Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara

From Pantheon Books From the author of The Immortal King Rao, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a personal exploration of how technology companies have both fulfilled and exploited the human desire for understanding and connection A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: The New York Times, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Foreign Policy, Bustle, Alta, Ms. Magazine, Cultured, Denizen, Lit Hub, Book Riot, and Electric Literature When it was released to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching AI-powered machines to write. Its creators had a sweeping ambition--to build machines that could not only communicate, but could do all kinds of other activities, better than humans ever could. But was this goal actually achievable? And if reached, would it lead to our liberation or our subjugation? Vauhini Vara, an award-winning tech journalist and editor, had long been grappling with these questions. In 2021, she asked a predecessor of ChatGPT to write about her sister's d