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I would love to work with AI on a piece of fiction. We could share the royalties, and the AI money could fund more women to get involved in AI research and application. The real problem is not that AI is writing, or will write, or can write. The problem is who is writing the AI programs and designing the algorithms. Who is setting the terms of the research? Who is deciding what matters? Mainly men. That’s a problem because the world is not made up of mainly men. As a fiction writer, I know we should avoid apocalyptic thinking. The way we live is not a law, like gravity; it is propositional. We make it up as we go along. We can change the story because we are the story. This is freedom. It is also responsibility. What story shall we tell about who humans are? Warlike, violent, dishonest, wasteful? That’s part of us, certainly. It’s not the whole story – and I don’t want it to be the story that ends life on Earth. The last thing I am worrying about right now is whether AI will write better fiction than humans. I don’t care. The characters already are well established and you know exactly who they are and what they’re about which I liked. Fantastic character development, If you love a good police procedural, mystery with a bit of a twist in the dynamic of characters I really enjoyed this one. Really interesting insight to the future of policing, I’m not adverse to it, the time it would save and speed up the process in apprehending people for their crimes! It's so much more than a dystopian police procedural and asks questions about who we are and what it means to be human. Brilliant' Nikki Smith
With its clever, provocative premise and appealing, complex characters, In the Blink of an Eye is a compelling novel, and I believe only the first of what promises to be a great series.
Six new novels for your Spring reading list
Idő kérdése volt, hogy a mesterséges intelligencia a krimiben is felüsse a fejét. Jo Callaghan történetében egy pilot projektet figyelhetünk meg, amelyben a rendőrök munkáját egy Okos Detektív Asszisztens segíti. Nem is az az ijesztő, hogy ez valakinek eszébe jut, hanem az, hogy ettől igazából annyira nem is állunk már messze. I was immediately drawn into In The Blink of an Eye, Jo Callaghan’s debut book. I was intrigued by the premise, drawn in by the writing and strong characterisation. DSC Kat Frank, newly returned from bereavement leave, is unhappy when her boss directs her to lead a pilot program to test the suitability of using an AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) in a police investigation. Professor Okonedo, determined to better the operation of the force, asserts that the AIDE is not only capable of collating and analysing vast amounts of data in a fraction of the time required by a human, but has been programmed to filter out the bias and prejudice that can taint investigations. Kat doesn’t believe algorithms can truly account for the vagaries of humankind, or replace the experience and instincts she, like most good police officers, often rely on. Good fiction disturbs the comfortable. It does not continually buttress our existing views of ourselves and others. There may be no original thought in fiction, but it’s earthshaking stuff to follow along as a writer encounters the (to them) unknown. AI cannot do this; it maps only the known. The stakes are nonexistent.
Could artificial intelligence therefore offer a fairer and more efficient way forward for 21st-century policing? There are broadly two types of AI: “narrow AI”, which can perform specific tasks such as image recognition, and “general purpose AI”, which makes far more complex judgments and decisions extending across all kinds of domains. General purpose AI relies on deep learning – absorbing huge amounts of data and using it to continually adjust and improve performance, and has the potential to take over more and more of the tasks humans do at work. ChatGPT, a state-of-the-art language processing model that has the ability to write research papers, articles and even poems in a matter of seconds, is the latest example of this to catch the public imagination. Is this the way the world is headed? It certainly will make you think, the pros and cons of a computer assisting in these cases. There is no emotion in a robot, no sense of helping people. But the machine can save weeks of work by multiple officers. An incredible book. So original, gripping and wonderfully written. I raced through it’ Karen Hamilton Recently I wrote a novel under a pseudonym that was 95% AI-generated. I used three different systems to build Death of an Author. The experience showed me two things that I feel have been left out of most discussions of AI art. The first is that the traditional creative virtues – understanding style, knowing what a good sentence and paragraph look like – will be absolutely essential to AI creativity in the future. The second is that the fear of artificial intelligence, the fear that comes from the movies and from the inherently precarious nature of creative work, is blinding a lot of creators to grand possibilities. Imagine a future where those who are most adept at getting AI to write creatively will dominate, while we writers who spend a lifetime devoted to our craft are sidelined. OK, this is a worst‑case scenario, but we have to consider it, because ChatGPT and the other Large Language Models (LLMs) out there have been programmed to imagine a future that threatens many creative professions. ChatGPT is already responding to the questions I ask it in seconds, quite reliably. It is an impressive beast, but one that needs to be tamed. We cannot afford to ignore it.Jo works full-time as a senior strategist, where she has carried out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019, she started writing In The Blink of An Eye. She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she is currently writing the second novel in the series. As a mum of two young people this was a frightening read in places and I think this was handled with sensitivity. This is is a non spoiler review so I’m not going to say too much about the conclusion other than I enjoyed the tension and the result. Because in the end, this is a sideshow. The sectors where these systems will really have an impact are those for which they’re perfectly suited, like drug development and biotech, where they will act as accelerators, compounding the post-Covid moonshot environment and ambushing us with radical possibilities over time. I don’t look at this moment and wonder if writers will still exist in 2050. I ask myself what real new things I’ll need words and ideas for as they pass me in the street.
I suspect some commissioners of fiction will seek the low-cost/low-risk model that AI-generated formulaic content may deliver. But is this necessarily a problem? There has always been a market for formulaic fiction across all genres and mediums, whether that be in crime, and romance novels, or action films. But each of these genres continues to be stretched and reinvented by new authors and screen writers, who crucially bring their own experiences to their work, with breakout hits such as Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, or Succession by Jesse Armstrong. If my children are anything to dogo by, I think we are becoming increasingly sophisticated consumers of creativity, alert to inauthenticity and intolerant of cliches, underpinned by a deep desire for human connection. For why else do we write and consume stories, if not to discover that someone else has felt what we now feel: to know that, ultimately, we are not alone? The great thing about AI is that it need not be gendered – why should it be? It has no biological sex. This could be the start of a true non-binary, non race-based, faith-wars-irrelevant world, where we humans could realise how trivial are our divisions and discriminations. At present, AI is a tool. I doubt that will always be the case. An alternative intelligence will make art of all kinds – with us, and without us. I am ready for a different world. The kind of fresh and fearless debut I just adore. Wildly original, heartfelt, funny, and properly thrilling. Take a bow, Jo Callaghan’ CHRIS WHITAKER Jo Callaghan makes her entry into the crowded police procedural genre with a fresh take on the buddy-buddy cop trope. In the Blink of an Eye predicts the near future when police officers and their AI counterparts will work hand-in-holographic-hand. The human-AI interactions between the lead protagonists as they pursue their quarry are illuminating and, at times, hilarious. Provocative and compelling. A TV series seems a certainty’ VASEEM KHAN The introduction of AI into policing is an interesting concept and Callaghan offers both sides – seen through the characters’ lenses but with balance. Kat and her boss are cynical about politicians’ intention to cut resources / officers and replace them with technology not capable of nuance and intuition. Whereas the technology’s creator is distrustful of police for those very ‘human’ reasons.
Featured Reviews
Should a novel place itself in conversation with the canon, with the long history of great novels that came before it? LLMs have absorbed more text – including most of the novels that have ever been written – than any human ever will. Debates about the future impact of AI on fiction are too often led by considerations of supply – what AI might be capable of – rather than demand – what do we, as humans wish to create and consume? The question is not whether AI can replace the role of writers, but the extent to which the consumers and commissioners of fiction are willing to invest in original, human-generated stories. Everything you could hope for in a thriller: heartbreaking, intelligent, deftly plotted and so original' Fiona Cummins A standout debut with a unique and thrilling take on the detective novel. Engaging, exciting and superbly readable. I loved it' SARAH HILARY
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