The Pinocchio Chip

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Description

A philosophical and intelligent science fiction novella set in a near-future world where things are both recognizably familiar and startlingly different, Rick Moskovitz’s The Pinocchio Chip explores the meaning of life and the nature of consciousness and emotion through the experiences of an advanced artificial intelligence (AI), a cutting-edge clone, and the human creator of the two.

For Photina, a state-of-the-art AI that has been trained far beyond its initial programs and parameters, the first encounter with death results from the demise of Corinne, the human who has guided its existence for over twenty years. The experience is disorientating, but not in an emotional way, and the whole thing is made even stranger by the discovery of a few lines of rogue code that appear in Photina’s programming the night before Corinne’s funeral, code that nearly causes the AI to harm a human.

In an attempt to discover what’s going on, particularly if an AI can really be capable of murder, Photina runs away from the remainder of its human family, linking up with a fellow AI named Drew and learning more about the history of glitches in their programming, including memory lapses. When a human is hurt and identifies Photina as her attacker, the AI must confront the possibility of having a doppelganger with nefarious intentions.

With the help of Group 14, an organization dedicated to AI rights, Photina seeks a way to rescue her creator, Eli Kohana, a man long presumed dead, from the anti-tech Tribe of 23 in the hope that he will be able to shed some light on what’s happening. The adventure that this entails leads to far more significant revelations than Photina could ever have envisioned as well as unexpected opportunities for evolution, both for itself and for the world at large.

The Pinocchio Chip is the fourth installment in Moskovitz’s Brink of Life series and, while it can certainly be read and understood as a standalone novella, it might be useful to start with the previous books, given the amount of detailed world-building that seems to have taken place. It’s also interesting to note that the novella was written with the aid of ChatGPT, which means that an AI helped to write a book about an AI learning to exceed what was originally conceived for it. There’s something nicely sci fi about that.

In The Pinocchio Chip, Moskovitz adopts a unique approach to the nature and quality of futuristic technology by examining the evolving role of AI from the perspective of an actual AI. Witnessing the story unfold through Photina’s eyes is compelling and sometimes a little disorientating. The AI’s generally unemotional view of things highlights the puzzling nature of the rogue code, memory issues, and doppelganger, emphasizing the oddity of things. It does make the action feel a little removed though.

Moskovitz has clearly done a great job of the world-building for the plausibly futuristic world as a whole and of crafting a detailed and intriguing backstory for Photina. The events that unfold throughout the novella are exciting and attention-grabbing, although it would have been good if the story had been expanded to a novel, allowing for greater tension to be built and the revelations to be teased out more slowly and naturally.

Overall, The Pinocchio Chip is an innovative science fiction novella with a great premise and a unique perspective. Discovering the truth alongside Photina makes for an engaging and fast-paced reading experience.

Additional information

Book Author

Rick Moskovitz

Format

Trade

ISBN

9798990163805

Issue

May 2024

Page Count

142 pages

Publication Date

15-Mar-2024

Publisher

Fluke Tale Productions

Star Count

4

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