Kazuo Ishiguro’s writing in the perspective of Klara, an Artificial Friend (AF) who has little knowledge of the outside world, is a great way to slowly introduce the reader to how the world works. Very rarely does Ishiguro explicitly tell the reader what’s going on. Instead, he gently implies many elments of the world from the skewed perspective of Klara. I think this book investigates many different kinds of love between characters, and Klara’s child-like understanding of the world gives us a fresh perspective on these themes.

I actually picked up this book not knowing it was about AI. Since this book is about a robot that can understand social interactions, it turned out to be perfect for me. Several times throughout the book, it mentions how to gaze at other people in group settings and how to portray oneself, which is important from an interaction perspective. Ishiguro apparently met with the Demis Hassabis (co-founder of DeepMind) to ensure that the AI-perspectives were accurate within the novel. The book briefly comments on the general social acceptance of realistic, social interactants like Klara, which is something not many HRI researchers consider from my understanding. As we learn more about the world, it feels somewhat dystopian, but I do think Ishiguro is an optimist about AI, gene-editing, and other futuristic inventions. I might give this book another read one day to pick out the tiny details I missed.