Back

An AI is given the opportunity to become an artist. Sort of about the question …

You, Me, Her, You, Her, I

5 stars

This short story can be read here: strangehorizons.com/fiction/you-me-her-you-her-i/

I read this as part of the 2022 Hugo packet (as Isabel J. Kim is up for an Astounding Award this year) and this (and her many other short works) are SO good.

The premise of this story is about a new AI who is placed into a replacement body for a few weeks until the real person's replacement brain is ready. Their job is to keep the body moving around and active, while pretending they are the original person in the meantime. Unfortunately, this person they're pretending to be is an artist and the AI doesn't know anything about art. It's a story about what art means and "why anyone makes anything". Extremely good.

cw: suicide (implied)