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Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara - 4* - My Review

In this memoir, Vauhini Vara explores memories of her sister, experimentation with chatbots, and how tech companies have both fulfilled and exploited the human desire for understanding and connection. Vara is an experienced journalist in technological fields. She is also the author of one of my favorite books of fiction, The Immortal King Rao. When I found out she had written a book about the evolution of digital technology from the 1990s forward, and particularly of her usage of chatbots in her creative endeavors, I knew I had to read it.

It starts with her earliest uses of the internet, with its dial-up access and chat rooms. It takes the reader through her experiences with digital-age technology, from web browsers to the startup of Amazon to the rise of tech giants to social media to chatbots (specifically ChatGPT). It explores the ways these technologies have fundamentally changed our ways of life. The book features Vara’s essays, paired with her ongoing conversations with ChatGPT that both comment on and critique her writings.

One of these essays includes a series of prompts to the chatbot to help her express her feelings about her sister’s death (in her twenties) from cancer. This essay, entitled “Ghosts," went viral in 2021, and she has expanded upon the experience in this book. The prompts are somewhat repetitious, but Vara’s analysis of the output of this writing experiment is extremely insightful, particularly her observation that the (so-called "creative") output of chatbots can seem like just a string of rather mundane words, interspersed by the occasional golden nugget.

Vara is, in general, a proponent of AI technology as a timesaver, but also observes its potential (major) drawbacks. She examines her own complicity in promoting or even simply using it. She looks at its possibilities for both helping some people express themselves and hindering current authors’ endeavors (potentially threatening their livelihoods). The context of her sister's early death and the trauma it created for the author serves as an emotional touchstone.

One of the best parts for me is the writing style. Vara’s writing is astute and witty. It almost feels like having a conversation with a friend. I have been reading extensively about Artificial Intelligence, and this book is among the best at bringing it down to a person level. It goes well beyond the hyperbole expressed by some of the AI corporate executives and critically examines its output, finding both positives and negatives. She also points out that we do not have to let tech giants dictate the future. We can (and should) influence it. I found it fascinating.