Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

Opening line: ”On a September morning, the kind of equatorial summer day where the air is thick with the threat of rain and your clothes stick to your skin by nine o’ clock, Ian Koli is waiting for me outside Connie’s Coffee Corner, a busy cafe in the Kibera neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya."

Ending line: ”They smiled as we climbed. ’It means many, many steps.’”

Recommending a book is good, and something we do when we’ve read a book we enjoyed. But how do we go about when we read a book that feels so important we want to make sure other people read it?! A simple recommendation is not enough. We should invent a ”must-read” card we can invoke that forces other people to read the book we invoke it on. I would have used my card on this book.

Even if I think the book is not the best literary piece I’ve read, and sometimes a bit too flourished in its language, the points it’s hitting and the perspectives it casts has stuck in my mind forever.

With the prevalence of AI in our western society it’s easy to just run along in order to not be left behind, without noticing the risk of not seeing where we are heading. Murgia gives an extensive and detailed insight into the darker sides of AI, the areas we don’t see, don’t know about and just maybe don’t really want to know about. Going forward, I don’t really know how I will be able to use AI without being reminded of the conditions of the data-workers doing the dirty work that enables the models to run.

Favorite passage:

”He acknowledged why people may start to prefer speaking to AI systems rather than to one another. ’I get it, interacting with people, it’s hard. It’s tough. It demands a lot, it is often unrewarding,’ he said.

But he feels that modern life has left people stranded on their own desert islands, leaving them yearning for companionship. ’So now because of this, there is a market for volleyballs,’ he said. ’Social chatbots, they could provide comfort, real solace to people in the same way that Wilson provides.’

But ultimately, what makes our lives meaningful is the empathy and intent we get from human interactions - people responding to one another. With AI, he said, ’It feels like there’s someone on the other end. But there isn’t.’” (p.261)

Firstly, I'd like to express my gratitude to Henry Holt & Co for providing me with the ARC. I had been searching for a copy since it was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Nonfiction and out of all the books, this topic resonated with me a lot.

I've read approximately 50% up to Chapter 5 “Your Freedom” and have also read the “Epilogue” and now I have decided to DNF it.

Initially, the start was a little long-winded, with a broad narrative voice that irked me a little, but I didn't mind it that much and continued. However all of the chapters seemed to lack depth and nuance. The first chapter “Your Livelihood” was much better than the others in this aspect, providing a balanced view with pros and cons. The second chapter “Your Body” discussed the important topic of deepfake technology and how it's weaponized for promoting non-consensual pornographic content and the flimsiness of internet regulations. This chapter was interesting to read, especially because of the addition of victims' and activists' viewpoints, rather than solely focusing on commentary on the nature of internet regulation (which was discussed at quite a minute level). However, things went downhill in Chapter 3, where the author talked about the use of facial recognition. Not only did the author fail to frame the chapter in a critical point, but their points seemed to echo “facial recognition is always bad” too many times. It didn't sit well with me how someone who's supposed to be an “expert” simplified things too much. Coupled with the fact that the author cut off news on crucial parts and framed them in an ambiguous stance, such as the author's reporting on the 2021 Indian Republic Day farmers storming the Red Fort while destroying public property and hoisting the union's flag and Sikh religious flag. Chapters 4, “Your Health,” and 5, “Your Freedom,” were better than the earlier chapter but still seemed to echo the same sentiments and factual similarities with other chapters, along with dabbling in long and emotional narrative supposed to invoke empathy.

Then I peeked at the “Epilogue” where I had hoped the author would discuss some consolidated form of solutions which can supposedly be implemented to regulate AI from exploiting people, and darn it was quite the disappointment. It offered no real solution but propagated the same rhetoric the author always warned us against—wealthy big corps and individuals dictating the lives of marginalized people, but in the form of “more” corrupt religious institutions (which thrives on dogmatism, fearmongering, and economic corruption) signing a treaty for regulation of AI. Not to mention, the treaty seemed toothless and ornamental. This portion of the book seems like a huge disappointment. This would have been in the 3-4 star area if there weren't so many glaring faults in this book. I am rating it 2 stars out of 5 because this book did give me some, although a very tiny amount of food for thought and important factual information that I should care more about. You can read this book if you want a discussion only of the worst aspects of being dependent on AI.