A review by hollielovesromance
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara

fast-paced

4.0

An interesting exploration of technologies and capitalism in our lives both positively and negatively. I personally do not use AI generative applications like Chat GPT but found it interesting to see how these applications built by scrubbing the works of others would interpret works written about them and their founders. I could relate to Vara in this pull between knowing all the things that entities like Meta, Amazon, and Google due to surveil us and yet not being able to stop using their services due to the convenience and reliance we’ve developed with them. Ultimately I found the chapter Ghosts to be the most illuminating surrounding the limitations of AI. It can try to replicate the way humans talk and sound but it ultimately will always add in information that isn’t true and feels unauthentic to the piece. This will be a book that I think about often as I continue to explore my own use with technology in our capitalistic society.