Private I by Jill Fain Lehman, PhD, Ashlei E. Watson. and Paul Pangaro, PhD Book Spotlight!

 A story of intrigue, romance, murder, and artificial intelligence...

She was almost out, her life of enforced seclusion nearly over. She’d go to college at MITI, make a name for herself in Machine Intelligence (MI), and develop personal MIs to solve the world’s problems by building on the technology her grandfather had secretly invented.

But the house was on fire when Paloma arrived home. Her grandfather, beaten and tortured, lay dead on the floor. Someone knew about Marlowe, Paloma’s MI, and would clearly kill to acquire it. They’d come for her next. They’d come for Marlowe.

Paloma has no choice but to run, at least until she can figure out who is after them. A tech corporation? The government? Anti-tech terrorists? As she encounters each, her grandfather’s arguments about the dangers of a Marlowe-like MI in the wrong hands begin to make sense. But after 15 years together, Marlowe has become both her best friend and, for better or worse, part of who she is.

A new take on classic noir themes, Private I is a mystery thriller rooted in today's headlines and driven by characters with distinct answers to the questions those articles what do we mean by machine consciousness? Would we recognize it if we saw it? Would we want it if we could, have it?

 It is the story of a dead body, a society in decay, and the internal monologue of a voice that is still young enough to care and naive enough to stumble. Of course, in our case, that internal monologue has two voices.

Jill Fain Lehman, PhD, is a Senior Project Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute with over 40 years of experience in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning. 

She has collaborated with leading organizations like Disney Research, The Rand Corporation, and Carnegie Learning. Jill is the co-author of Private I, a speculative fiction novel exploring the complexities of AI, consciousness, and trust.

Ashlei E. Watson is an American novelist, known for her work that blends speculative fiction with deep philosophical themes.

Paul Pangaro, PhD, is an entrepreneur, researcher, and educator with over 30 years of experience applying cybernetics to human-machine systems. He has founded multiple startups and now teaches at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is establishing a Laboratory for Cybernetics.

211 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 15, 2023