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A review by amanduhhhpls
Pixels of You by Yuko Ota, Ananth Hirsh
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This graphic novel is gorgeous in its art style, and I love the use of color to represent differences between humans and AI. Unfortunately, art alone is not enough to capture a good story.
My issues start to lie with the plot. This book brought up so many pointed issues with AI and solves none of them. It feels like a chosen-one romance that glosses over the very real issues of identity, art, speciesism, what it means to be alive, and what a future with AI integrated into our world looks like.
The topic of speciesism is approached by presenting an AI daughter who has a more human suit than her parents who both look like traditional AI's -- faceless robots with sentience. It's alluded to that they paid a lot of money to have her appear that way so she could "have a better chance in life." The fact that they were able to spend that money in the first place and what the consequences are for them were never explored in depth, and personally I found that to be a more interesting story than the one we got.
While I liked how her relationship developed with the other main character, I wanted a deeper exploration of these very important topics and not just a surface level "oh yeah your parents are different but mine are dead so we're kinda in the same situation." Uhhhhh, not quite.
I also wish there was more conversation about the economics of it all, including a discussion of healthcare seeing as one of the main characters has a prosthetic eye, but it lacks the specs that the eyes of the AI character has. There are clear disparities being presented here that aren't being explored and I feel that the book would have been more effective with these explorations.
My issues start to lie with the plot. This book brought up so many pointed issues with AI and solves none of them. It feels like a chosen-one romance that glosses over the very real issues of identity, art, speciesism, what it means to be alive, and what a future with AI integrated into our world looks like.
The topic of speciesism is approached by presenting an AI daughter who has a more human suit than her parents who both look like traditional AI's -- faceless robots with sentience. It's alluded to that they paid a lot of money to have her appear that way so she could "have a better chance in life." The fact that they were able to spend that money in the first place and what the consequences are for them were never explored in depth, and personally I found that to be a more interesting story than the one we got.
While I liked how her relationship developed with the other main character, I wanted a deeper exploration of these very important topics and not just a surface level "oh yeah your parents are different but mine are dead so we're kinda in the same situation." Uhhhhh, not quite.
I also wish there was more conversation about the economics of it all, including a discussion of healthcare seeing as one of the main characters has a prosthetic eye, but it lacks the specs that the eyes of the AI character has. There are clear disparities being presented here that aren't being explored and I feel that the book would have been more effective with these explorations.