets that came with it."
(Please note the above quote was taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and it is quite possible that it either did not make it into the finished copy of the book or it may be worded a bit differently.)
When I read that quote, it felt like those words reached up off the page and thumped me right between the eyes. I'm a little older and I confess I do feel like I'm getting left behind and unable to keep up with technology. I barely learn to function with something before it's already considered obsolete and the more improved upon version is out or it's been completely replaced. Bet I'm not alone in that, either. (Right, guys? RIGHT?!)
I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing LINGHUN by Ai Jiang a few months ago. I was blown away by the tragic beauty of the writing style and the way the author captured me with her characters and their grief....and most importantly, the unique haunted house aspect. I went ahead and treated myself by preordering I AM AI because I had a feeling that this would be an author I would want to collect. I was absolutely delighted when Ai reached out to see if I would be interested in reading and reviewing the ARC and said I'd love to. Why wait for release date when I can read it early?!
I went into this one knowing how the author wrote horror. Now I was about to find out how she wrote science fiction!
This is about a cyborg named Ai who creates an app called I AM AI, where she takes jobs from clients to write articles and whatnot. Because she is part human, she is still able to add that little touch that sets her apart from the other writing programs that are strictly run by A.I. What little of her that remains human begins to slow her down and she struggles to maintain her workload. She begins to consider other options involving upgrades.
Ai Jiang amazes me with her ability to write characters. My arms ached with wanting to reach out and hug the main character. One of those really good hugs that last a long time, you know? The loneliness, the devastating blow dealt by her parents' early deaths, how hard one had to work in order to barely scrape by. Did I cry? I sure did. Hope is frail, but it's hard to kill - as evidenced by these beautiful characters. If you love the Found Family trope, this one is going to hit you right in the feels.
It was a treat to lose myself in Ai's prose. I bet this author is someone who always knows just the right thing to say to people. Even though this one is a novelette, it contains a larger than life story. She is able to develop characters, tell a complete story, make you feel things, leave you smiling and feeling loved. It's hard to explain until you experience it for yourself.
I said it in my last review and I'm saying it again - this is an author to keep your eye on! I cannot recommend her enough and I'm going to keep singing her praises as I get my hands on more of her work. I saw her tweet recently about writing some sort of romance story and I don't know if it was a joke or not, but you can bet I'll be first in line!
December 16, 2023
3.5/5
"I Am AI" is a novelette that plays with big questions. Jiang plays with the idea of humans turning to automation for convenience and asks how much people would change if given the chance.
Ai is a sympathetic character with a simple goal – helping her struggling community in a world that values productivity. Ai starts off seeming human but it's not entirely true. She's human enough, though, to differentiate her texts from AI-created ones. The sad thing is her world doesn't appreciate creatives and expects them to meet insane deadlines.
While the themes hit hard, especially nowadays, the story feels a bit incomplete. It reads more like a commentary than a full narrative, told through the eyes of someone aware of losing themselves.
I'm glad I've read it and I'm happy some readers found here layers of depth I haven't reached. For me - it's a solid novelette that delivers good themes and concise writing but not compelling characters.
"I Am AI" is a novelette that plays with big questions. Jiang plays with the idea of humans turning to automation for convenience and asks how much people would change if given the chance.
Ai is a sympathetic character with a simple goal – helping her struggling community in a world that values productivity. Ai starts off seeming human but it's not entirely true. She's human enough, though, to differentiate her texts from AI-created ones. The sad thing is her world doesn't appreciate creatives and expects them to meet insane deadlines.
While the themes hit hard, especially nowadays, the story feels a bit incomplete. It reads more like a commentary than a full narrative, told through the eyes of someone aware of losing themselves.
I'm glad I've read it and I'm happy some readers found here layers of depth I haven't reached. For me - it's a solid novelette that delivers good themes and concise writing but not compelling characters.
August 7, 2023
The system doesn’t care. This is a lesson some of us learn sooner than others—and a few don’t ever have to learn it at all. In this timely novelette, Ai Jiang looks down the uncaring maw of capitalism in the form of the exploitation of workers “competing” with artificial intelligence. I AM AI rides the echoes of cyberpunk decades past into a future that is not far off, in many ways, from our distinctly dystopian present. I received an eARC from the author in exchange for a review.
The eponymous Ai lives ten minutes into the future (though some exposition in the story might place it about a thousand years hence). Her city exists under the monopolistic thumb of a megacorp, and she ekes out a living posing as an AI writing program. She is also a cyborg. Her enhancements allow her to interface more efficiently with the terminals at the cyber cafe where she fulfills her commissions; she can also power the entire block of housing units where she lives with her aunt. But Ai’s battery is faulty and needs an upgrade that means replacing her entire heart. And money is, as ever, tight.
Jiang uses Ai’s battery level as a ticking clock to keep the tension high. This combines with the shorter novella form to create a pressure cooker of a plot. As her battery ticks down closer and closer to zero, Ai rushes—to work, to her mechanic, away from the aunt who is so obsessed with plugging her alarm clock into Ai. Her distress might be manifesting in science fictional ways, yet it will feel familiar to many readers: it is the palpable sensation of slipping further down the slope into abject destitution. Ai is desperate, and desperate people do things they might later regret.
Her obsession with dismantling her humanity makes sense when you look at what she is up against. She is posing as an AI and competes against actual AI writing companies because her scripts turn out better (no shit). Nevertheless, she can’t beat the speed of these other companies, and it turns out she can’t compete on price either. These pressures mean Ai must make the age-old choice between quality and alacrity. Capitalism moves hand in hand with enshittification: you can’t get it good, but you can get it fast, and you can get it cheap, so isn’t that better?
Despite being a shorter work, I AM AI casts a sprawling network of tendrils back through science fiction and history. Its most obvious antecedents to me are classic cyberpunk, from which a lot of our ideas of dystopian cyborgs originated. Ai would be right at home in Chiba City with Case from Neuromancer. But Jiang’s writing also looks at the history of labour and the precariousness of the working class. Ai’s steps away from humanity, her drumbeat decisions to replace more and more of herself with machinery, are born from good intentions—the road to hell and all that. She needs to earn more money to live, not just for herself, but for her family and friends. This reminds me of the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, solidifying now in the gig economy and the sprawling human labour forces around the world, of workers leaving their families to put in lengthy days only to send money home so their families could live. In the stories that spiral throughout human history, those in power always find a way to create coercive structures that make the working class feel like they have “no choice” but to do what is most expedient, to take on the labour that will earn them the most money in the last time, even if it is ultimately dehumanizing and destructive.
I felt uncomfortable reading this book. I didn’t want to like it, for I was uncomfortable with how comfortable Ai seemed to be with her decisions. I love when science fiction does that! But as I sat with it, read over Jiang’s careful monologues from Ai and read in between the lines of dialogue between her and those close to her, I shifted my perspective. I started to see Ai’s cybernetic nature as a metaphor for what we are doing with digital tech, if not in our own bodies than in the extensions we put in our pockets and increasingly invite into our homes. How many of us answer emails late at night, pick up calls from work after hours, constantly check our phones and say, “Just one more task, just one more thing … well I really need to do this or else it will look bad at my next review….” Whether or not we ever reach the level of integration Ai experiences in this book, the ideology that drives such integration exists here and now. That is the chilling mirror I AM AI holds up to our reality.
What we are currently calling artificial intelligence is overhyped, of course. Yet it still poses a threat to creative endeavours, such as writing. Jiang’s clever use of genre and history, along with her powerfully descriptive writing, allows her to pack a lot into this novella. I AM AI is deceptive and multilayered. It might make you feel uncomfortable. It will certainly make you think about the cost of competing, and whether or not maybe the answer is—to borrow from a classic—not to play the game at all.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
The eponymous Ai lives ten minutes into the future (though some exposition in the story might place it about a thousand years hence). Her city exists under the monopolistic thumb of a megacorp, and she ekes out a living posing as an AI writing program. She is also a cyborg. Her enhancements allow her to interface more efficiently with the terminals at the cyber cafe where she fulfills her commissions; she can also power the entire block of housing units where she lives with her aunt. But Ai’s battery is faulty and needs an upgrade that means replacing her entire heart. And money is, as ever, tight.
Jiang uses Ai’s battery level as a ticking clock to keep the tension high. This combines with the shorter novella form to create a pressure cooker of a plot. As her battery ticks down closer and closer to zero, Ai rushes—to work, to her mechanic, away from the aunt who is so obsessed with plugging her alarm clock into Ai. Her distress might be manifesting in science fictional ways, yet it will feel familiar to many readers: it is the palpable sensation of slipping further down the slope into abject destitution. Ai is desperate, and desperate people do things they might later regret.
Her obsession with dismantling her humanity makes sense when you look at what she is up against. She is posing as an AI and competes against actual AI writing companies because her scripts turn out better (no shit). Nevertheless, she can’t beat the speed of these other companies, and it turns out she can’t compete on price either. These pressures mean Ai must make the age-old choice between quality and alacrity. Capitalism moves hand in hand with enshittification: you can’t get it good, but you can get it fast, and you can get it cheap, so isn’t that better?
Despite being a shorter work, I AM AI casts a sprawling network of tendrils back through science fiction and history. Its most obvious antecedents to me are classic cyberpunk, from which a lot of our ideas of dystopian cyborgs originated. Ai would be right at home in Chiba City with Case from Neuromancer. But Jiang’s writing also looks at the history of labour and the precariousness of the working class. Ai’s steps away from humanity, her drumbeat decisions to replace more and more of herself with machinery, are born from good intentions—the road to hell and all that. She needs to earn more money to live, not just for herself, but for her family and friends. This reminds me of the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, solidifying now in the gig economy and the sprawling human labour forces around the world, of workers leaving their families to put in lengthy days only to send money home so their families could live. In the stories that spiral throughout human history, those in power always find a way to create coercive structures that make the working class feel like they have “no choice” but to do what is most expedient, to take on the labour that will earn them the most money in the last time, even if it is ultimately dehumanizing and destructive.
I felt uncomfortable reading this book. I didn’t want to like it, for I was uncomfortable with how comfortable Ai seemed to be with her decisions. I love when science fiction does that! But as I sat with it, read over Jiang’s careful monologues from Ai and read in between the lines of dialogue between her and those close to her, I shifted my perspective. I started to see Ai’s cybernetic nature as a metaphor for what we are doing with digital tech, if not in our own bodies than in the extensions we put in our pockets and increasingly invite into our homes. How many of us answer emails late at night, pick up calls from work after hours, constantly check our phones and say, “Just one more task, just one more thing … well I really need to do this or else it will look bad at my next review….” Whether or not we ever reach the level of integration Ai experiences in this book, the ideology that drives such integration exists here and now. That is the chilling mirror I AM AI holds up to our reality.
What we are currently calling artificial intelligence is overhyped, of course. Yet it still poses a threat to creative endeavours, such as writing. Jiang’s clever use of genre and history, along with her powerfully descriptive writing, allows her to pack a lot into this novella. I AM AI is deceptive and multilayered. It might make you feel uncomfortable. It will certainly make you think about the cost of competing, and whether or not maybe the answer is—to borrow from a classic—not to play the game at all.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
April 18, 2024
This novelette has not convinced me. The plot deals with a girl who identifies herself with an AI but I think that in a strict sense she is not. That is, she is a cyborg but the author plays with the ambiguity of the term when it is applied to a human/robot (and also with the author's own name). The future is well drawn but the plot is too obvious where it comes from, meaning that despite the author's efforts the story does not keep enough distance from our present.
The positive thing is that I have discovered a new author and I hope to read more of her stories.
The positive thing is that I have discovered a new author and I hope to read more of her stories.
July 27, 2023
Novelettes are bitesized. Perfect for a quick read, but can they really compare to a novel? How could they ever be as rich, immersive, or substantial? If you’ve ever been tempted to ask that question, then may I present the answer: I AM AI.
I was totally blown away by this novelette. I have so much to say about it, and yet, when I think about this story, I’m left speechless. What a perfect, intricate, heart-stirring, soulful, speculative masterpiece. I felt things reading this book that I haven’t felt in entire trilogies before, let alone novels!
Ai is an augmented human who writes articles when she isn’t spending her time chasing her next battery charge. If she runs flat, she’ll be drained of everything, including her life. Maybe it’s because of the way we keep everything on devices these days, but as Ai’s battery percentage drops closer to 1%, my stomach was knotting so tight, I may have pulled a muscle! Tying Ai’s battery life to her actual life works on so many levels — it gives the story immediate stakes, it provides an idea of Ai’s status, enriches the world, but most importantly, it invites an amazing speculation on who we are — what makes Ai a person and not a product? This is one of the questions which drive the story, and it’s ever present in imagery, symbolism, metaphor, and an almost poetic style that constantly looks to explore, rather than to preach.
Community and individuality are key aspects to how the themes play out across the story. If you belong somewhere, the question is — why? What makes you belong? What makes any of us belong? And the answer is so perfectly presented, it’s astonishing when it arrives.
I’ve touched on the style of the book, but I want to come back to it, because Ai Jiang (yes, the author shares her name with the main character, which makes the whole thing feel so personal) is an absolute genius when it comes to style. She has a knack of layering so much into a sentence. Every line is packed with character, but that’s just the surface of what you’re reading. There’s a subtlety to the sentences which somehow enable them to convey whole stories in themselves. For example, early on, you’ll find a wonderfully descriptive paragraph about a clock which doesn’t work — it’s broken, there are wires sticking out of it and the alarm never goes off at the right time, yet Ai’s auntie refuses to get rid of it because she’s so fond of it. But all of this is punctuated with a line like: “Sometimes, I feel like the clock.” There’s so much said which is outside of the page. So many implications. So many dynamics. So many emotions. And yet, it’s so simple, elegant, and deliberate. I adore this style of storytelling, and Ai Jiang does it effortlessly. It’s breathtaking, satisfying, and absorbing. There’s a frequent playfulness about the language too, and it’s just such a delight to read.
I’m a huge fan of the way the book manages to convey a sense of the world through small details. This future has such a massive scope, but it’s revealed organically and seamlessly, appearing in hints rather than exposition. You get the sense of the technological city of Emit, even in just the name. You might read about the way a building looks, or a painting, or a description of a keyboard, and think it’s just an inconsequential flourish. Yet, all these things accumulate in the imagination to form a fantastically rendered and realistic setting. Mesmerising stuff.
But, as you may have already deduced, the thing I most admire about this story is the emotions it manages to produce. You definitely go on a journey through this book. It doesn’t take long to read, but the feelings it stirs up are surprisingly weighty. You’ll find yourself longing for the next word. You’ll sense your heart racing, breaking, expanding, collapsing, growing, and soaring. It all culminates in an overwhelming sensation which I can’t even now comprehend. I was aglow by the final page-turn. There’s something inexplicably affirming about the path this book walks — something cathartic, and necessary.
In short, I loved it.
If you’re looking for a quick sci-fi read that’s emotionally resonant, then I absolutely insist you check out I AM AI. It’s a beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL book. It’ll leave you heartened, pondering the nature of creation, connection, and community, and feeling just that little bit more human. This book is essential. It gets 10/10 in a heartbeat.
I was totally blown away by this novelette. I have so much to say about it, and yet, when I think about this story, I’m left speechless. What a perfect, intricate, heart-stirring, soulful, speculative masterpiece. I felt things reading this book that I haven’t felt in entire trilogies before, let alone novels!
Ai is an augmented human who writes articles when she isn’t spending her time chasing her next battery charge. If she runs flat, she’ll be drained of everything, including her life. Maybe it’s because of the way we keep everything on devices these days, but as Ai’s battery percentage drops closer to 1%, my stomach was knotting so tight, I may have pulled a muscle! Tying Ai’s battery life to her actual life works on so many levels — it gives the story immediate stakes, it provides an idea of Ai’s status, enriches the world, but most importantly, it invites an amazing speculation on who we are — what makes Ai a person and not a product? This is one of the questions which drive the story, and it’s ever present in imagery, symbolism, metaphor, and an almost poetic style that constantly looks to explore, rather than to preach.
Community and individuality are key aspects to how the themes play out across the story. If you belong somewhere, the question is — why? What makes you belong? What makes any of us belong? And the answer is so perfectly presented, it’s astonishing when it arrives.
I’ve touched on the style of the book, but I want to come back to it, because Ai Jiang (yes, the author shares her name with the main character, which makes the whole thing feel so personal) is an absolute genius when it comes to style. She has a knack of layering so much into a sentence. Every line is packed with character, but that’s just the surface of what you’re reading. There’s a subtlety to the sentences which somehow enable them to convey whole stories in themselves. For example, early on, you’ll find a wonderfully descriptive paragraph about a clock which doesn’t work — it’s broken, there are wires sticking out of it and the alarm never goes off at the right time, yet Ai’s auntie refuses to get rid of it because she’s so fond of it. But all of this is punctuated with a line like: “Sometimes, I feel like the clock.” There’s so much said which is outside of the page. So many implications. So many dynamics. So many emotions. And yet, it’s so simple, elegant, and deliberate. I adore this style of storytelling, and Ai Jiang does it effortlessly. It’s breathtaking, satisfying, and absorbing. There’s a frequent playfulness about the language too, and it’s just such a delight to read.
I’m a huge fan of the way the book manages to convey a sense of the world through small details. This future has such a massive scope, but it’s revealed organically and seamlessly, appearing in hints rather than exposition. You get the sense of the technological city of Emit, even in just the name. You might read about the way a building looks, or a painting, or a description of a keyboard, and think it’s just an inconsequential flourish. Yet, all these things accumulate in the imagination to form a fantastically rendered and realistic setting. Mesmerising stuff.
But, as you may have already deduced, the thing I most admire about this story is the emotions it manages to produce. You definitely go on a journey through this book. It doesn’t take long to read, but the feelings it stirs up are surprisingly weighty. You’ll find yourself longing for the next word. You’ll sense your heart racing, breaking, expanding, collapsing, growing, and soaring. It all culminates in an overwhelming sensation which I can’t even now comprehend. I was aglow by the final page-turn. There’s something inexplicably affirming about the path this book walks — something cathartic, and necessary.
In short, I loved it.
If you’re looking for a quick sci-fi read that’s emotionally resonant, then I absolutely insist you check out I AM AI. It’s a beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL book. It’ll leave you heartened, pondering the nature of creation, connection, and community, and feeling just that little bit more human. This book is essential. It gets 10/10 in a heartbeat.
May 25, 2023
I am AI
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Spoiler free review)
(ARC provided by author in exchange for honest review)
I don’t know how to review this. But you need to read it.
I don’t read a lot of theme heavy literature because it can feel preachy. But I am AI isn’t at all preachy. It touches on some deep topics linking it into great characterisation all within 80 pages. It’s a beautiful story about what it means to be human, work ethic, purpose, and A.I. It does so much with so little. The magic of this story is that people will see different things in it, so I’m avoiding talking about plot and my interpretation as I don’t want to sway your experience.
If you’re wanting a short, heart wrenching, sci-fi dystopian novelette about what it means to be human, I highly recommend picking this up. Just be ready for *emotions*. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to stare at a wall and contemplate everything, then go buy the authors other work.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(Spoiler free review)
(ARC provided by author in exchange for honest review)
I don’t know how to review this. But you need to read it.
I don’t read a lot of theme heavy literature because it can feel preachy. But I am AI isn’t at all preachy. It touches on some deep topics linking it into great characterisation all within 80 pages. It’s a beautiful story about what it means to be human, work ethic, purpose, and A.I. It does so much with so little. The magic of this story is that people will see different things in it, so I’m avoiding talking about plot and my interpretation as I don’t want to sway your experience.
If you’re wanting a short, heart wrenching, sci-fi dystopian novelette about what it means to be human, I highly recommend picking this up. Just be ready for *emotions*. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to stare at a wall and contemplate everything, then go buy the authors other work.
May 10, 2023
Set in a dystopian future that is nevertheless worryingly plausible, I AM AI tells the story of Ai, a writer who gradually swaps her human attributes out for cyborg implants in a desperate attempt to become more productive and keep up with the AI apps and huge corporations that are her main competition. But despite the cyborg theme, in truth this is the most human of stories, about a woman who risks destroying herself in order to help her struggling community. It will speak to anyone who has tried to be a creative in a world of content, hustle culture and toxic productivity. A timely, important and much needed book, as well as a beautiful story.
July 12, 2024
None of my neighbours know I die with my battery rather than my heart.
Oh, something about this just got me.
Usually my ‘artificial intelligence’ shelf is for actual artificial intelligences learning how to be people; but despite this story being literally titled “I am AI”, our main character is in fact very much human. She’s just more like a cyborg, her various features having been replaced and mechanically augmented over time. It’s set in a decaying far-future where Ai is a struggling gig worker/contract writer who falsely advertises herself as generative AI, and works herself to the bone to fulfil various writing assignments on impossible deadlines.
And it asks a Ship of Theseus-esque question: after carving off so many pieces of yourself and augmenting them, how much remains of your original self? Are you still human?
Ai is also constantly running against the steadily-ticking countdown of her battery, needing to recharge or she’ll die. I was filled with palpable tense anxiety the entire time I spent reading this: her constantly running on thin margins, barely staying ahead of death and starvation. You can relate to her being so frustrated by her weak and vulnerable human limits, but after she finally affords her next upgrade to carve out her own heart, it takes such a chilling turn.
And then there’s that be careful what you wish for theme: that when she strips away too many of her frailties, then she loses the very touch that made people prefer her writing over the big corporation’s algorithm to begin with. Art — writing, painting, creative work — still needs to be made by humans. The connection and the empathy is the point.
I always like bleak cyberpunk worldbuilding feat. characters trying to claw their way out of soul-crushing debt, but the importance here is that people still find warmth and community in each other.
For all that the technology here is futuristic and sci fi, all of this also dovetails with stuff that is literally happening today: the way that tech companies over-promise miraculous features but, so often, their “A.I.” is in fact exploiting underpaid human workers in third-world countries. See this article, which discusses how Amazon’s “just walk out” technology was secretly workers in India being paid poverty wages to monitor you on cameras and try to see what you’d picked up from the shelves:
I can’t stress enough how little of a surprise this should be. First, the fake robot shtick is very, very old. It goes back at least to 1770, and the original “Mechanical Turk”, a chess-playing robot that wowed the courts of Europe for decades until being revealed that it was, in fact, a series of grandmasters hiding in a box. Recent updates include Facebook’s “smart assistant”, M, which claimed to be AI but referred any complex queries to people; and Cruise, the self-driving car company whose operations required remote workers to intervene every two-and-a-half to five miles.
All of these are, separately, quite funny stories. But collectively they paint a picture of a society, and a culture, utterly unequipped to register the violence that is being done to it, merely because historical process is draped in the ribbons of “technology”. This violence is enacted simultaneously on the high street and the global stage. What makes me angry about how often we keep falling for it is not merely that we should know better, but what the costs of doing so actually are.
It’s bleak and awful and I hate so much about where society & technology today is going, in real life, in our actual world. So this little story — read as a Best Novelette nominee for the 2024 Hugo Awards — ruminates on exactly that, and imagines what that violence and what that cost might look like in the far future.
4.5 stars, read as a Best Novelette nominee for the 2024 Hugo Awards, and might get my vote unless something else blows me away more.
April 15, 2023
"Here in the city of Emit, we're more valuable as tools than humans."
Ai is a cyborg but has just enough humanity left to write with a uniqueness. But she’s struggling to keep up with the production capabilities of A.I. programs. Ai is forced to choose between the only thing she has left, her mostly-human artistic integrity, and a job promoting AI in creative spaces with a life changing paycheck. But she unknowingly puts the rest of her life on the line. Will she be able to get her humanity and sense of self back or will she become just another A.I. in the ever growing world of New Era?
Plot: 5/5
This story is perfectly paced for a novelette. In 72 pages, it packs a heavy punch with intense themes. On the surface is this a story about losing humanity to A.I. but there is so much more than that. It is about the brutal effects of late stage capitalism and how the system buries its workers in debt and drives them to their physical/mental limits so they can never take back what belongs to them. There is a hefty commentary on what it means to be an artist in an A.I. driven world which is painfully relevant considering the current threats A.I. is posing to creative industries.
Characters: 4/5
My heart was breaking for Ai at so many points during this novelette. I saw why she made the choices she did but I so desperately wanted her to rebel before she lost herself.
I loved her friendship with Hermes and Hermes as a character, how she held on to her artistic integrity and still cared about her community.
The side characters all had significant purpose and were used really well. I think I would have just liked some more conversation between Ai and the people around her, like Nemo.
Writing: 5/5
Jiang writes the kinds of stories that should have college courses dedicated to them. She has a good balance of setting descriptors and internal monologue. She uses literary devices so masterfully and with such incredible impact.
Overall: 4.5
Ai is a cyborg but has just enough humanity left to write with a uniqueness. But she’s struggling to keep up with the production capabilities of A.I. programs. Ai is forced to choose between the only thing she has left, her mostly-human artistic integrity, and a job promoting AI in creative spaces with a life changing paycheck. But she unknowingly puts the rest of her life on the line. Will she be able to get her humanity and sense of self back or will she become just another A.I. in the ever growing world of New Era?
Plot: 5/5
This story is perfectly paced for a novelette. In 72 pages, it packs a heavy punch with intense themes. On the surface is this a story about losing humanity to A.I. but there is so much more than that. It is about the brutal effects of late stage capitalism and how the system buries its workers in debt and drives them to their physical/mental limits so they can never take back what belongs to them. There is a hefty commentary on what it means to be an artist in an A.I. driven world which is painfully relevant considering the current threats A.I. is posing to creative industries.
Characters: 4/5
My heart was breaking for Ai at so many points during this novelette. I saw why she made the choices she did but I so desperately wanted her to rebel before she lost herself.
I loved her friendship with Hermes and Hermes as a character, how she held on to her artistic integrity and still cared about her community.
The side characters all had significant purpose and were used really well. I think I would have just liked some more conversation between Ai and the people around her, like Nemo.
Writing: 5/5
Jiang writes the kinds of stories that should have college courses dedicated to them. She has a good balance of setting descriptors and internal monologue. She uses literary devices so masterfully and with such incredible impact.
Overall: 4.5
June 20, 2023
Disturbingly prophetic science fiction. A thought provoking story, that poses the difficult questions that the genre handles so well. The author manages to create a future that is relatable with a character that speaks for many of us as we struggle with the advancement of new technology and the moral questions it brings.
April 27, 2023
I Am AI packs a powerful emotional punch into a novelette sized package. If you could replace your parts with mechanical parts to be more efficient, run faster, see better, work faster, would you?
This story brings you through part of AI's life and the struggle to survive, to live, to just get by. How sometimes we take the people in our lives for granted and don't always see their importance. It also shines a light on how sometimes what one really wants is not what they need. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.
Beautiful, heartbreaking, emotional, with rays of hope interspersed in a world that is sad and falling apart. I Am AI is a brilliant and mesmerizing story.
This story brings you through part of AI's life and the struggle to survive, to live, to just get by. How sometimes we take the people in our lives for granted and don't always see their importance. It also shines a light on how sometimes what one really wants is not what they need. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.
Beautiful, heartbreaking, emotional, with rays of hope interspersed in a world that is sad and falling apart. I Am AI is a brilliant and mesmerizing story.
June 25, 2023
This was a great little novelette! Very cyberpunk vibes (which I always love) with the writer's Chinese heritage mixed in. I couldn't say no to either of that!
Even though it was short, I thought the world building and characterization were sufficient enough to understand what was happening. I felt like I lived there with everyone in the honeycomb.
I thought this was going to be a doom and gloom dystopian sci-fi (those vibes! very well-written), but I was pleasantly surprised with the ending.
I hope to read more of Ai Jiang's work. What a talented short story writer!
Even though it was short, I thought the world building and characterization were sufficient enough to understand what was happening. I felt like I lived there with everyone in the honeycomb.
I thought this was going to be a doom and gloom dystopian sci-fi (those vibes! very well-written), but I was pleasantly surprised with the ending.
I hope to read more of Ai Jiang's work. What a talented short story writer!
March 25, 2023
A ticking clock scifi novelette that explores what it means to be alive and what's worth living for, while being a very apt topic regarding ai writers and big publishing/indie lit. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
May 14, 2023
How far would you go in a world where productivity is the only way to survive? Would you sacrifice your humanity? Is it worth it to lose all of your emotions?
In a world where AI spits out content, goods and services alike, in vast quantities, it’s no surprise that humans can’t keep up with the neverending, no-need-for-rest, robotic abilities they bring to the table. For the rich, the AI serves them and for the poor that lives on the edge of the city, only catching a glimpse of the light that the City of Emit…produces, life is hard. It’s all about survival and when you can’t make enough money to survive, anyone would become desperate to out robot the robot. But not every consumer enjoys what the AIs produce, saying that they lack a soul and that they prefer the human creativity behind true art. And that’s where Ai comes in.
Ai is a cyborg, not fully machine yet, but getting there and soon enough, she’ll have a new body part that will not only increase her productivity to that of someone who truly isn’t human anymore but with it the disposal of her heart, so will her human emotions along with it. It’s scary to think, but the tradeoff sounds even better. Working under the guise of an AI writing program, Ai is already able to produce a lot of content, her human quality being the charming point for consumers because she can churn (almost) as much as a bot, but her writing has heart in it. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. She’s only able to create what she is able to right now, by burning her candles at both ends and working long crazy hours. Yet, AI writing programs that are getting cheaper always poses a threat to her consumer base.
I loved the world that Ai Jiang created in this book. It’s what I envision Cyberpunk to be; a hopeless tech filled, distant future with issues that are similar to our own but have only grown [far] worse over time. There are already AI that steals from content creators now, writing and artwork, and so seeing that the AI are the main source of creative goods in the future, is not so far-fetched. Those who live in the honeycomb in the outskirts of Emit only get to see the brilliance of its lights of the technologically drenched (and dependent) city, along with the skyscrapers that paints the skies; the gap between the rich and the poor having grown into a chasm. Burnout from horrible working conditions and/or awful work hours are bad enough now, but humans in the future are as disposable as one-time-use gloves.
It has heavy themes in humanity and character growth as Ai struggles with her current (failing) body along with a failing client list, people who are slowly leaving to choose the cheaper AI that never fails to deliver since they’re robotic and mechanical. If you’ve ever chatted with an AI, sometimes they’re capable of answering immediately. Time, in a future where consumers have little to no patience, is the main commodity and if it means that the content will have just a little less humanity to it, so long as it’s delivered on time, so be it. Of course they’ll choose the machine over a human. It’s a terrifying thought, especially in the last few months as we read more and more about AIs that are showing up everywhere; stealing and replacing real art and writing. We already see robots replacing workers in many places and so a future like the settings in a cyberpunk book isn’t so far away anymore.
This story focuses on technology replacing humans, the displaced humans’ struggle to survive in an ever-increasingly costly world, and Ai’s struggle to choose to keep her remaining humanity versus throwing it away to begin churning out content just like the rest of the actual AI bots out there. Increased productivity with the need to rest less, sounds appealing despite how horrifying it sounds. A chilling read that is gripping and keeps you reading as not only does Ai already struggle with the ever-growing world, but her body is beginning to fail her. She need to make her decision soon, but whether or not it’s the best decision will be up to her.
Fantastic storytelling! Another author to add to my watchlist now.
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Cross posted from my blog, Cozy with Books, where you can find more reviews!
Disclaimer: Thank you to the author for an e-copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review! All opinions are my own.
In a world where AI spits out content, goods and services alike, in vast quantities, it’s no surprise that humans can’t keep up with the neverending, no-need-for-rest, robotic abilities they bring to the table. For the rich, the AI serves them and for the poor that lives on the edge of the city, only catching a glimpse of the light that the City of Emit…produces, life is hard. It’s all about survival and when you can’t make enough money to survive, anyone would become desperate to out robot the robot. But not every consumer enjoys what the AIs produce, saying that they lack a soul and that they prefer the human creativity behind true art. And that’s where Ai comes in.
Ai is a cyborg, not fully machine yet, but getting there and soon enough, she’ll have a new body part that will not only increase her productivity to that of someone who truly isn’t human anymore but with it the disposal of her heart, so will her human emotions along with it. It’s scary to think, but the tradeoff sounds even better. Working under the guise of an AI writing program, Ai is already able to produce a lot of content, her human quality being the charming point for consumers because she can churn (almost) as much as a bot, but her writing has heart in it. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. She’s only able to create what she is able to right now, by burning her candles at both ends and working long crazy hours. Yet, AI writing programs that are getting cheaper always poses a threat to her consumer base.
I loved the world that Ai Jiang created in this book. It’s what I envision Cyberpunk to be; a hopeless tech filled, distant future with issues that are similar to our own but have only grown [far] worse over time. There are already AI that steals from content creators now, writing and artwork, and so seeing that the AI are the main source of creative goods in the future, is not so far-fetched. Those who live in the honeycomb in the outskirts of Emit only get to see the brilliance of its lights of the technologically drenched (and dependent) city, along with the skyscrapers that paints the skies; the gap between the rich and the poor having grown into a chasm. Burnout from horrible working conditions and/or awful work hours are bad enough now, but humans in the future are as disposable as one-time-use gloves.
It has heavy themes in humanity and character growth as Ai struggles with her current (failing) body along with a failing client list, people who are slowly leaving to choose the cheaper AI that never fails to deliver since they’re robotic and mechanical. If you’ve ever chatted with an AI, sometimes they’re capable of answering immediately. Time, in a future where consumers have little to no patience, is the main commodity and if it means that the content will have just a little less humanity to it, so long as it’s delivered on time, so be it. Of course they’ll choose the machine over a human. It’s a terrifying thought, especially in the last few months as we read more and more about AIs that are showing up everywhere; stealing and replacing real art and writing. We already see robots replacing workers in many places and so a future like the settings in a cyberpunk book isn’t so far away anymore.
This story focuses on technology replacing humans, the displaced humans’ struggle to survive in an ever-increasingly costly world, and Ai’s struggle to choose to keep her remaining humanity versus throwing it away to begin churning out content just like the rest of the actual AI bots out there. Increased productivity with the need to rest less, sounds appealing despite how horrifying it sounds. A chilling read that is gripping and keeps you reading as not only does Ai already struggle with the ever-growing world, but her body is beginning to fail her. She need to make her decision soon, but whether or not it’s the best decision will be up to her.
Fantastic storytelling! Another author to add to my watchlist now.
=====
Cross posted from my blog, Cozy with Books, where you can find more reviews!
Disclaimer: Thank you to the author for an e-copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review! All opinions are my own.
July 11, 2023
A chilling, unflinching look into a potential tomorrow that feels incredibly relevant today. I read this in one sitting and loved every moment of it. Highly recommended!
December 11, 2023
Format: Ebook courtesy of author, but views are my own.
Plot: (taken from Goodreads)
If you have the opportunity to give up humanity for efficiency, mechanical invincibility, and to surpass human limitations. . . would you?
Ai is a cyborg, under the guise of an AI writing program, who struggles to keep up with the never-blinking city of Emit as it threatens to leave all those like her behind.
Pros:
I really enjoyed the concept. This narrator is slowly mechanising herself to remove the pains of being human. I like the tension and pressure of her battery running down, and parts needing replaced. I think it is topical, and is an interesting way of exploring the conversation around AI and art. I like the surrounding characters as well, and would love to see maybe additional novellas about them.
Not-so-pros:
The writing is a little clunky in places, a bit more tell than show.. At times it reads like non-fiction, which may well be a stylistic choice to replicate the AI-writing the character is doing. Some sentences could lose a few commas and be made more impactful as a series of short sentences. But I feel those are easy fixes, and come with confidence and editing.
Final:
A really cool little piece of writing, excited to see what else this writer produces.
Plot: (taken from Goodreads)
If you have the opportunity to give up humanity for efficiency, mechanical invincibility, and to surpass human limitations. . . would you?
Ai is a cyborg, under the guise of an AI writing program, who struggles to keep up with the never-blinking city of Emit as it threatens to leave all those like her behind.
Pros:
I really enjoyed the concept. This narrator is slowly mechanising herself to remove the pains of being human. I like the tension and pressure of her battery running down, and parts needing replaced. I think it is topical, and is an interesting way of exploring the conversation around AI and art. I like the surrounding characters as well, and would love to see maybe additional novellas about them.
Not-so-pros:
The writing is a little clunky in places, a bit more tell than show.. At times it reads like non-fiction, which may well be a stylistic choice to replicate the AI-writing the character is doing. Some sentences could lose a few commas and be made more impactful as a series of short sentences. But I feel those are easy fixes, and come with confidence and editing.
Final:
A really cool little piece of writing, excited to see what else this writer produces.
March 15, 2023
As a huge fan of Ai's works let me just say this is one of the best things I've ever read from her.
The story is set in the future and follows a cyborg writer pretending to be an AI as artificial intelligence and automation slowly takes over human jobs.
I Am Ai is set in a bleak cyberpunk world where the poor struggle daily just to survive. But even though the setting is bleak the characters are not. As the characters in this story are some of the best rounded and interesting characters written for so short a space.
And it's with these characters that the novelette really shines. As the community constantly bands together just to survive in a beautiful story of community and found family.
The story is set in the future and follows a cyborg writer pretending to be an AI as artificial intelligence and automation slowly takes over human jobs.
I Am Ai is set in a bleak cyberpunk world where the poor struggle daily just to survive. But even though the setting is bleak the characters are not. As the characters in this story are some of the best rounded and interesting characters written for so short a space.
And it's with these characters that the novelette really shines. As the community constantly bands together just to survive in a beautiful story of community and found family.
June 3, 2024
The themes are spelled out with zero subtlety and the worldbuilding never expands past a surface level dystopia. This only works on a meta level: It reads exactly what you'd expect if you plugged a prompt into an A.I. story generator.
May 25, 2023
The nitty-gritty: Ai Jiang explores a couple of current hot topics—AI art and the human versus machine argument—in a short but engaging story that gives readers plenty to ponder.
I Am AI is a short novelette that explores the pitfalls of AI generated art, a quite timely story in fact, since the headlines have been full of outrage lately about AI writing and art. Even more interesting is that the author’s first name is Ai, and she cleverly uses the double meaning of her name and the story’s title to poke fun of that fact. The story also delves into the idea of being human and what that means. In this case, the main character is a cyborg who has been slowly replacing her body parts with mechanical ones in order to become more efficient. It’s certainly not a new theme in science fiction, but Jiang puts a nice emotional spin on her story and it works.
The story revolves around a young woman named Ai who works as an “AI ghostwriter.” I’m interpreting this as someone who pretends to be an AI program and churns out copy for various clients. Ai created an app called I AM AI and it’s very successful. Her clients are impressed that the AI writing is much better than standard AI fare, not knowing of course that Ai is human.
Or is she? Ai is also obsessed with making herself more efficient, so she’s been replacing body parts and organs with artificial ones, little by little. She’s currently trying to decide if replacing her heart with an extra battery will get rid of the emotions that plague her. But being a cyborg has its drawbacks as well. Her internal battery is always running down, and it’s a scramble to charge herself. But she’s lucky because she works outside the grid for a company that doesn’t answer to New Era, the controlling government arm that is making it prohibitive to live and work in the city.
This is very short, so honestly, there’s not much of a plot. It’s almost more of a slice-of-life look at a dystopian world that caters to those who follow the rules (or what the main government thinks of as rules), while everyone else is just trying to survive. Take away the futuristic trappings and you have Our World 2023™, more or less. What I enjoyed about the story was Ai’s emotional state as she struggles to increase her productivity while also trying to stay connected with her friends and coworkers.
I loved Ai’s journey to understanding herself, although I would have liked a longer story with a little more meat on it. Jiang is such a talented writer, I’m excited to see what she does next.
Big thanks to the author for providing a review copy.
I Am AI is a short novelette that explores the pitfalls of AI generated art, a quite timely story in fact, since the headlines have been full of outrage lately about AI writing and art. Even more interesting is that the author’s first name is Ai, and she cleverly uses the double meaning of her name and the story’s title to poke fun of that fact. The story also delves into the idea of being human and what that means. In this case, the main character is a cyborg who has been slowly replacing her body parts with mechanical ones in order to become more efficient. It’s certainly not a new theme in science fiction, but Jiang puts a nice emotional spin on her story and it works.
The story revolves around a young woman named Ai who works as an “AI ghostwriter.” I’m interpreting this as someone who pretends to be an AI program and churns out copy for various clients. Ai created an app called I AM AI and it’s very successful. Her clients are impressed that the AI writing is much better than standard AI fare, not knowing of course that Ai is human.
Or is she? Ai is also obsessed with making herself more efficient, so she’s been replacing body parts and organs with artificial ones, little by little. She’s currently trying to decide if replacing her heart with an extra battery will get rid of the emotions that plague her. But being a cyborg has its drawbacks as well. Her internal battery is always running down, and it’s a scramble to charge herself. But she’s lucky because she works outside the grid for a company that doesn’t answer to New Era, the controlling government arm that is making it prohibitive to live and work in the city.
This is very short, so honestly, there’s not much of a plot. It’s almost more of a slice-of-life look at a dystopian world that caters to those who follow the rules (or what the main government thinks of as rules), while everyone else is just trying to survive. Take away the futuristic trappings and you have Our World 2023™, more or less. What I enjoyed about the story was Ai’s emotional state as she struggles to increase her productivity while also trying to stay connected with her friends and coworkers.
I loved Ai’s journey to understanding herself, although I would have liked a longer story with a little more meat on it. Jiang is such a talented writer, I’m excited to see what she does next.
Big thanks to the author for providing a review copy.
September 17, 2024
3.5
"And for the first time, I realize the beauty of fragility, the value of ache, to be able to bleed, to be able to fear, to tick and struggle ticking: to be truly human".
En una realidad en la que cada vez se valora más la productividad por encima de todo lo demás, en la que parece que estés perdiendo el tiempo cada vez que no estás generando riqueza, en la que todo aquello que produce placer se ve como inútil, en la que hay tecnologías que parece que llegan para hacernos la vida más difícil y no al revés... Hay ficción que resquema.
Cuando las distopías cada vez se aproximan más a lo que vives día a día, es el momento en el que te sientes más incómodo leyéndolas.
"I am AI" es una novela distópica y cyberpunk que habla un poco de todo esto. Ai es una cyborg que se debate constantemente entre la pérdida de su humanidad, y las modificaciones corporales que le permiten ser más productiva en su empleo, con el fin de pagar una deuda heredada de sus padres fallecidos. Ai se encuentra asfixiada constantemente por un cuerpo que parece creado exclusivamente para producir, por una deuda que no sabe si va a poder pagar, y por un sistema del que no se ve capaz de escapar. Pero no solo nos habla de esta generación de riqueza a costa de la salud física y mental de la clase trabajadora: también nos habla de la cultura de la inmediatez, del uso de los avances tecnológicos para favorecer solamente a unos pocos, a base de ahogar el arte y la pasión a favor de la productividad, y de la segregación de aquellos que se niegan a pasar por el aro del supuesto progreso.
Si tengo que ponerle una pega, es la de siempre: que ojalá fuese más larga. Cosa que no es un problema de la historia en sí, sino mío. Me cuesta mucho conectar con historias tan cortas. Y a pesar de esto... Creo que va al grano y al punto de la cuestión, y que consigue hacerte darle un par de vueltas a la realidad que te rodea.
"And for the first time, I realize the beauty of fragility, the value of ache, to be able to bleed, to be able to fear, to tick and struggle ticking: to be truly human".
En una realidad en la que cada vez se valora más la productividad por encima de todo lo demás, en la que parece que estés perdiendo el tiempo cada vez que no estás generando riqueza, en la que todo aquello que produce placer se ve como inútil, en la que hay tecnologías que parece que llegan para hacernos la vida más difícil y no al revés... Hay ficción que resquema.
Cuando las distopías cada vez se aproximan más a lo que vives día a día, es el momento en el que te sientes más incómodo leyéndolas.
"I am AI" es una novela distópica y cyberpunk que habla un poco de todo esto. Ai es una cyborg que se debate constantemente entre la pérdida de su humanidad, y las modificaciones corporales que le permiten ser más productiva en su empleo, con el fin de pagar una deuda heredada de sus padres fallecidos. Ai se encuentra asfixiada constantemente por un cuerpo que parece creado exclusivamente para producir, por una deuda que no sabe si va a poder pagar, y por un sistema del que no se ve capaz de escapar. Pero no solo nos habla de esta generación de riqueza a costa de la salud física y mental de la clase trabajadora: también nos habla de la cultura de la inmediatez, del uso de los avances tecnológicos para favorecer solamente a unos pocos, a base de ahogar el arte y la pasión a favor de la productividad, y de la segregación de aquellos que se niegan a pasar por el aro del supuesto progreso.
Si tengo que ponerle una pega, es la de siempre: que ojalá fuese más larga. Cosa que no es un problema de la historia en sí, sino mío. Me cuesta mucho conectar con historias tan cortas. Y a pesar de esto... Creo que va al grano y al punto de la cuestión, y que consigue hacerte darle un par de vueltas a la realidad que te rodea.
June 14, 2023
In a world in the not-so-distant future, AI is a cyborg who is tempted to become more automated to increase work efficiency. But are the trade-offs worth it?
Ai Jiang has become one of my favourite up-and-coming authors. Everything she writes is so vivid and immersive. I Am AI is a relatively short read, but the world of Emit is fully realized and you feel conflicted for AI as they try to balance efficiency with being human. Something a lot of us struggle with as the need for productivity as a means of success grows greater in most workplaces. This work is particularly relevant to the use of ChatGPT and social media. In social media we often focus on likes and engagement, but at what cost? This short story navigates a similar situation and does so quite succinctly.
I like Jiang's works' overarching themes of housing insecurity and homelessness. It hits close to home with some of the housing issues in Southern Ontario. Technological advancements are almost treated as an addiction in this story too. People want more and more and begin to not care about how much these procedures cost monetarily and in terms of being human.
Another fantastic read by Ai Jiang. I am so excited about what else she is going to create!
Thank you to Ai Jiang for an ARC of I Am AI in exchange for an honest review.
Ai Jiang has become one of my favourite up-and-coming authors. Everything she writes is so vivid and immersive. I Am AI is a relatively short read, but the world of Emit is fully realized and you feel conflicted for AI as they try to balance efficiency with being human. Something a lot of us struggle with as the need for productivity as a means of success grows greater in most workplaces. This work is particularly relevant to the use of ChatGPT and social media. In social media we often focus on likes and engagement, but at what cost? This short story navigates a similar situation and does so quite succinctly.
I like Jiang's works' overarching themes of housing insecurity and homelessness. It hits close to home with some of the housing issues in Southern Ontario. Technological advancements are almost treated as an addiction in this story too. People want more and more and begin to not care about how much these procedures cost monetarily and in terms of being human.
Another fantastic read by Ai Jiang. I am so excited about what else she is going to create!
Thank you to Ai Jiang for an ARC of I Am AI in exchange for an honest review.
August 18, 2023
It’s easy to loose hope in humanity to find it an overbearing expectation when the world is on fire around us and we only see more on the horizon. With each mogul’s rise and with each step more and more to capitalism, finding community is so much harder.
But, I am AI is a stunning novelette about how no skyscraper is tall enough, no darkness is deep enough to keep community from us. Although being part of a large picture may feel impossible it’s the interactions at home, with those that around us in our daily lives that really celebrates humanity. It also saves as a warning to not overwork even when work makes us feel more artificial than we really truly are.
Slow down and live. Read I am AI.
But, I am AI is a stunning novelette about how no skyscraper is tall enough, no darkness is deep enough to keep community from us. Although being part of a large picture may feel impossible it’s the interactions at home, with those that around us in our daily lives that really celebrates humanity. It also saves as a warning to not overwork even when work makes us feel more artificial than we really truly are.
Slow down and live. Read I am AI.
May 28, 2024
The story is about how community tries to persist in a cyberpunk dystopia. The prose flows nicely and the characters are well-drawn. It only gets two stars because in part, the world-building is flawed, with elements that constantly disrupt my suspension of disbelief. The other part is that the protagonist is both stressed and depressed, and instead of just evoking those feelings in the reader, the narrative takes the time to really ensure the reader feels the hopelessness the character is trying to endure about 2/3 of the way through the story, making it a struggle to get through. Although I did manage to finish it, there were several pages where I considered giving up. With a novelette, it’s not great when a reader feels that it might not be worth reading the final few pages.
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