Reviews - Culpability | The StoryGraph

368 reviews for:

Culpability

Bruce Holsinger

4.02 AVERAGE

bookz_and_hookz's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nataliedallura's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

alexychen95's review against another edition

3.25

reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

blorft's review against another edition

1.0

emotional

This book is very topical and asks some very difficult questions about "who is ultimately responsible for harm that results from the use of autonomous' or 'artificial intelligence' systems"...only to end with an incredibly disappointing shrug.

The entire story revolves around a family struggling with feelings of guilt and questioning who is responsible and how responsible they are after their 'AI' minivan crashes into another car and kills two people. That's a great subject! But the story ends with...

- The family escaping legal liability because the DA conveniently gives up on the case, despite it being clearly established earlier in the story that texting and driving is a felony.
- The car company accepting responsibility, with absolutely no further discussion about the incredible legal precedent that sets?!
- The mom insisting that the family buy the exact same minivan and then using the exact same 'AI' system that lulled her son into a false sense of security and led to two deaths. Learning a lesson? Overrated!
- The mom simultaneously grieving over how her algorithms led to the deaths of many people in Yemen while also arguing that she needs to be the one to work on these systems for the Department of Defense to prevent those things from happening in the future? She believes that she needs to do this work in order to make sure that it performs well, unlike these previous examples of...her own work performing poorly. Zero self awareness. And the husband believes she is "one of the few people on earth who seems to grasp the full complexity of these moral conundrums"? Please.

This could have been a great book that asks much-needed questions about how is ultimately responsible for the consequences of 'AI.' That is a discussion that we need to have and books like this can spark those conversations.

Unfortunately, this book backs away from those uncomfortable questions, and ends by simply shrugging, throwing up its hands, and telling us to just trust that the people who develop and profit from these systems know what they're doing despite all of the evidence proving otherwise.