First "read" this book when it was still available for free in audiobook. Immediately fell in love with the world, the characters (especially Caroline), and the whole shebang. I haven't ever read a story as addictive as that of Hatnode and I am not sure if I ever will.
Honestly? This book kind of changed my life, as I found it right about the same time my mum got cancer and it carried me through that time, as well as inspiring me to write my own stories as well. It was that little droplet of hope I needed in that time, I suppose.
It also redefined my view on AI as it is, reducing what we have accomplished today to only a glorified autocomplete or a guessing machine, instead of the titular intelligence it was supposed to be. You are right on that, GenAI is not the way to creating a real, true artificial intelligence. For all I know it is only what I, as a fan and a writer of Sci-Fi would call virtual intelligence, not here nor there, even if that title still is kind of misleading.
I read this book 3 times already and I plan on doing it at least a dozen more times. I will NEVER forget this book, at least I hope not.
Big fan of the work, thank you for sharing it with us.